Playground
Playground Global is a deep-tech venture firm investing across next-generation computing, automation, infrastructure, and engineered biology.
Challenge
How do you bolster the position of a venture practice at the convergence of engineering and biology in a crowded AI and biotech investment landscape that is rapidly evolving?
Approach
TwoStep partnered with Thermal for its company launch, Series A, and FDA clearance for its lead drug.
- Developed positioning, messaging, and spokesperson strategy: Translated Playground’s core investment thesis — that biology’s industrial revolution is underway, and unlocking its full potential means pairing AI at scale with proprietary, high-quality biological training data into a clear, compelling narrative for investors, media, and the broader biotech ecosystem.
- Prepared executives for high-profile media: Prepared partners Jory Bell and Ben Kim for media engagements.
- Built portfolio company narratives: Managed active PR programs across a growing portfolio company roster — including Manifold Bio, XRLabs, RegCell, Synthetic Design Lab, and Prazer Therapeutics — developing press releases, media strategies, and launch sequencing for announcements and key milestones.
“Many of the most important opportunities in energy, compute, materials, medicine, manufacturing, and infrastructure are hard to underwrite from a spreadsheet alone. They require investors who can read the science, interrogate the engineering, understand the manufacturing path, and still see the company that might emerge on the other side.”
From Playground Global’s Fund IV announcement, May 2026
Impact
Through our partnership, Playground has:
- Executed Fund IV announcement strategy: Built and deployed a PR plan around Playground’s $475M Fund IV raise, driving an exclusive with Axios and a follow-on feature in Forbes’ The Prototype newsletter, with Jory quoted on the engineered biology thesis and Strand Therapeutics highlighted as a proof point.
- Established Playground as a go-to source on AI + bio investing: Reporter relationships position leadership for ongoing, substantive coverage of the engineered biology investment thesis.
- Secured event and speaking visibility: Placed Playground executives in conversations at major industry conferences and pursued moderator and panelist opportunities at major VC and biotech forums to more strongly position the firm’s and its leaders.
