Jeroen Bakker, PhD, joined Novo Holdings in 2018 as a Senior Associate in the Novo Seeds team. Previously, Jeroen worked at the corporate investment group of Merck KGaA, M Ventures, focusing on early-stage investments in US, EU and Israel.  Prior to this, Jeroen was active as a consultant acquiring several millions in non-dilutive funding for biotech and translational academic research. Jeroen worked in biotech at Syntaxin Ltd (acquired by Ipsen) and published several articles on innate immunity in high-ranking journals such as Journal of Experimental Medicine while obtaining his PhD in immunology from the University of Amsterdam.

Novo Seeds is the early stage investment arm of Novo Holdings. Novo Seeds identifies, builds and invests in innovative start-up companies founded on strong science with the aim of developing products with the potential to transform patient treatment. In addition to providing managerial and strategic support to start-ups, Novo Seeds has the financial capability to invest all the way to the exit. For more information, please visit: www.novoholdings.dk

Marek Kozlowski (PhD) is an Investment Manager at NRW.BANK with a focus on early stage investments, company & product development, as well as exit transactions across Life Sciences Sectors (Pharma, Biotech, Diagnostics and MedTech). Prior to joining a Venture Capital industry, Marek conducted 10+ years of basic and translational research across genomics, DNA repair, chromatin biology, neuromuscular disease and tumor dormancy fields at European Molecular Biology Laboratory (Heidelberg), Biomedical Center Munich, Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School (Boston). During his academic years, Marek co-founded the most active European and Asian early stage Life Science Accelerator “Imagine IF”. In addition, Marek possess industrial experience in Animal Health Sector at ITOCHU GmbH and Ajinomoto SAS. Marek is an alumni of the International Graduate Research Program at Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry, holds a Doctorate in molecular biology from Ludwig Maximillian University of Munich & European Molecular Biology Laboratory, as well as Master of Engineering in Biotechnology from Warsaw University.

About NRW.BANK - NRW.BANK with its offices in Düsseldorf and Münster, is Europe’s third largest development bank. NRW.BANK’s Venture Capital Funds (in total 220 Mio. EUR) support early stage companies with a leading technological edge across CleanTech, Digital or Life Sciences sectors (Pharma, Biotech, Diagnostics, MedTech, E-health). Since 2005 the VC Team at NRW.BANK invested in 39 innovative companies, out of which 26 belong to the Life Sciences portfolio, including Rigontec (acquired by MSD), CellAct (acquired by Mundipharma), NEO New Oncology (acquired by Siemens Healthcare) or Direvo Biotech (acquired by Bayer). For more information, please visit https://www.nrwbank.com/en

Lena joined High-Tech Gruenderfonds (HTGF) in 2016 and is Senior Investment Manager in the Life Science Team. She is currently responsible for eleven portfolio companies in the fields of medical technology, drug development, biotechnology and digital health as well as for sourcing and completion of new early-stage investments. Before, she worked as Postdoctoral Researcher at the University Hospital in Erlangen and obtained her PhD in Immunology within a DFG-funded Fast-track PhD program at the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuernberg. The thesis resulted in several publications in renowned journals. Lena received her Bachelor’s degree from the Georg-August University Goettingen with studies abroad in Umeå (Sweden) and Singapore.

About HTGF - HTGF (Bonn/Berlin) is a seed investor that finances high-potential, tech-driven start-ups. With nearly EUR 900 million in total investment volume across three funds and an international network of partners, HTGF has already helped forge over 500 start-ups since 2005. Driven by their expertise, entrepreneurial spirit and passion, its team of experienced investment managers and start-up experts help guide the development of young companies. HTGF’s focus is on high-tech start-ups in a range of sectors, including software, media, internet, hardware, automation, health care, chemicals and life sciences. Investors in this public-private partnership include the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, the KfW Banking Group and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft e.V., as well as a number of well-known companies spanning all industries and segments. For more information, please visit: www.high-tech-gruenderfonds.de

Christoph Massner, PhD is a member of the investment team at the Earlybird Venture Capital Health Fund which he joined in 2018. He works on deal sourcing, due diligence and deal closing in the sectors of digital health, medical devices, diagnostics, R&D platform technologies, and biopharma. Currently, he serves as a board observer of the Munich-based digital health company wellabe. Before joining Earlybird, Christoph conducted research in different laboratories in Germany and Australia for +7 years. Christoph holds a PhD in Synthetic Biology from the Technical University of Munich.

About Earlybird - Earlybird is a venture capital investor focused on European technology companies.
Founded in 1997, Earlybird invests in all growth and development phases of a company. Amongst the most experienced venture investors in Europe, Earlybird offers its portfolio companies not only financial resources, but also strategic and operational support as well as access to an international network and capital markets. Earlybird manages different funds with focuses on digital technologies in Eastern and Western Europe as well as health.
With over EUR 1 billion under management, seven IPOs, and 24 trade sales, Earlybird is one of the most successful venture capital firms in Europe.

For more information please visit: https://earlybird.com/

Marianne joined Wellington Partners in 2018 as a Principal in the Life Science Team. Marianne obtained a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree with distinction in Biotechnology from the RWTH Aachen University, Germany, and The Scripps Research Institute, San Diego, USA, and conducted her PhD research in the field of Molecular Imaging at the Helmholtz-Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University Hospital Aachen, Germany. The thesis resulted in several publications in prestigious journals and was recognized by the German Society of Biomedical Engineering with the VDE PhD Award.

Prior to joining Wellington, Marianne was an Investment Manager in the Life Science Team of High-Tech Gründerfonds (HTGF), Bonn. In this role she managed a portfolio of seven companies and concluded the initial investments in Cardior Pharmaceuticals and Verovaccines. She represented the fund on the Boards of preOmics and coramaze technologies. Prior to HTGF, Marianne worked as a management consultant and supported pharmaceutical and medtech companies relative to strategy, portfolio and business unit development.

About Wellington Partners - Wellington Partners is a leading European Venture Capital firm investing in early- and growth stage life science companies. Wellington Partners is focused on investing in the most promising life science companies in the fields of biotechnology, therapeutics, medical technology, diagnostics and digital health. With funds totalling EUR 1.0 billion, and more than EUR 400 million committed to Life Sciences, Wellington Partners has been actively supporting world class private companies translating true innovation into successful businesses with exceptional growth. To date, Wellington Partners has invested in 46 innovative life science companies, including Actelion (acquired by J&J), Definiens (acquired by AZ/Medimmune), Invendo (acquired by Ambu), MTM laboratories (acquired by Roche), Rigontec (acquired by MSD), Symetis (acquired by Boston Scientific), Immatics and AMBOSS. www.wellington-partners.com

Joachim (JR) Rothe, PhD, joined LSP in 2002 and is a Managing Partner of the firm. Prior to joining LSP, Joachim was the Managing Director of MPM Capital Germany, a US healthcare investment firm, where he rose to head up their European investment franchise. Previously, he worked at McKinsey & Company in Germany and at Roche in Switzerland. He serves or has served on the boards of 4- Antibody (CH, now NASDAQ: AGEN), Affectis (D), Atlas Genetics (UK), Atugen (D, now LSE:SLN Silence Therapeutics), Bioxell (I, now SIX: Cosmo Pharmaceuticals), Cardior (D), Cellerix (E, now NYSE Euronext: Tigenix), IDEA (D), Morphochem (D, now: Biovertis), Idenix (USA, then NASDAQ: IDIX, now Merck), Luxendo (D, now Bruker Corp), Nouscom (CH), Okairos (CH, now: GSK), Omrix Biopharmaceuticals (NYSE: OMRI, then J&J), Scion Pharmaceuticals (USA), t.Breeders (NASDAQ: Viacell, then NYSE:PKI) and U3 Pharma (D, now: Daiichi-Sankyo). In addition, he serves pro bono on the boards of various tech transfer organizations such as Ascenion, AWS. Joachim obtained a Master’s degree in Biochemistry from the Free University in Berlin and a PhD in Molecular Immunology from Freiburg University. His thesis was supervised by Georges Köhler, a Nobel laureate in Medicine. Joachim has authored numerous articles in leading scientific publications, including Nature. 

About LSP - LSP (Life Sciences Partners) is an independent European investment firm, providing financing for private and public life sciences companies. LSP’s mission is to connect investors to inventors, focusing on unmet medical needs. Since the late 1980s, the LSP team has invested in about 100 innovative enterprises, many of which have grown to become leaders of the global life sciences industry. With over €1.7 billion ($2.0 billion) of investment capital raised to date and offices in Amsterdam, Munich and Boston, LSP is Europe’s leading life sciences investor. For more information, please visit:  www.lspvc.com

Heinz joined EMBL Ventures as Partner focusing on venture building in the life science sector.

Prior to joining EMBL, Heinz was founder and CEO of Sloning Biotechnology which was acquired by MorphoSys. Thereafter, he became member of the senior management group with responsibilities in the M&A team, corporate finance and head of „Innovation Capital“, the corporate venture business of MorphoSys. Heinz was also CEO of Lanthio Pharma, a Dutch biopharmaceutical company that develops therapeutic peptides against difficult to target receptors and CEO of ViraTherapeutics, a leading immuno-oncology company in Austria which was recently acquired by Boehringer Ingelheim.

Heinz studied Chemistry in Regensburg and earned his PhD in Clinical Chemistry from the University Hospital. He was postdoc at the Harvard Institute of Medicine and the Dana-Farber-Cancer Institute in Boston, USA. In addition, he holds a master degree in Business Administration from Henley Management School, UK.

About EMBL Ventures - Based in Heidelberg, EMBL Ventures invests throughout Europe with the aim to build companies that create significant commercial opportunities based on new therapeutic treatment modalities and pharmaceuticals, next generation enabling technology platforms or innovations in the diagnostics and medical device area. EMBL Ventures manages three funds with a total of 120m capital on behalf of major European private and institutional investors. We prefer a role as lead or co-lead investor in financing rounds which typically range from 5m to 40m. Our total commitment in a single portfolio company can go as high as 10m. As with our portfolio companies each Partner at EMBL Ventures strives to build long-lasting personal relationships with investors in our funds, such as institutionals, high net-worth individuals and family offices.

For more information please visit: www.embl-ventures.com

Catello Somma, MBA, joined the TVM Capital Life Science team in January 2020. He is active in deal flow generation, investment due diligence, deal and exit transactions, investor communication as well as fundraising support. Catello is biotech start-up founder with more than ten years of clinical development and corporate development experience. Prior to this role, Catello worked for a mid-cap biotech where he supported the development of immuno-oncology assets, both internal and in partnership with big pharma, and the preparatory work for a successful licensing in opportunity. Catello holds an MSc in Molecular biology and an MBA with major in finance. 

About TVM Capital Life Science - TVM Capital Life Science is one of Europe’s oldest Venture Capital funds with teams based in Munich and Montreal. Our investment professionals draw upon the experience, international approach and demonstrated success of about 100 dedicated Life Science exits from our portfolio. These exits include 45 initial public offerings on the NASDAQ, and various European Exchanges and multiple trade sales and mergers. With more than two decades of experience in picking promising entrepreneurs, concepts and products for development, and building successful entrepreneurial companies, we are acutely aware of what it takes to build a world class technology, product or company, and astute at supporting management teams to bring companies and projects to value inflection points. Our most recent fund focuses on a new investment approach to developing early-stage pharmaceutical assets in a capital efficient fashion, to a human proof-of-concept in single asset companies. Besides this, we are actively seeking investments in innovative later-stage biotech, pharmaceutical, medtech and digital-health companies in Europe, North America and Asia. For more information, please visit www.tvm-lifescience.com.