LifeX Ventures

We are excited to announce our investment in Limula, as they democratize access to Cell and Gene Therapies. We are thrilled to do it alongside Verve Ventures Oxford Seed Fund Zühlke Group Lichtsteiner Foundation and a group of angels. Limula's team is driven by the ambitious goal of developing tools based on a fundamentally novel way of manipulating cells outside of the body. Their technology supports manufacturing workflows that are currently impossible to automate with existing tools. Automation powered by hardware, AI, and software is the only route to scalability and digital traceability. Since the first CAR-T cell therapy was approved in 2017, over 20,000 cancer patients have been treated. However, this is not enough; current costs are prohibitive (over $500K to treat a single patient), and capacity is limited. The tools have lagged behind scientific and clinical advancements, and these therapies' production is still very manual. Globally, less than 3% of patients who could benefit from these therapies have been able to access them. Limula is the solution to democratize access to new CAR-T, TCR-T, NK, and other life-saving cell and gene therapies. If you are a clinical center, biotech, or CDMO, Limula is expanding its partnerships and would be happy to chat. Reach out to [email protected] to start a conversation. https://lnkd.in/dkeFjpBm cc Amol Sarva Rika Christanto Inaki Berenguer Yue Z. Amalia Formoso Luc Henry Thomas Eaton Yann Pierson Caroline Boudousquié Olivier Waridel

Honored to be investing with Felicis Ventures in Zylon/PrivateGPT (https://www.zylon.ai/). Zylon aims to offer the capability to build a fully private gen AI workspace for every business that could benefit from it, especially SMBs that rely on software, but don’t build it themselves. The product is built around a modular and customizable web interface, powered on the back-end by fine-tuned open source models including Meta’s Llama 2 and Mistral’s Mixtral. This framework allows Zylon’s SMB customers and their end-users to simply upload the documents and files they want gen AI’s help with — say, invoices that need processing or transcripts that need editing and summarizing — and then click on buttons that describe the actions they want to take. https://lnkd.in/dsDt_P48 cc Iván Martínez Toro Daniel Gallego Vico Inaki Berenguer Amol Sarva Rika Christanto Yue Z.

Lab Automation to Accelerate Innovations: We Invested in Monomer Bio! We're thrilled to announce our investment in Monomer Bio's $5.6M funding round alongside Talis Capital, Notley Ventures, and prominent angels! Their AI-powered lab automation platform is transforming research in life sciences: ⚡️ Save time, boost throughput: Imagine 1 scientist running experiments like 100! Imagine managing them seamlessly & analyzing data - all in one platform. Beyond automation: Monomer integrates robots, data, & analytics for deeper insights & optimized workflows. Think: hidden discoveries & faster breakthroughs. Team powerhouse: Led by Jimmy Sastra, PhD (CEO) & a strong team with expertise in tech & life sciences (Google, Benchling, Strateos, Kensho!). Investing in the future of research! Monomer Bio empowers scientists to accelerate discoveries & develop life-saving drugs faster. #biotech #innovation #healthcare #MonomerBio #futureofresearch #science #AI cc Inaki Berenguer Amol Sarva Rika Christanto Yue Z. https://lnkd.in/dx94zQF4

We are proud to support Vinnie Campo, Jeff Chapin and the rest of the team at Haven Energy in their Series A! cc Inaki Berenguer Rika Christanto Amol Sarva Yue Z. #batteries #climate #energystorage https://lnkd.in/dmGREzmx

We are thrilled to announce our investment alongside Molten Ventures in IMU Biosciences as part of their £11.5M ($15M) Series A round. With IMU's profiling technology and AI platform, they are pioneering the development of the world's largest IMMUNE DATA ASSETS, unlocking the potential of precision medicine. Over the past 18 months, we have closely seen their tech and commercial progress, and we couldn't be more impressed. Congratulations to Adam Laing, Tom Hayday, Mario Cantero, Tim Haines, and the rest of the team. cc Amol Sarva Inaki Berenguer Rika Christanto Yue Z.

Thrilled to welcome the newest member of the team, Yue Z., Principal at LifeX Ventures. 🔬 Growing up in Palo Alto, Yue has her roots as a #scientist and #engineer, studying biomedical engineering at University of California, Berkeley before joining McKinsey & Company serving technology clients. After Harvard Business School she carved out a path as a founder, product manager, and C-level executive at high-growth startups. 🛠 As an #entrepreneur and #product leader, she was the first product manager at Thumbtack, a home services marketplace, where she worked alongside the founders to build and scale a technology leader in modern home management and a 1,000 strong team backed by Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, and Capital G. Then, at Fuzzy Pet Health, she was #CTO and #CPO, helping the team find PMF for its telehealth offering and reach EBITDA positive within 6 months. 🌐 As an executive career #coach and product advisor, Yue brings a vast network that includes many of the Valley’s most influential leaders and operators. She has seen product teams at scale at Meta, where she led product at #Instagram and #Messenger, and developed SMB and Creator ads strategies. Her network in the product space, in particular, adds a new dimension to LifeX's team of ex-founders and operators. 🚀 With her scientific background, deep operating expertise, and extensive network in the tech ecosystem, you’d have a hard time finding anyone better positioned to support the next generation of #AI founders to find product market fit and beyond. more about her: https://lnkd.in/dhdbA4A6 cc Amol Sarva Rika Christanto Inaki Berenguer Amalia Formoso #venturecapital #AI #healthtech

We’re delighted to announce our investment in Cromatic, a full-stack digital platform for outsourced life sciences R&D. We co-led their $5.3m Seed round with AgFunder and participation from Lux Capital, Worklife, Not Boring, FJ Labs and What If Ventures. Managing partner Inaki Berenguer - “We've seen incredible growth in the outsourced R&D market, but scientists still spend an inordinate amount of time on administrative tasks rather than value-add experimentation. Cromatic's full stack solution—from matching, contract management, data exchange, project tracking and payments—is the right approach to accelerate and democratize the research process, bringing life-saving drugs faster to market." Welcome to the portfolio Ann Lin, Anne Chen and the team! Find out more below https://lnkd.in/d8d--Ruq cc Amol Sarva Yue Z. Rika Christanto Inaki Berenguer 

Thrilled to announce the inaugural cohort of LifeX Ventures #Fellows from  * Harvard Business School, * Stanford University Graduate School of Business,  * MIT Sloan School of Management, and * The University of Cambridge. LifeX Ventures Partners are alumni of these schools, and we remember our student experience, energized by these hubs of innovation, entrepreneurship, and talent. We could not be more excited to support the startup ecosystem on campus and in surrounding areas of Boston/NYC, San Francisco/Bay Area, Cambridge/Oxford. Each #Fellow is passionate about their fields (#AI, #climate, #health), and is a proven leader and community builder in the tech ecosystem. LifeX Fellows are our thought partners on campus. We provide them access to our playbooks for investing and building companies so they can be ideation partners and early investors in their classmates. Welcome to the LifeX Ventures team: * Alba Rubio Rodriguez (Stanford) [email protected] * Krish Mehta (Stanford) [email protected] * Michael Lee (Harvard) [email protected] * Zhun Che (Harvard) [email protected] * Dennis Kamara (MIT) [email protected] * Andrea Martos Esteban (Cambridge University) [email protected] Learn more about their backgrounds and passions here: https://www.lifex.vc/team If you are a founder or a VC, and are interested in speaking to one of our Fellows, please email them directly.

We just wrapped our 2023 LifeX Annual General Meeting at the Faculty House of Columbia University. We deliberately chose Columbia for our first AGM. Not only are Amol and Inaki proud alumni, but we also wanted to symbolize the convergence of top-notch science (Columbia has over 100 Nobel laureates among its alumni) with the new trend of using AI to accelerate and commercialize scientific breakthroughs. It was awesome to have our LifeX team, representatives from our LPs, and the presentations of 3 extraordinary portfolio companies visiting from Switzerland, California, and NY. Tons of enthusiasm!