Biotech incubator FutuRx announced Tuesday that Leaps, the impact investment unit of pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG, will join it as an investor for incepting and incubating early-stage biotech companies.
Both Leaps by Bayer and FutuRx invest in paradigm-shifting technologies in the life sciences, aiming to change the world for the better.
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FutuRx is the leading Israeli biotechnology incubator focused on innovative, early-stage therapeutic technologies, which has established 20 companies to date with longstanding investors Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Takeda Ventures, and OrbiMed Israel Partners. FutuRx also enjoys the backing of the Israeli Innovation Authority.
Leaps by Bayer leads impact investments into solutions to some of today's biggest challenges in health and agriculture.
Its portfolio includes more than 30 companies, all of which focus on potentially breakthrough technologies to overcome specific challenges, such as regenerating lost tissue function, reducing the environmental impact of farming, preventing or curing cancer, and others.
"We are very excited to have Leaps by Bayer join our investor group," FutuRx's CEO Dr. Kinneret Savitzky said.
"FutuRx and Leaps by Bayer share the objective to invest in scientific breakthroughs and enable the translation to novel therapies or even cures. Our portfolio companies benefit from the knowledge and support of our multinational pharma and VC partners at every step of the way towards reaching meaningful inflection points, and we are thrilled to bring into play Bayer's unique expertise and capabilities in the many therapeutic areas in which it is active."
Leaps chief Dr. Juergen Eckhardt said, "Leaps by Bayer invests in paradigm-shifting advances in the life sciences and it's our mission to move the paradigm from treatment to cure. FutuRx offers a portfolio of diverse companies in terms of technologies and therapeutic areas, all focused in novel science and with the ability to overcome some of today's challenges in healthcare."
Leaps by Bayer said it will work closely with the incubator's management team and investors to support its incubated portfolio companies and will participate in seed investment rounds in the new companies to be incepted at FutuRx going forward.
"We are pleased to see an additional global Life Science company expand its Biopharma R&D exposure to the Israeli ecosystem and join our distinguished incubator program which through FutuRx has been a major catalyst of the Israeli Biotechnology ecosystem," said Anya Eldan, Head of the StartUP division at the Israel Innovation Authority.
"I am confident that Leaps' focus and experience with breakthrough biotechnologies will be an asset to FutuRx's work incepting new companies enabling Bio-Convergence, combining life sciences discoveries and cutting-edge technologies for the benefit of mankind."
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