Founders are turning to tech VCs to fund the riskiest stage of starting a drug company. It's testing the divide between the biotech and tech worlds.
Allison DeAngelis
Mar 2, 2022, 6:30 PM
When Jen Nwankwo left Bain Capital in 2017 to get her Boston biotech company, 1910 Genetics, off the ground, her first investor set out clear terms.
Scientia Ventures' Richard Warburg said he would write a
$250,000 check for the seed round. But he warned that the investors in the next financing round would likely need her to let go of the chief executive title and sign over 80% to 85% of the company. He said biotech investors simply wouldn't put money in a startup led by a young woman who had never held a C-suite role before, she recalled in a recent interview.