Read the full press release here
Congratulations to co-Founders Lena Wu, PhD, CEO, and Erik Gentalen, CTO, and the Intabio team on its acquisition by SCIEX. Genoa is privileged to have been partners in your journey from the beginning!
Since meeting Erik Gentalen, Intabio’s co-Founder and CTO in 2016, Jenny Rooke knew he was working on a compelling solution for workflow hurdles in high-value biotherapeutics development. Erik was referred to Jenny as a unique venture capitalist leading early-stage investments in the technology and biology convergence, with a concentration in biotechnology tools. During that first meeting, Erik drew his ideas on a napkin and from there a wonderful partnership was formed. “Jenny and Genoa Ventures are one of the few VCs dedicated to the earliest stages of a start-up and with expertise in the tool space. They bring a unique skill set and network to drive success for early-stage life science companies. We feel fortunate that they believed in our vision from the start,” said Erik.
With Erik as CTO and inventor of the Intabio microfluidics platform technology, and Lena Wu, PhD as the CEO and corporate visionary, Jenny knew that an exceptional team was formed to transform biotherapeutics development with a faster, more efficient, and quality driven solution.
In 2017, Jenny led Intabio’s Seed financing. Since then, the Genoa team has partnered with Intabio in building financing syndicates, recruiting talent, shaping R&D strategy (Genoa’s Bill Hyun served on Intabio’s SAB), and in the Boardroom. “Genoa’s support has been a force multiplier for Intabio. Their assistance in building the right financing syndicates, recruiting critical hires and importantly their insistence for rigorous analysis has helped us reach this exciting acquisition by a partner that can help Intabio reach our full potential,” said Lena.
For Jenny, the Intabio investment exemplifies the Genoa investing strategy and approach to partnering with founders. By leveraging advancements in microfluidics technology to accelerate biotherapeutic development and manufacturing, Intabio sits perfectly within Genoa’s investment theme “Technology Driving Biology.” “With Erik as an accomplished operator and innovative engineer who had served in customer facing roles, he deeply understood the complex problems and pain points of biotherapeutic development. When he brought onboard Lena, with her business development and corporate strategy superpowers, it was evident to me this was a powerhouse team. It has been exciting to partner with them along their journey and we congratulate everyone at Intabio for their vision and hard work. We look forward to seeing how the Intabio technology will expand and meet the needs of SCIEX customers.”