Jenny Rooke, PhD

MANAGING DIRECTOR

Genoa Founder

Jenny is the Founder and Managing Director of Genoa Ventures, where she leverages her unique toolkit of genetics domain expertise, strategic business acumen, and venture investing to launch and empower the next generation of category-defying companies at the convergence of technology and biology. She has nearly two decades of investing experience, beginning at Fidelity Biosciences in 2006 as a Kauffman Fellow. After Fidelity, Jenny helped establish the investing function at the Gates Foundation, funding companies in genetic engineering, diagnostics, and synthetic biology.

Jenny started what would become Genoa Ventures in 2014 using the largest life sciences syndicate on AngelList and achieving one of the highest-performing AngelList syndicates in any sector. Jenny’s investments and board seats at Genoa include Intabio (acquired by Danaher Sciex), InterVenn, Aqtual, Meiogenix, and BrightSpec. She also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Jackson Laboratory. Her prior investments include Zymergen (IPO), Caribou (IPO), Accuri (acquired by Becton Dickinson), and Topaz (acquired by Sanofi). Prior to her investing career, Jenny was a management consultant with McKinsey focused on the pharma and biotech sectors. She also served in executive management roles at U.S. Genomics, leading Corporate Development and Research and Development.

Jenny studied physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology and has a Ph.D. in genetics from Yale.

Jenny’s love of sailing inspired her to name the fund Genoa – the sail that increases the performance and stability of a sailboat. Recognizing that the entrepreneur is the captain of their ship, she aims to help them and their companies navigate the start-up life cycle with the power of her network and her experience building and advising companies to get to the target destination.