AN Venture Partners, a global biotech venture capital fund, today announced the addition of Takashi Futami, Ph.D. as Partner.
Dr. Futami will join the fund’s leadership team, which includes Ken Horne, Managing Partner, and Ari Nowacek, M.D., Ph.D., Operating Partner, who remains a Partner at ARCH Venture Partners.
AN Venture Partners (ANV) has been established by a group of experienced venture capitalists from Japan and the United States, who have a wealth of experience in founding and growing start-ups, in addition to having an agreed alliance with ARCH Venture Partners.
It will primarily focus on sourcing innovative scientific research from Japan and building this into global biotech companies. Dr. Futami will be based in Tokyo, Japan, and will lead AN Venture Partners’ Japan operation.
“It is an honor for AN Venture Partners that Takashi has joined our partnership,” said Mr. Horne. “His successful track record as a biotech investor in Japan, the US and in Europe, in addition to his company creation experience as a founder and executive, is a perfect fit for ANV. He has decades of experience in pharma, corporate venture capital, institutional venture capital, and more recently as a founder and start-up CEO. We look forward to his leadership in helping achieve ANV’s vision – to successfully develop the Japanese biotech ecosystem on the global stage.”
"I am thrilled to be joining such an accomplished team at AN Venture Partners," said Dr. Futami. "I’m looking forward to investing in great science that can be developed into new treatments for patients, and to further connect Japanese science to the global ecosystem.
Dr. Futami is an experienced healthcare investor, entrepreneur and executive. He started his career as a researcher at Astellas Pharma Inc. where he led and managed more than 10 drug discovery projects, mainly in oncology and metabolic disorders.
He subsequently joined Astellas’s corporate venture capital arm in Menlo Park and Cambridge and was involved in many successful investments, including Potenza Therapeutics (acquired by Astellas), Bicycle Therapeutics (IPO: NASDAQ). He also managed collaborations with top academic institutes, including Dana-Farber cancer institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Weill Cornell Medicine.
Most recently, Dr. Futami was a Principal at Fast Track Initiative and played a key role in global investments and company creation from academic discoveries by identifying and evaluating new life sciences technologies. He is co-founder of reverSASP Therapeutics, K.K., a venture-backed biotech start-up based on Japanese academic discoveries.
About AN Venture Partners
AN Venture Partners is a Tokyo and San Francisco-based venture capital firm investing primarily in biotech. The fund has been established by a group of experienced venture capitalists from Japan and the United States, who have a wealth of experience in founding and growing start-ups, in addition to having an agreed alliance with ARCH Venture Partners. ANV’s investment strategy focuses on company creation and early-stage investments, with a particular but not exclusive focus on science from Japan. ANV also invests in global start-ups and will invest all the way through to sale, merger or IPO. For more information, please visit www.an.vc
Media Contacts
Email: info@an.vc