Co-founder and Partner
Medicxi
Francesco is a co-founder and Partner at Medicxi. Prior to Medicxi, Francesco was a Partner at Index Ventures for 19 years, having joined the firm in 1997 to launch its life sciences practice. Under his leadership, the asset-centric approach to life sciences investing was conceived and implemented. Francesco currently serves on the boards of a number of portfolio companies, including Centessa Pharmaceuticals, Rivus Pharmaceuticals, Levicept, Granular Therapeutics and Kaerus Biosciences.
Francesco’s prior investments include CellZome (acquired by GlaxoSmithKline), GenMab (Copenhagen: GEN.CO), GenSight Biologics (Euronext: SIGHT), Micromet (acquired by Amgen), Vaxcyte (NASDAQ:PCVX), Molecular Partners (SIX:MOLN), PanGenetics (acquired by Abbott), Parallele Biosciences (acquired by Affymetrix), Profibrix (acquired by The Medicines Company) and Versartis (NASDAQ:VSAR).
Francesco received a BA in Genetics and Microbiology from the University of P and a PhD Molecular Biology from the University of Geneva. He conducted postdoctoral research at the Whitehead Institute at MIT and is a CFA Charterholder.