Advent France Biotechnology appoints Geoffroy de Ribains as operating partner

Paris, France, October 6, 2020 – Advent France Biotechnology (AFB), an AMF-regulated investment company dedicated to life sciences, today announces the appointment of Geoffroy de Ribains as operating partner. In this role, he will be involved in managing AFB’s portfolio companies – on the board of some – and assisting with new investments.

Following the recent rapid growth of AFB’s portfolio, the company needed to welcome new people to bring operational support to its most recent investments. Geoffroy de Ribains’ first objective will be to head a new company created in July by AFB and to lead it through its initial steps towards regulatory development.

With de Ribains’ appointment, AFB strengthens its capabilities in company building and development, a key differentiating feature in the French Life Sciences seed investment market. Geoffroy will rely on a broad international network in the industrial, financial, medical and academic communities across the EU and the US. He has a wide range of expertise including financing, company building and management, strategic and business planning, and product development in the biotech, medtech and diagnostics industries.

“We are delighted to welcome Geoffroy on board. He brings a rare combination of experience as a life sciences investor and as an entrepreneur”, said Alain Huriez, MD, Advent France Biotechnology co-founder and chairman. “His experience in creating and building companies that originate from academic research labs will be very useful in helping execute AFB’s strategy of seed investing in academic spin-offs. This also fits perfectly with our vision of relying on entrepreneur-investors at AFB.”

Geoffroy was previously CEO of Step Pharma, a Paris-based biotech startup that he co-founded and brought from target discovery to preclinical candidate stage, raising €16M ($18.8M) in equity and more than €2M ($2.3M) in non-dilutive funding. He is also a co-founder of Biomunex Pharmaceuticals. Geoffroy brings 12 years of venture capital investing experience at Andera Partners (formerly E. de Rothschild Investment Partners) and Atlas Venture. He has been directly involved in a total of 20 new investments, six M&A transactions and three company exits and was on the board of eight companies. Geoffroy started his career as a research scientist at Pavonis Inc., a VC-backed biotech startup in the Boston area, and as a consultant for Bioserve Ltd., a biotech consulting firm. Geoffroy de Ribains holds an MSc. in molecular biology from the University of Paris.

“I am extremely pleased to join Advent France Biotechnology, where my past experience can be put to good use in helping successfully launch very innovative start-ups that stem from academia. I am particularly attracted by the mix of operational and financial expertise that the AFB team brings; one that very few companies have,” said Geoffroy de Ribains. “After 12 years as a venture capitalist and seven years in operations in VC-backed start-ups, I have found a great organization where I can contribute actively and concretely while helping academic researchers realize the potential of their scientific innovations for the benefit of patients.”

AFB is planning to close up to three additional investments with its current fund before Q2, 2021. The company is also planning to launch fundraising for its next fund.

About Advent France Biotechnology

Advent France Biotechnology (AFB), an AMF-regulated company created in 2016 in Paris, France, invests in a range of sectors within the life sciences, specifically in drug discovery and new medical technologies. AFB has made 12 investments since the inception of its first fund in 2017, mainly in France but also in Belgium and Spain. It has selected well differentiated projects across diverse therapeutics areas: oncology, inflammation, neurology, infectious diseases, metabolic disorders, rare diseases, enabling technologies and e-health. It has developed strong relationships within the French innovation ecosystem and attracted international VC syndicates into its portfolio companies.

The operational team, managed by Alain Huriez and Matthieu Coutet, includes investment professionals with extensive scientific, medical and operational experience, as well as a long-standing track record of entrepreneurial and investment successes across Europe.

www.adventfb.com