Former Apple Exec Launches VC Firm Focused on Synthetic Biology Companies

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Jan 06, 2022, 13:25 ET

HOUSTON, Jan. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Veronica Wu has launched a new VC firm, First Bight Ventures, which focuses exclusively on the advancement and acceleration of early-stage Synthetic Biology companies. Wu, a seasoned tech and investment executive, brings over two decades of experience in managerial positions at Apple, Tesla, and Motorola; she served as a Founding Team Member of the Business Technology Practice for McKinsey & Company's Greater China office. In the last six years, she has invested in over 300 early-stage tech companies, which has resulted in 34 unicorns, six SPACs, and four IPOs to date.

Wu moved from Silicon Valley to Houston, TX, in mid 2021. She believes "Houston is well positioned to become a major center for synthetic biology with its existing talent, industries, and capital." Wu looks forward to bringing her business building and investment experience, while leveraging Houston's local market resources to incubate syn-bio start-up companies that will become major industry players.

"Synthetic Biology aims to take parts of natural biology systems to produce organisms/cells/biological systems with novel or enhanced characteristics, it sits at the convergence of technology and biology, and provides us a powerful tool to address some of the biggest challenges humanity faces, like cancer/incurable diseases, sustainability and climate change. The potential applications are far reaching in scope as well as impact." Wu said. "Presently, we stand at a significant inflection point. Synthetic Biology is to 2022 what the '.com' era was to the 90s."

As the only VC firm wholly devoted to this emerging field, First Bight is uniquely positioned to form strategic relationships with key commercial and R&D organizations in the field. One such organization is Ginkgo Bioworks, which is the leading Synthetic Biology platform provider. We believe Ginkgo's platform can help accelerate and de-risk technical execution for companies across all of our key verticals.

First Bight has assembled a diverse group of advisors, who offer relevant industry and domain experience within the Energy, Equity Investments, Life Sciences, and Natural Resources industries.

More about First Bight can be found on the company's website at firstbight.com.

SOURCE First Bight Ventures