Leaders

Stories that speak about change and impact are so enthralling! Stories in which commoners rise to make big differences are captivating because they are rare. We bring to one such rare story of a passionate woman, Veronika Aksenova (Venture Partner, Genome Capital). A scientist turned angel investor, Veronika is passionate about working with entrepreneurs from the earliest stages to the product launch in Biotech and Health-tech focused on emerging markets of the MENA region. Since a very young age, she aspired to invent a cure for cancer, which grew into a global medical project. Veronika has over 7 years of solid expertise in fundamental science working in leading European institutions backed up with a CSO position in a biotech start-up yRisk. Between 2018 and 2022, she led an oncology portfolio of over 30 companies in the State VC Fund and served as a Medical Leader for Roche.

In 2018, she worked as a portfolio manager and was responsible for the development of 70 onco start-ups in Russia (in total over $2M fundraised). Then became a Medical Lead at Roche (developed a marketing strategy for a new onco blockbuster for the CIS market and archived $0.5M in sales for the first year). In 2020, with her partner Svetlana Gavrilova, she founded Ge-nome Capital venture firm (developed a portfolio of over 30 start-ups). A Ph.D. holder in Cell Biology and Clinical Psychology. Veronika's rare combination of academic research back-ground, venture business acumen, and psychological education allows her to be a successful negotiator, see hidden human potential, build highperforming teams and create new prod-ucts.

She is a mentor at the Founder Institute Impact & Sustainability. Also leads a biotech branch in the international tech founders’ community, serves as a Mentor for med/bio start-ups, and is a lecturer at Pharma’s Cool program for young scientists/entrepreneurs. Veronika is here with Women Entrepreneur Magazine, sharing some valuable inputs.

Introduce us to Genome Capital. Tell us about the underlying idea behind the venture and some of its most unique features.

Genome Capital is a venture capital firm focused on investing in early-stage HealthTech start-ups in Emerging markets as well as accelerating them in the MENA region. The firm also seeks to invest in medical tech, robotic surgery, diagnostics, and drug discovery sectors. We are de-veloping an ecosystem of HealthTech by accelerating biotech, digital and robotics-focused companies. We provide expert advice, a tech founders network, and access to funds. Our team is a perfect combination of Ph.D. scientists, tech entrepreneurs, and M&A dealmakers with ex-ceptional investment experience who hold the leadership of a 5,000+ tech founder’s community that is part of a unique ecosystem that grew more than 80 unicorns.

We believe that high financial and societal returns can coexist. More than 5Bn people globally have limited access to medical services due to a shortage of doctors in the region, lack of good infrastructure, and high cost of services and medicines. New technologies in BioTech, IT, and Robotics that we have in our portfolio can change the rules of the game and make medicine more accessible!

What are the different responsibilities you shoulder as the Venture Partner for Genome Capital? What are your primary focus areas in the aforementioned role?

As a Venture Partner for Genome Capital, I am responsible for primary scouting of highly prom-ising and yet not discovered by bigger venture funds medical start-ups at the early pre-seed stage. I scout, then perform scoring and initial due diligence procedures. As a scientist and re-searcher by background, I am focused on the evaluation of the scientific potential behind the initial idea. Besides, I put special attention to the psychological aspect of the founder’s and founding team's identity to understand better their motivation and predict behavioural patterns under stress and unforeseen situations.

"New technologies in BioTech, IT, and Robotics that we have in our portfolio can change the rules of the game and make medicine more accessible"

Throw some light on the most critical business challenges you face as an investor in the medical industry. What steps do you take to overcome the roadblocks that you encounter?

The main challenge is the lack of professional investors in the medical field. Biotech/digital medicine/health tech – all these branches requires special expertise to evaluate the idea and the potential of the company, especially at the very early stages when the financial characteris-tics are not yet well established. To overcome this roadblock in the fundraising process, me and my partners organize professional networking events for investors to educate them on this topic, show the perspectives on investments in health tech and give more insights on why the expected time horizon of investment return is relatively longer than in a classical IT business (edtech, delivery, and more).

Another challenge that many teams face is the lack of business expertise of the founding team. Most of the time the company is founded by an impressive researcher or scientist who is great at generating groundbreaking ideas but lacks basic business knowledge. So we help our teams to hire people for business development roles so that the founder could stay focused on the R&D side and the business development person move the business forward.

What has been your ‘success mantra’? What would your advice be to young women and girls who also aspire to become business leaders and entrepreneurs in the future?

My only mantra is the ultimate belief in myself. I know that I can do and get everything I want. Adequate self-esteem and belief in my skills are the core values that help me go through any challenges. I believe in a ‘leadership based on the strengths’ - a concept developed by Don Clifton.

BE BOLD, BE BRAVE, AND BE YOURSELF. You can do everything in this world. You just need to know your superpower (your hidden treasure) and build your career/presence in this world based on your strong skills. Surround yourself with mentors and people who inspire you, support you, and believe in the best version of yourself. Help people become better and keep your heart open.

Veronika Aksenova, Venture Partner, Genome Capital

A doctorate in Cell Biology and Clinical Psychology. Veronika's rare combination of academic research background, venture business acumen, and psychological education allows her to be a successful negotiator, see hidden human potential, build high-performing teams and create new products.