# John L. Flavin

> John L. Flavin is a seed investor at Portal Innovations backing Biotechnology. See 3 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Oct 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Portal Innovations](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/portal-innovations)
- Location: Woodridge, United States
- Total investments: 3
- Last investment: Dec 2021
- Lead investor: 33%
- Last updated: Oct 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-flavin-3008a219
- X (Twitter): http://twitter.com/JLFlavin1
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/john.flavin.520

John L. Flavin is a seed investor at Portal Innovations in Woodridge focused on Biotechnology and Medical. John has over 20 years of experience in the life sciences field focused on entrepreneurial finance and operations. He has led two successful NASDAQ IPOs, and has raised over $220 million in private and public funding. Over his career, he has successfully built a series of companies and the requisite business and scientific teams focused ondiscovery and development of novel therapeutics. Flavin was co-founder, President, CFO and board member for Advanced Life Sciences where he led the Company's financings and operations to support the acquisition and development of a novel antibiotic through NDA submission and FDA advisory committee review. Before that, he was COO and board member of MediChem and CEO of its ThermoGen and Emerald Biostructures Divisions, where he was instrumental in building the Company from start-up to over 230 employees and led its sale to DeCODE genetics, Inc. John is also the Executive Director of the Chicago Innovation Exchange at the University of Chicago. The CIE is an innovation campus on 53rd Street in Hyde Park focused on entrepreneurship and commercializing innovation arising from all parts of the University of Chicago and its affiliates by providing co-working space, programming, connections to corporate partners and early start-up capital through the Innovation Fund. Prior to joining the CIE, John was the Executive Director of Chicago Innovation Mentors, a consortium of the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, University of Illinois, Argonne National Laboratory, and Propel focused on commercializing complex technology innovation and entrepreneurship. John is a board member at the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition and a member of the Lewis University Council of Regents. John was past awardee of the Marquette University College of Business Young Alumnus of the Year and KPMG Illinois High Tech Award. Flavin holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Marquette University and a M.B.A. in Finance from Lewis University.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for John L. Flavin: work email, personal email, work phone, personal phone and socials. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-email/john-l-flavin?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Biotechnology | 3 | 100% |
| Medical | 2 | 67% |
| Health Care | 2 | 67% |
| Sensor | 1 | 33% |
| Analytics | 1 | 33% |

12 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 2 | 67% |
| Series A | 1 | 33% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Rhaeos | Rhaeos, the world's first wearable shunt monitor, aims to improve the quality care for patients with hydrocephalus through a novel, thermal biosensor. Developed within Northwestern University with collaboration between Dr. John Rogers, McCormick School of Engineering, Feinberg School of Medicine and Kellogg School of Management, Rhaeosrepresents a unique multidisciplinary translational effort for an important clinical need. | $2.2M | Seed | Dec 24, 2021 | http://www.rhaeos.com |
| Grove Biopharma | Grove Biopharma is a biotechnology company offering a materials science solution to peptide therapeutic challenges, focused on the discovery and development of a novel class of “protein-like polymers” to treat significant unmet medical needs in chronic inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. | $4M | Seed | May 10, 2021 | http://grovebiopharma.com/ |
| Pyxis Oncology | Pyxis Oncology is a developer of antibody therapeutics intended to promote the body's immune response to cancer. The company has engaged in deep analyses of tumor antigen-specific tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) within hot tumors and of tumor cell signaling pathways within cold tumors, providing laboratories with development of novelantibody-based immunotherapies.It was founded in 2019 and is based in Boston, Massachusetts. | $22M | Series A | Jul 17, 2019 | https://www.pyxisoncology.com/ |

3 of 3 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Agent Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/agent-capital) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Band of Angels](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/band-of-angels) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Creative Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/creative-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- Ipsen — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Kyto Technology and Life Science Inc](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/kyto-technology-and-life-science-inc) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Lateral Frontiers](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/lateral-capital) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## About Portal Innovations

VC Fund · Chicago, United States

Portal Innovations invests in therapeutics, med tech, and bioinformatics startups with strong leadership teams.

1 contacts available at Portal Innovations.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| John L. Flavin | Founder & CEO | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/john-l-flavin |

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## FAQ

### What does John L. Flavin invest in?

John L. Flavin invests primarily in Biotechnology, Medical and Health Care startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 3 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### How do I contact John L. Flavin?

Public channels for John L. Flavin include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and Facebook. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### When did John L. Flavin last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for John L. Flavin closed in Dec 2021. Shizune tracks 3 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Oct 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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