Leaps by Bayer
VC Fund
Leverkusen, Germany
Leaps by Bayer is a VC fund in Leverkusen focused on Biotechnology and Health Care. Leaps is the strategic impact investment unit of Bayer. By accelerating transformative biotechnologies, we aim to shift key paradigms in life science, changing the world for better. In health, we pursue breakthroughs that could set new standards in medical care, moving from treating symptoms to curing or preventing diseases. In agriculture, we drive innovations that could nourish a growing population while restoring the planet. It was founded in 2015 and headquartered in Leverkusen, Nordrhein-Westfalen.
- Total investments:
- 141
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 43%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Leaps by Bayer invests in
Stages Leaps by Bayer invests in
Countries Leaps by Bayer invests in
Round sizes
Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Round size
- Series A
- $6.6M–$100M
- Series B
- $13M–$135M
- Series C
- $30M–$150M
Investment Focus
Industry
- Biotechnology 45 (32%)
- Health Care 32 (23%)
- Agriculture 23 (16%)
- Therapeutics 16 (11%)
- Medical 15 (11%)
Stage
- Series A 42 (30%)
- Series B 31 (22%)
- Series C 11 (8%)
- Series D 7 (5%)
- Venture - Series Unknown 7 (5%)
Country
- United States 59 (42%)
- Canada 6 (4%)
- China 1 (1%)
- Kenya 1 (1%)
- Brazil 1 (1%)
Team
| Name | Title | Investments | Links | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Juergen Eckhardt
SVP and Head
|
SVP and Head | Total investments: 45 | Find email | |
Ryan Teksten
Director, Venture Investments
|
Director, Venture Investments | Total investments: 1 | Find email |
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
| Soufflé Therapeutics is a biotechnology company specializing in the development of nucleic acid medicines designed for precise delivery and targeting of disease-causing cells. The company's mission is to create potent, precise, and safe medicines that can be tailored for a broad range of diseases by leveraging breakthroughs in genetic medicineand drug delivery technology. | $135M / Series B / Oct 13, 2026 | ||
| Robigo is a biomanufacturing company engineering microbes to create more sustainable crop protection solutions. | Series A / Sep 17, 2026 | ||
| Sabanto is a farming-as-a-service performing row-crop field operations using low-cost autonomous systems. | Series B / Jul 14, 2026 | ||
| Celea Therapeutics develops drug therapies for serious respiratory and fibrotic lung diseases. The company focuses on idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and is advancing deupirfenidone (LYT-100), an oral investigational therapy. Deupirfenidone is being studied as a potential new standard of care for IPF, with completed Phase 2b data and a pivotalPhase 3 trial planned. Celea also runs an open-label extension study to assess long-term outcomes and collaborates with clinicians and patient groups on IPF patient experience research. Celea is a wholly-owned subsidiary of PureTech Health plc. | $180M / Private Equity / Jul 02, 2026 | ||
| SonoThera is a biotechnology company that creates non-viral genetic therapies using ultrasound. Its mission is to develop genetic medicines that treat the root cause of human disease. SonoThera is expanding the possibilities of disease treatment with ultrasound-guided nonviral gene therapy for diseases with suboptimal or non-existent treatments. Itaims to improve the lives and health of millions of people. | $125M / Series B / Jun 10, 2026 | ||
| Leaf Agriculture is the provider of a unified farm data API and it builds the future of food and agriculture. | $13M / Series B / Jun 10, 2026 | ||
| Ukko is a biotech firm focused on creating safe immunotherapies for quickly addressing allergies and other immune-related disorders. The company utilizes a unique technology platform that combines computational protein design with mRNA/LNP delivery to alter allergenic proteins. This approach seeks to mitigate or eliminate the risks of severeallergic reactions while eliciting a protective immune response. The Company is focused on changing the approach to prevent allergic reactions at the molecular level, striving to offer a safer and more targeted alternative to conventional desensitization techniques. This will lessen the treatment burden while meeting the critical needs of those vulnerable to severe allergic reactions to peanuts, with possibilities for extending the solution to other major allergens like milk, tree nuts, and respiratory triggers. | $45M / Series C / Jan 08, 2026 | ||
| WellTheory provides a virtual care platform focused on autoimmune and inflammatory health. It delivers personalized nutrition, lifestyle, and root-cause assessments, then matches each member with a multidisciplinary Care Team including dietitians, health coaches, and support coordinators. The company supports users through live coaching sessions,unlimited messaging, educational content, community connection, and advanced testing as needed. For employer and payer customers, it offers an enterprise solution that integrates with existing benefit systems, handles implementation, communications, and reporting, and aims to reduce autoimmune-related medical spend. | $14M / Series A / Oct 14, 2025 | ||
| NuCicer is unlocking chickpea’s full potential - transitioning it from “interesting ingredient” to “staple superfood” by launching new varieties with ground-breaking agronomic and quality traits that deliver better nutrition, improved flavor, and more economical ingredients. NuCicer’s technology combines the world's most diverse chickpeabreeding library and their proprietary breeding innovation platform, built on deep roots in plant genetics and machine learning, to create value across the agri-food system. | $11.5M / Series A / Jul 30, 2025 | ||
| Soufflé Therapeutics is a biotechnology company specializing in the development of nucleic acid medicines designed for precise delivery and targeting of disease-causing cells. The company's mission is to create potent, precise, and safe medicines that can be tailored for a broad range of diseases by leveraging breakthroughs in genetic medicineand drug delivery technology. | $200M / Series A / Jan 01, 2025 | ||
| See all 141 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
Access 48,091 investors
822 industries, 177 countries. Updated daily. Emails and phones included.
Browse database — It's Free!
Find investors for your startup
Search 48,091 investors by industry and country. Emails and phones included.
Similar Investors
Similar industry
Similar stage
Similar country
Featured in Investor Lists
Recommended lists
FAQ
What does Leaps by Bayer invest in?
Leaps by Bayer invests primarily in Biotechnology, Health Care and Agriculture startups, most often at Series A and Series B stage. Most of the 141 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
What round sizes does Leaps by Bayer invest in?
Leaps by Bayer typically joins rounds of $6.6M–$100M at Series A, $13M–$135M at Series B and $30M–$150M at Series C. These are whole funding-round sizes, not Leaps by Bayer's own check, which is rarely disclosed: the 10th–90th percentile of the confirmed public funding rounds Leaps by Bayer took part in.
How do I contact Leaps by Bayer?
Public channels for Leaps by Bayer include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and the website linked on this profile. 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.
Who are the partners at Leaps by Bayer?
The team at Leaps by Bayer includes Juergen Eckhardt (SVP and Head) and Ryan Teksten (Director, Venture Investments). The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.
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.
Contact your first 100 investors today
Find who invests in your industry, stage, and country. Download investor list with emails in 5 minutes.
Find investors — It's Free!
Continue with Google
Continue with LinkedIn
