# Leaps by Bayer

> Leaps by Bayer is a VC fund backing Biotechnology and Health Care. See 130 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Leverkusen, Germany
- Total investments: 130
- Last investment: Jul 2026
- Lead investor: 41%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/leapsbybayer
- X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/leapsbybayer?
- Website: https://leaps.bayer.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leapsbybayer

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, wedrive innovations that could nourish a growing population while restoring the planet.It was founded in 2015 and headquartered in Leverkusen, Nordrhein-Westfalen.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for Leaps by Bayer. Shizune tracks 2 team members at Leaps by Bayer. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/leaps-by-bayer?utm_source=investor_profile

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Series A | $6.6M–$100M |
| Series B | $13M–$152M |
| Series C | $30M–$150M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Biotechnology | 40 | 31% |
| Health Care | 30 | 23% |
| Agriculture | 18 | 14% |
| Medical | 14 | 11% |
| Therapeutics | 14 | 11% |

51 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series A | 40 | 31% |
| Series B | 29 | 22% |
| Series C | 11 | 8% |
| Funding Round | 9 | 7% |
| Series D | 7 | 5% |

9 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| United States | 56 | 43% |
| Canada | 5 | 4% |
| China | 1 | 1% |
| Kenya | 1 | 1% |
| Brazil | 1 | 1% |

8 countries tracked in total.

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Juergen Eckhardt | SVP and Head | 40 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/juergen-eckhardt |
| Ryan Teksten | Director, Venture Investments | 1 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ryan-teksten |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Sabanto | Sabanto is a farming-as-a-service performing row-crop field operations using low-cost autonomous systems. |  | Series B | Jul 14, 2026 |  |
| Celea Therapeutics | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 |  |
| NuCicer | 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 | 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 |  |
| Indapta Therapeutics | Indapta Therapeutics is a privately held biotechnology company developing an NK (natural killer) cell therapy platform for the treatment of blood and solid tumor cancers. | $22.5M | Venture - Series Unknown | Dec 17, 2024 |  |

10 of 130 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Alexandria Venture Investments](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alexandria-venture-investments) — VC Fund, 13 deals together
- [Polaris Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/polaris-partners) — VC Fund, 12 deals together
- [RA Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ra-capital-management) — VC Fund, 12 deals together
- [7wire Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/7wire-ventures) — VC Fund, 11 deals together
- [Catalio Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/catalio-capital-management) — VC Fund, 10 deals together
- [Monsanto Growth Ventures (MGV)](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/monsanto-growth-ventures) — VC Fund, 10 deals together

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## 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 130 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Leaps by Bayer's check size?

Leaps by Bayer typically joins rounds of $6.6M–$100M at Series A, $13M–$152M at Series B and $30M–$150M at Series C. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Leaps by Bayer participates 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 Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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