Leighton Read
Venture Partner @ Alloy Ventures
San Francisco, United States
Leighton Read is a General Partner in four Alloy funds investing with us in companies from 2001-2007.Before joining Alloy, Leighton spent 14 years as a biotechnology entrepreneur and investor. He co-founded Affymax NV, under the direction of Dr. Alejandro Zaffaroni, setting the stage for two successful spin-outs: Affymetrix and Maxygen.Hefounded Aviron, a biotechnology company best known as the developer of FluMist, the intranasal influenza vaccine, where he served as Chairman and CEO until 1999 and Director until its acquisition by MedImmune in 2002.While at Alloy, he served as the first CEO of Avidia, a spin-out of Maxygen later acquired by Amgen. For over two decades, he has also been interested in the psychological principles that underlie successful electronic games and is currently devoting substantial time to his role as Chairman of Seriosity, a start-up leading in the application of game principles to the challenges of large enterprises.He received a B.S. from Rice University in Psychology and Biology (1973), an MD from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (1976) and completed internal medicine training at Duke and the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston where he held appointments at the Harvard Medical School and School of Public Health. His research dealt with applications of decision theory in medicine, cost-effectiveness analysis and policy regarding medical innovation.Leighton is a director of Alexza Pharmaceuticals, AnaptysBio, Apptera, Cambrios Technologies, Genomatica, Opal Therapeutics, and Siluria. He also serves as a trustee or director of The BeneTech Initiative, BioVentures for Global Health, The UC Berkeley Foundation and School of Public Health Council and the Santa Fe Institute. His awards include several as co-inventor of technology underlying the Affymetrix GeneChip
- Total investments:
- 13
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 0%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Leighton Read invests in
Stages Leighton Read invests in
Countries Leighton Read invests in
Investment Focus
Industry
- Biotechnology 4 (31%)
- Health Care 2 (15%)
- Therapeutics 2 (15%)
- Nanotechnology 2 (15%)
- Fuel 1 (8%)
Stage
- Series D 4 (31%)
- Series C 3 (23%)
- Series A 2 (15%)
- Series B 2 (15%)
- Funding Round 1 (8%)
Country
- United States 6 (46%)
- Australia 1 (8%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
Allay Therapeutics
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Allay Therapeutics offers analgesic products for post-surgical pain management and recuperation. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, United States. | $57.5M / Series D / Jun 05, 2025 | |
|
Allay Therapeutics
|
Allay Therapeutics offers analgesic products for post-surgical pain management and recuperation. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California, United States. | $60M / Series C / Sep 15, 2021 | |
Genomatica
|
Genomatica develops biobased process technologies that enable a better way to produce widely-used chemicals, from alternative feedstocks, with better economics, sustainability, and performance. Genomatica has earned widespread acclaim for its technology; has commercialized processes for the chemical butanediol (for biodegradable plastics andapparel) and for butylene glycol (cosmetics and personal care), and is working on bio-nylon. Awards include the Kirkpatrick Award, for “the most noteworthy chemical engineering technology commercialized in the world” and the ICIS Innovation Award for its Brontide(TM) butylene glycol. | $41.5M / Series D / Aug 02, 2012 | |
Siluria Technologies
|
Siluria Technologies is a materials innovation company solving global challenges for partners in the natural gas, chemicals and fuel industries. Integrating nanotechnology, biotechnology and chemical engineering, Siluria has developed a solution to the grand challenge of efficient manufacturing: the ability to produce chemicals and fuels from acheaper, more abundant resource than oil. The company's economically superior, energy-efficient platform converts natural gas into the same materials manufactured today using current industry infrastructure. Siluria's world-class R&D and engineering teams are rapidly commercializing the company's technology to pilot-scale production in close dialogue with the world's largest chemical and fuel companies.Siluria's backers include Alloy Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Altitude Life Science Ventures, Lux Capital, and Presidio Ventures. | $30M / Series C / Jul 26, 2012 | |
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Siluria Technologies
|
Siluria Technologies is a materials innovation company solving global challenges for partners in the natural gas, chemicals and fuel industries. Integrating nanotechnology, biotechnology and chemical engineering, Siluria has developed a solution to the grand challenge of efficient manufacturing: the ability to produce chemicals and fuels from acheaper, more abundant resource than oil. The company's economically superior, energy-efficient platform converts natural gas into the same materials manufactured today using current industry infrastructure. Siluria's world-class R&D and engineering teams are rapidly commercializing the company's technology to pilot-scale production in close dialogue with the world's largest chemical and fuel companies.Siluria's backers include Alloy Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Altitude Life Science Ventures, Lux Capital, and Presidio Ventures. | $20M / Series B / Sep 27, 2011 | |
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Siluria Technologies
|
Siluria Technologies is a materials innovation company solving global challenges for partners in the natural gas, chemicals and fuel industries. Integrating nanotechnology, biotechnology and chemical engineering, Siluria has developed a solution to the grand challenge of efficient manufacturing: the ability to produce chemicals and fuels from acheaper, more abundant resource than oil. The company's economically superior, energy-efficient platform converts natural gas into the same materials manufactured today using current industry infrastructure. Siluria's world-class R&D and engineering teams are rapidly commercializing the company's technology to pilot-scale production in close dialogue with the world's largest chemical and fuel companies.Siluria's backers include Alloy Ventures, ARCH Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Altitude Life Science Ventures, Lux Capital, and Presidio Ventures. | $13.3M / Series A / Oct 19, 2010 | |
Apptera
|
Apptera is a mobile communications and advertising company with their flagship consumer product Raved.Their Apptera MobileAd Network provides a powerful way for advertisers to engage and interact with millions of mobile consumers through unique set of publisher partners including AOL Moviefone, 1-800-FANDANGO, Movietickets.com, Mozes, UpSnap,RH Brands, TapFury, and more. Apptera has been recognized with numerous industry awards including, most recently, the 2011 OnMobile 100 Top Private Companies and holds numerous patents for their communications technology. Founded in 2001, Apptera is a privately held, venture-financed company headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices in New York and Los Angeles. | $10M / Jun 17, 2010 | |
|
Genomatica
|
Genomatica develops biobased process technologies that enable a better way to produce widely-used chemicals, from alternative feedstocks, with better economics, sustainability, and performance. Genomatica has earned widespread acclaim for its technology; has commercialized processes for the chemical butanediol (for biodegradable plastics andapparel) and for butylene glycol (cosmetics and personal care), and is working on bio-nylon. Awards include the Kirkpatrick Award, for “the most noteworthy chemical engineering technology commercialized in the world” and the ICIS Innovation Award for its Brontide(TM) butylene glycol. | $15M / Series C / Apr 08, 2010 | |
Cambrios Technologies
|
Cambrios Technologies Corp. develops electronic materials for the display industry. The company provides wet-processable transparent conductive films. Its nanostructured materials can be deposited using existing production equipment to achieve enhanced performance of display devices and components. The company was founded in 2002 as Semzyme, Inc.and changed its name to Cambrios Technologies Corp. in August 2004. Cambrios Technologies Corp. is based in Sunnyvale, California. | $14.5M / Series D / Nov 01, 2009 | |
AnaptysBio
|
AnaptysBio is a privately-held therapeutic antibody product company that uses of somatic hypermutation, or SHM, for antibody discovery and optimization. SHM is the body's natural process for generating potent antibodies to fight disease. The Company's SHM-Platform utilizes the key components of SHM and other techniques to generateantibodies for therapeutic applications through an iterative process of natural evolution and high-throughput selection a process that has been referred to as naturalizing antibodies. This versatile platform can be used both to discover and optimize antibodies directed at specific disease targets and also affinity mature existing antibodies to improve their binding properties. In addition to providing a more powerful approach to antibody discovery and protein optimization, it addresses a growing void in the therapeutic antibody field due to a string of acquisitions and licensing deals that have reduced the availability of many technologies. | $33.9M / Series B / Nov 08, 2007 | |
| See all 13 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
Altitude Life Science Ventures
4 deals together
New Enterprise Associates
4 deals together
Arboretum Ventures
3 deals together
ARCH Venture Partners
3 deals together
Mohr Davidow Ventures
2 deals together
Vertex Growth Fund
2 deals together
About Alloy Ventures
Alloy Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm that invests in the areas of life sciences, information technology, and cleantech.
Alloy Ventures Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Craig Taylor
Co-Founder & General Partner
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Dave Pidwell
Venture Partner
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John Shoch
Co-Founder & General Partner
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Leighton Read
Venture Partner
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Leighton Read
Venture Partner
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FAQ
What does Leighton Read invest in?
Leighton Read invests primarily in Biotechnology, Health Care and Therapeutics startups, most often at Series D and Series C stage. Most of the 13 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in United States. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
When did Leighton Read last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Leighton Read closed in Jun 2025. Shizune tracks 13 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 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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