# Michael Lee

> Michael Lee is a seed investor at Syngenta Ventures (Basel) backing Chemical. See 2 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Syngenta Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/syngenta-ventures)
- Location: Basel, Switzerland
- Total investments: 2
- Last investment: Mar 2021
- Lead investor: 50%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-lee-65084/?originalSubdomain=ch

Michael Lee is a seed investor at Syngenta Ventures in Basel focused on Chemical. Michael joined Syngenta Ventures in 2013. Prior to this he spent several years at Unilever’s corporate venturing group based in the US and UK investing in early stage companies. Before this he worked at Unilever’s R&D center in the Netherlands.He serves as a director on the boards of Biognosys, BoMill, Phytech and Invest Europe, theVC/PE industry association.Michael is a Kauffman Fellow and holds a B.Sc. in Zoology and a Ph.D. in insect biochemistry from the University of Durham, UK. He worked as a postdoc at the University of London. He also holds an M.B.A. from RSM Erasmus, NL and is a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society. He has published several scientific papers, most about either caterpillar digestive enzymes or peptide hormones involved in energy mobilization for insect flight.

## Investment focus

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Seed | 1 | 50% |
| Series A | 1 | 50% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| BioPhero | BioPhero is a pioneer in providing low-cost bio-based pheromones for pest management. | $16.8M | Series A | Mar 08, 2021 |  |
| BioPhero | BioPhero is a pioneer in providing low-cost bio-based pheromones for pest management. |  | Seed | Sep 17, 2018 |  |

2 of 2 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Novo Holdings](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/novo-a-s) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [DCVC Bio](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/dcvc-bio) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [FMC Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/fmc-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## About Syngenta Ventures

VC Fund · Basel, Switzerland

Syngenta Ventures is the corporate venture capital (VC) team of Syngenta, a leading agriculture company helping to improve global food security by enabling farmers to make better use of available resources.Created in 2009, Syngenta Ventures was one of the first venture capital teams dedicated to agriculture. With an experienced team of investmentprofessionals possessing more than 45 collective years of VC experience, Syngenta Ventures has established itself as one of the most active and knowledgeable agricultural investors.Syngenta Ventures is stage agnostic, from investing in seed rounds to larger growth equity rounds. They typically invest alongside other financial and corporate VC investors, and they avoid asking for any rights or options for Syngenta as they recognize the importance of having the interests of all shareholders aligned.They use their deep experience as investors and running commercial Ag businesses to work with their portfolio companies to help them maximize their potential value. They often take board or board observer roles, spending the time needed with the company and management to help them achieve their goals. Finally, they are connected into Syngenta, ranging from R&D to commercial teams, around the world. They can help their portfolio companies validate new products in field trials, increase market visibility, and share industry knowledge and contacts.While they encourage technical and/or commercial collaboration with Syngenta, these are negotiated by Syngenta and not connected to their investment. Linked to this, they maintain a strict firewall with Syngenta to protect any confidential information from being shared. They take this responsibility seriously and can provide references from their portfolio companies to demonstrate this.

5 contacts available at Syngenta Ventures.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| David Pierson | Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/david-pierson |
| Michael Lee | Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/michael-lee-12 |
| Erik Fyrwald | Founder&CEO | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/erik-fyrwald-4a4c |
| J. Erik Fyrwald | Founder&CEO | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/j-erik-fyrwald |
| Katrin Burt | Managing Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/katrin-burt |

## Similar investors

### Similar stage
- [Antler](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/antler-be9c) — VC Fund
- [Alumni Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alumni-ventures-group) — VC Fund
- [Right Side Capital Management](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/right-side-capital-management) — VC Fund

## FAQ

### What does Michael Lee invest in?

Michael Lee invests primarily in Chemical startups, most often at Seed and Series A stage. Most of the 2 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Denmark. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### When did Michael Lee last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Michael Lee closed in Mar 2021. Shizune tracks 2 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.

# About Shizune
Shizune.co is an investor database. Core features:
- 48,091 startup investors (angels, VCs, accelerators, and others)
- Email, phone, LinkedIn (for intros), socials, and other contact data
- Updated daily from public funding news
- CSV and Excel export

The User can access the full database FOR FREE after signing up: shizune.co