Francesco De Rubertis


Francesco De Rubertis is a partner at medicxi, a venture capital firm with offices in London, Jersey and Geneva, having co-founded the firm in February 2016. Prior to that he was a partner at another venture capital firm, Index Ventures, having led the firm's efforts to establish its life sciences practice after joining in 1997.

Early life and education

De Rubertis was born in Italy. He graduated from the University of Pavia with a Bachelor of Arts in Genetics and Microbiology, before earning a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Geneva, where he also met his wife, Sandra Henchoz, who was a fellow student. De Rubertis engaged in postdoctoral research in molecular genetics at the Whitehead Institute at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and later earned the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Career

After his postdoctoral work at MIT, in 1997 De Rubertis moved back to Geneva, where he joined Index Ventures and helped co-found the firm's life sciences practice. In 2009 he moved to London where he continues to reside.
De Rubertis is responsible for all of Index Ventures’ investments in the life sciences. He has served on the Boards of Directors of many companies, including Addex Therapeutics, CellZome, Genmab, Molecular Partners, PanGenetics, and Parallele Bioscience.
In 2012 De Rubertis spearheaded the launch of Index Ventures’ $200 Million life sciences fund in partnership with GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson, to invest in early-stage biotechnology companies
De Rubertis is the author of several publications in international scientific journals.
In 2010 De Rubertis was named by BioWorld as one of 28 "movers and shakers" predicted to shape the biotechnology industry over the next two decades
In October 2012 De Rubertis was named by Xconomy as one of 40 of “Young and Proven” biotech venture capitalists.
De Rubertis is a member of the Strategic Advisory Board of the University of Geneva.
In February 2016 De Rubertis launches an independent venture capital firm Medicxi and announces the closing of Medicxi Ventures 1 a €210m fund including GSK and Johnson & Johnson Innovation.
Medicxi is managed by four Partners Francesco de Rubertis, Kevin Johnson, David Grainger and Michèle Ollier all of whom previously led the Life Sciences practice at Index Ventures.
On November 30, 2017 De Rubertis was named in the Bloomberg Top 50 most influential people of 2017. He was selected as one of 10 nominees in the Tech category along with Elon Musk, Masayoshi Son and Martin Lau.
The Bloomberg Top 50 consists of 5 categories Tech, Business, Politics, Finance and Entertainment.
De Rubertis's reputation for halving the time it takes for a return on biotech investments has Silicon Valley eager to get in on a $300 million fund he's raised for late-stage startups.
Medicxi Growth 1, which made its first investments in health care and diabetes treatments, is taking minority stakes in companies that are developing multiple therapies, have full management teams, and intend to go public as independent businesses. This is a departure for De Rubertis. He has focused on “skinny” startups—with small management teams and only one therapy—that can integrate into larger companies after being bought. The shift hasn't diminished interest in the fund. Verily, Alphabet Inc.’s life-sciences arm, has also invested in MG-1