M Ventures (Merck)

M Ventures is the strategic, corporate venture capital arm of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany

From its headquarters in the Netherlands and offices in Germany, USA and Israel, M Ventures invests globally in transformational ideas driven by innovative entrepreneurs. Taking an active role in its portfolio companies, M Ventures teams up with management teams and co-investors to translate scientific discoveries into commercial success. M Ventures focuses on identifying and financing novel solutions to some of the most difficult challenges, through company creation and equity investments in fields that will impact the vitality and sustainability of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany ’s current and future businesses.

Fund
Since inception, M Ventures has been instrumental in the creation and progress of over 80 global companies, helping advance multiple medicines and technologies to market launch. M Ventures invests, with dual strategic and financial foci, into visionary companies that find new ways to: treat the most challenging diseases, empower scientists with cutting-edge research and development tools, develop new solutions that change the way in which information is accessed, stored, processed, and displayed and address some of the most complex challenges in sustainability and technology convergence.

The fund has the mandate to invest in four focus areas: Healthcare, Life Sciences, Electronics and Frontier Tech and Sustainability, in alignment with the strategic interests of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany’s business areas.

Biotechnology
The M Ventures Biotechnology team executes and manages investments across a broad range of Healthcare and Life Sciences opportunities.

Healthcare
In Healthcare, we focus on investments in emerging biotechnology companies that aim to develop differentiated products, platforms, modalities and/or technologies that have the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes. Further, the team also creates and manages potential spin-off/spin-out companies from Merck KGaA, Darmstadt Germany

Life Sciences
In Life Sciences, we are instrumental in building world class Life Science companies that develop tools, technologies and/or services that have the potential to make academic and industrial research, chemical/biotech manufacturing or other biotechnology applications significantly easier and more efficient to increase success rates of such industries.

The Biotechnology team additionally manages M Ventures’ Israel Bioincubator, whose aim is to help advance innovative and maturing academic research towards well financed independent and global companies. The Bioincubator focuses on company creation, early-stage investments, and is a state of the art home to multiple M Ventures portfolio companies.

Technology
The M Ventures Technology team executes and manages investments across a broad range of Electronics, Frontier Technology and Sustainability focused opportunities.

Electronics
Discovering and unleashing the most innovative startups in the Electronics sector, the fund targets companies developing applications and solutions for the future of computing, data storage, display and device miniaturization.

Frontier Tech and Sustainability
This fund exists to pursue interdisciplinary approaches with opportunities that serve multiple business sectors or have a strong element of technology convergence. The Frontier Tech and Sustainability fund is looking for novel technologies, services and business models that can positively impact the sustainability of both Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and our customers, be that via novel production of materials or through innovations in the application of digital technologies.