Steve Kafka

Steve Kafka, Ph.D., is a Managing Partner of Section 32, where he focuses on investments in innovative companies operating at the confluence of life sciences and technology. Dr. Kafka has led the firm’s investments in companies including Thrive Earlier Detection, Glympse Bio, ROME Therapeutics, Celsius Therapeutics, and C2i Genomics. Steve also led Section 32’s co-sponsorship in the IPO for DA32 Life Science Technologies Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: DALS) and services as CEO and director. He is currently also Chairman at Glympse Bio and a director of ImmuneID and of ROME Therapeutics.

Prior to his investing career, Dr. Kafka has been an accomplished company-builder and strategic leader in molecular diagnostics and data: he was founding CEO and Executive Chairman of Thrive Earlier Detection, a healthcare company advancing a breakthrough blood test for the earlier detection of multiple types of cancer that was acquired by EXACT Sciences Corporation (Nasdaq: EXAS) in January 2021; he was Executive Chairman of ArcherDx, an innovator in personalized cancer monitoring utilizing next generation sequencing that was acquired by Invitae Corporation (NYSE: NVTA) in October 2020; and previously he was President and Chief Operating Officer of Foundation Medicine, Inc., a pioneer in oncology precision medicine that was acquired by Roche in June 2018. Dr. Kafka was also previously an independent director at Relay Therapeutics (Nasdaq: RLAY). Earlier in his career, Dr. Kafka held senior leadership roles with several therapeutic biotechnology companies including Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Infinity Pharmaceuticals, and Aileron Therapeutics. Dr. Kafka holds a Ph.D. in political economy and government from Harvard University and an A.B. degree in economics and political science from Stanford University. He is based in the greater Boston area.