Jenny Rooke

Jenny is the founder and managing partner of Genoa Ventures, where she leverages her unique toolkit of genetics domain expertise, strategic business acumen, and venture investing to launch and empower the next generation of category-defying companies at the convergence of technology and biology. She has over a decade of investing experience beginning at Fidelity Biosciences in 2006 as a Kauffman Fellow. After Fidelity, Jenny helped establish the investing function at the Gates Foundation funding companies in genetic engineering, diagnostics, and synthetic biology. Jenny began 5 Prime Ventures in 2014 using the largest life sciences syndicate on AngelList, and achieving one of the highest-performing AngelList syndicates of any sector. Her prior investments include Zymergen, Caribou, Accuri (acquired by Becton Dickinson), and Topaz (acquired by Sanofi). Prior to her investing career, Jenny was a management consultant with McKinsey for the pharma and biotech sector. She also served in executive management roles at U.S. Genomics leading Corporate Development and Research and Development. Jenny studied physics at Georgia Institute of Technology and has a PhD in genetics from Yale. Jenny’s love for sailing led her to name the fund Genoa – the sail that increases performance and stability of a sailboat. She aims to help her entrepreneurs and their companies navigate the start-up life cycle with the power of her network and her experience building and advising companies to get to the final destination – value creation and category creation.