Brad Robling has headed Lilly New Ventures, the corporate venturing unit of Indiana-based pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly, since the summer of 2020. He had previously worked as the company’s head of corporate business development and investor relations.
Over the past two decades, Lilly New Ventures has been responsible – alongside its partner organisations Chorus and Lilly Gateway Labs – for committing $2bn to early-stage biotech businesses.
Lilly’s investment philosophy is to take “smart risks on bold science”, with a remit that covers life science investments all over the world. The company boasts “a proven legacy of successfully funding, developing, and accelerating innovation to serve patients”.
Recently, Lilly New Ventures has participated in the $10m seed round for New York-based biotech firm IpiNovyx Bio, a startup which is developing technology to combat inflammatory and autoimmune diseases.
It has also taken a $15m stake in UK-based RNA therapeutics developer Mina Therapeutics, as well as taking part in the $12.75m seed funding round for cancer-research business Auron Therapeutics. As part of the latter deal, Robling took a seat as an observer on Auron’s board of directors.
Robling also has a board position with Sitryx Therapeutics, a firm based in Oxford which focuses on regulating cell metabolism to develop disease-modifying therapeutics. Lilly took a $10m stake in Sitryx in 2020, while also paying $50m for a five-year licensing deal for four of the company’s drugs.
Before joining Eli Lilly in 2012, Robling was director of corporate development at Applied Materials in Santa Clara, California. Prior to that role, he had spent the first 10 years of his career at professional services firms Ernst & Young and Deloitte Consulting, as well as in leadership positions at two Silicon Valley startups.
