Approaching nearly a decade in corporate venturing, Anja König as managing director is an integral part in identifying life sciences opportunities in the UK, Switzerland, and other parts of Europe for pharmaceutical firm Novartis’ corporate venturing unit, the Novartis Venture Fund.
A graduate of Oxford, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Cornell, König was an associate partner at management consultancy firm McKinsey for six years from 2000, where she worked with healthcare, pharmaceutical and biotech firms on both sides of the Atlantic.
In her current portfolio are biotech Bicycle Therapeutics, which received $32m in 2014 along with corporate venturing peers SR One, UK-based anti-fungal drug developer F2G, which received $30m in 2012 and Forendo Pharma, which secured $12.8m in 2014.
She has also overseen several successful exits for Novartis. Covagen, a life science firm targeting cancer and inflammatory diseases that Novartis has supported since its 2009 seed round and led its $50m series B, sold to Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Cilag for an unspecified sum in 2014. König also worked with biotech Nabriva Therapeutics, which received $44.7m in 2006 in a series A and a further $120m in its 2015 series B, ahead of its IPO later in the year.