New CEO’s £3m lift as Anthony Finbow becomes Eagle Genomics’ chief evangelist
Dr Victoria Kimonides has been appointed as Eagle Genomics’ CEO and becomes a board member as Anthony Finbow, the CEO since 2018, becomes chief evangelist for the microbiome data science company.
The announcement coincides with £3m of additional financing raised, with continued participation from existing investors Environmental Technologies Fund, abrdn plc, and a consortium of investors headed by Granpool Innovative Investments, to further deploy its pioneering e[datascientist] software platform, which enables corporate customers to explore and monetise microbiome-related research.
The new funding brings Eagle’s total capital raising to more than £20million over the last 12 months.
Prior to joining Eagle, Kimonides spent almost 14 years in leadership positions at Microsoft, where she spearheaded co-selling with partners and oversaw channel sales across central and Eastern Europe. Prior to that she led enterprise technology strategy, plus customer and partner experience, for the region. She has a BSc in biochemistry and microbiology from King’s College London and a PhD from the University of Cambridge where she studied neuroscience and is a leading expert in this scientific domain. She is also a fellow of the Cambridge Judge Business School.
Dr Kimonides said: “Eagle is a company with tremendous potential, as we can help large companies curate, analyse, and make impactful the billions of dollars being invested into microbiome research.
“Our goal is to help those companies commercialise that research and develop new, sustainable solutions that are good for both the people and the planet.”
Anthony Finbow, meanwhile, will move to a new role of chief evangelist, where he will support the company in reaching its full potential and promote the importance of the exploration of the microbiome and innovative breakthroughs in the field.
Anthony told the Cambridge Independent: “AI technologies and approaches are evolving as interest in understanding the microbiome and its applications accelerates and matures – in domains as diverse as therapeutics and climate science.
“In my new role, I’ll be focused on engaging key stakeholders to raise awareness of the innovation and growth potential of this vital new space. I look forward to supporting the company as it continues to develop its groundbreaking product to meet industry demand and solve for the impact economy.”
Additionally, Eagle Genomics is excited to announce the appointment of John Schoellerman to its board, where he will serve as its chair.
Mr Schoellerman is currently SVP, corporate and business development at Oxford Nanopore Technologies, where he was instrumental in private financing, the public listing, and development of long-term strategy. Previously, he was a managing director and head of the medical technology practice at Lazard, the leading global investment bank.
Mr Schoellerman said: “Victoria and the team have what it takes to build a category leader in the field, and I am excited to support their work with their existing blue-chip customers, and as they build out new partnerships around the world. In applying Eagle’s powerful analytical tools to life sciences data, we can gather insights today that we never could before.”
Eagle Genomics was founded in 2008. The e[datascientist] platform enables corporate customers to explore and monetise research into the microbiome and its complex data without needing deep bioinformatics expertise.
The novel microbiome insights it provides have the potential to support ‘nature-inspired’ sustainable innovation and accelerate product development across several industries, including in health and nutrition, soil degradation, the collapse of biodiversity, and unsustainable consumer value chains.
More recently, it has started to discover a role in the biological sciences via its understanding of the microbiome, whose potential for treatments is now better understood.
