Sofinnova Partners Welcomes Mano Iyer as Venture Partner
5.1.2023 12:00:00 EET | Business Wire | Press release
Sofinnova Partners (“Sofinnova"), a leading European life sciences venture capital firm based in Paris, London, and Milan, announced the appointment of Manohar (Mano) Iyer, a serial entrepreneur with longstanding ties to Sofinnova, as Venture Partner.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230105005045/en/
Mano Iyer (Photo: Business Wire)
Mr. Iyer will investigate global medical device investment opportunities across the Sofinnova Partners platform of strategies, with a particular focus on helping the firm’s in-house medtech accelerator, Sofinnova MD Start, incubate world-class companies.
Mr. Iyer has more than 25 years of experience in the medical device industry. In 2008, he was a founding member of the original MD Start team that incubated companies including CorWave and LimFlow. He also advised CoreValve, a Sofinnova Capital Strategy portfolio company, which was subsequently purchased by Medtronic for $800 million.
Mr. Iyer founded ReCor Medical during his time as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Sofinnova Partners in 2009. ReCor, another Sofinnova Partners investment, which is developing an ultrasound renal denervation system to treat high blood pressure, was successfully sold to Otsuka Medical Devices in 2018. Mr. Iyer left Sofinnova in 2013 to work full-time as the Chief Operating Officer of ReCor.
Antoine Papiernik, Chairman and Managing Partner of Sofinnova Partners, said: “We are delighted to have Mano back in the fold at Sofinnova Partners. He is an experienced company builder and a respected figure in the medical device community who has shown an uncanny ability to start successful companies no matter what condition the global economy is in.”
Anne Osdoit, Partner at Sofinnova Partners, said: “Mano joins us as MD Start is really hitting its stride. Several of our companies are maturing exceptionally well and we have a healthy flow of promising disruptive medtech projects. Mano brings a deep understanding of the sector thanks to his experience and network in the US and Europe. He also knows our medtech acceleration model inside out, having pioneered it with ReCor. We are thrilled to be working with him.”
Mr. Iyer said: “Sofinnova has realized something truly impressive in developing a first-class medtech ecosystem based out of Europe. The firm is recognized globally as an influential player in the space and I’m excited and proud to be back.”
Mr. Iyer started his career in medical devices as an engineer at Arrow International. While at Arrow, he met Tim Lenihan. In 2001, he co-founded Contract Medical International (CMI) with Mr. Lenihan, and ran operations and engineering. CMI specialized in the development and custom manufacturing of minimally invasive medical device systems. It was acquired by Heraeus Group in 2020.
After earning an MBA from Stanford, he joined Sofinnova Partners thanks to an introduction from Gerard Hascoët, whom he had also met while at Arrow. The trio (Hascoët, Lenihan, Iyer) joined forces with Antoine Papiernik and, with the backing of Sofinnova Partners, founded MD Start to create and incubate innovative medical device companies. Now in its third iteration, MD Start is fully integrated into the Sofinnova platform of strategies.
About Sofinnova Partners
Sofinnova Partners is a leading European venture capital firm in life sciences, specializing in healthcare and sustainability. Based in Paris, London and Milan, the firm brings together a team of professionals from all over the world with strong scientific, medical and business expertise. Sofinnova Partners is a hands-on company builder across the entire value chain of life sciences investments, from seed to later-stage. The firm actively partners with ambitious entrepreneurs as a lead or cornerstone investor to develop transformative innovations that have the potential to positively impact our collective future.
Founded in 1972, Sofinnova Partners is a deeply established venture capital firm in Europe, with 50 years of experience backing over 500 companies and creating market leaders around the globe. Today, Sofinnova Partners has over €2.5 billion under management. For more information, please visit: sofinnovapartners.com.
To view this piece of content from cts.businesswire.com, please give your consent at the top of this page.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230105005045/en/
Contact information
Bommy Lee
Head of Communications
Sofinnova Partners
blee@sofinnovapartners.com
+33 (0) 6 47 71 38 11
North America
RooneyPartners LLC
Kate Barrette
kbarrette@rooneypartners.com
+1 212 223 0561
France
StrategiesImage
Anne Rein
anne.rein@strategiesimage.com
+33 (0) 6 03 35 92 05
About Business Wire
For more than 50 years, Business Wire has been the global leader in press release distribution and regulatory disclosure.
Subscribe to releases from Business Wire
Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Latest releases from Business Wire
Frankfurt Higher Regional Court upholds BESREMi ® arbitral award in favor of AOP Health24.4.2026 19:52:00 EEST | Press release
Today, the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt upheld the February 20251 partial final ICC arbitral award in favor of AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals GmbH (“AOP Health”) in its dispute with PharmaEssentia Corp. (“PharmaEssentia”). The ruling confirms the award which found the Taiwanese company to be liable for certain damages. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260424005227/en/ Portrait Dr. Rudolf Widmann, Founder AOP Health Credit: AOP Health/Daniel Ospelt Dr. Rudolf Widmann, one of the two founders of AOP Health, explains: “We very much welcome the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court’s decision that confirms our position. In the interest of our patients, we are dedicated to maintaining stable and sustainable access to BESREMi® and to responsibly navigating future challenges.” The Product in Dispute The conflict centers around BESREMi® (ropeginterferon alfa-2b), a product launched in 2019 and developed by AOP Health into
Compass Pathways Announces FDA Granted NDA Rolling Review Request and Awarded Commissioner's National Priority Voucher24.4.2026 17:37:00 EEST | Press release
Compass Pathways plc (Nasdaq: CMPS), a biotechnology company dedicated to accelerating patient access to evidence-based innovation in mental health, today announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Compass NDA rolling review request and selected COMP360, Compass’ proprietary formulation of synthetic psilocybin, for the Commissioner's National Priority Voucher (CNPV) program for treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Companies selected for the voucher program will be entitled to benefits including enhanced communications and a shortened 1-2 month review time following filing of a New Drug Application (NDA), while maintaining FDA’s rigorous safety and efficacy standards. “We are honored and grateful to be selected for the CNPV which is a clear validation of both the urgent unmet need facing millions of people living with treatment resistant depression and the innovative science of COMP360,” said Kabir Nath, Chief Executive Officer of Compass Pathways. “As the most advan
Banma Intelligence and Alipay Launch AI Cockpit Solution Powered by Alipay AI Pay, Enabling Seamless and Secure In-Car Transactions by Voice24.4.2026 17:04:00 EEST | Press release
At the 2026 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition (“Auto China 2026”), OS and AI technology company Banma Intelligence and Alipay today launched a new AI cockpit solution integrating Alipay AI Pay, enabling drivers to complete purchases by voice command directly from their vehicle. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260424618328/en/ Industry-first AI Cockpit Solution with Alipay AI Pay Unveiled “In the past two years, smart cockpits have achieved rapid advances in perception and decision-making,” said Ming Cai, Banma Intelligence Chief Product Officer. “With large models onboard, vehicles can understand user intent and make recommendations. By integrating Alipay AI Pay into our AI cockpit solution, we are removing the last friction point in the in-car smart cockpit experience - drivers simply speak to pay, no phone required.” The new AI cockpit solution initially covers two high-frequency use cases: enterta
Spatial Announces the Release 2026 1.0.1: New Enhancements Across 3D InterOp, Data Prep, Meshing, and 3D Modeling SDKs24.4.2026 16:21:00 EEST | Press release
Spatial Corp., the leading software development kit provider for design, manufacturing and engineering solutions and a subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes, today announced new enhancements across several of its product lines. These updates further strengthen Spatial’s commitment to delivering high-performance solutions that optimize interoperability, data preparation, and advanced modeling workflows. Designed to improve efficiency and robustness across CAD translation, modeling, meshing, and simulation processes, the latest updates introduce expanded format support, enhanced PMI handling, and new capabilities for complex geometry processing. 3D InterOp NX Reader Enhancement for 2D Drawings The NX reader imports 2D drawings as visualization data from NX 2412 and later versions. glTF Writer Supports Draco Compression glTF export incorporates Draco compression for meshes and point-clouds to significantly reduce output file sizes. Enhanced Support for Reading Product Manufacturing Information
Meta Signs Agreement With AWS to Power Agentic AI on AWS Graviton Chips24.4.2026 15:10:00 EEST | Press release
Meta has signed an agreement to deploy AWS Graviton processors at scale. The deal marks a significant expansion of a long-standing partnership between the two companies as Meta builds its next generation of AI. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260424641117/en/ The deployment starts with tens of millions of Graviton cores, with the flexibility to expand as Meta's AI capabilities grow. The deal reflects a shift in how AI infrastructure gets built: while GPUs remain essential for training large models, the rise of agentic AI is creating massive demand for CPU-intensive workloads—real-time reasoning, code generation, search, and orchestrating multi-step tasks. Graviton5 is purpose-built for these workloads, giving Meta the processing power to run them efficiently at scale. The chips will power various workloads at Meta, including supporting the company’s AI efforts. That work requires infrastructure that can handle
In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.
Visit our pressroom