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
Medscape Brings AI to the Hematology Frontline at EHA 20262.6.2026 09:00:00 EEST | Press release
Medscape Education will launch Future-Ready Hematologists: Practical and Ethical Use of AI in Hematology and Oncology at EHA 2026 on June 11, where leading experts will convene to explore responsible AI in one of medicine's most complex, rapidly evolving specialties. Registration is free for all EHA delegates. Reserve your seat here. The session is chaired by Prof. Jakob N. Kather, MD, MSc, Else Kroener Fresenius Center for Digital Health, Technical University Dresden, and NCT, University Hospital Heidelberg. He is joined by Prof. Chan Cheah, MBBS, DMSc, Consultant Hematologist, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth, Australia; and Prof. Matthew Lunning, DO, FACP, Chief of Hematology and Assistant Vice Chancellor of Research, University of Nebraska Medical Center. Hematology moves faster than any clinician can track alone. AI can close that gap, but only if it's built on validated, evidence-backed science. Medscape AI shows what responsible clinical AI looks like in practice. — Jakob N.
Signaloid Announces Preview of New ASIC Targeted at Physical AI and Robotics Applications2.6.2026 07:00:00 EEST | Press release
Signaloid (https://signaloid.com), a computing platform company providing hardware and binary-translation-based acceleration of AI, robotics, aerospace, and quantitative finance workloads, today announced the tapeout and preliminary specifications documents for its C0-ASIC. Delivery of engineering samples to the first customer is due in Q3 2026 and additional FPGA-based systems implementing the ASIC’s design are under discussion for deployment in the UK and Switzerland later in 2026. The C0-ASIC was targeted specifically at energy-efficient physical AI workloads. The UK Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) will take delivery of systems based on the ASIC for use in next-generation AI workloads such as second order methods. “The Scaling Compute program at ARIA commissioned several innovative technology prototypes pursuing unconventional ideas to design new AI accelerators,” says ARIA Program Director Suraj Bramhavar. “We commissioned Signaloid’s C0-ASIC for evaluation in randomi
Blackstone Raises its Largest Asia Private Equity Fund at $13.1 Billion2.6.2026 04:00:00 EEST | Press release
Blackstone (NYSE: BX) today announced the final close of Blackstone Capital Partners Asia III (“BCP Asia III”) at $13.1 billion, exceeding its $10 billion target and marking the firm’s largest private equity fundraise in the region. The oversubscribed fund reached its hard cap and builds on the strong performance of the strategy’s first two vintages, with this close representing more than double the amount of capital raised for its predecessor vehicle. Joe Baratta, Global Head of Blackstone Private Equity Strategies,said: “We are grateful for the continued trust of our investors in Blackstone and our leading Asia Private Equity franchise. This successful fundraise reflects the strength of our platform and our ability to perform through cycles. Asia Pacific is the fastest-growing region in the world, presenting compelling opportunities to invest at scale behind our high-conviction themes and deliver for our investors.” Amit Dixit, Head of Asia for Blackstone Private Equity, said: “For t
Phison Collaborates with Intel to Bring Larger Local AI Workloads to Intel AI PC Platforms2.6.2026 03:00:00 EEST | Press release
COMPUTEX — Phison Electronics (8299TT), a global leader in NAND flash controllers and storage solutions, today announced a collaboration with Intel to enable AI PCs to deploy larger, more capable AI applications locally. The collaboration combines Intel® Core™ Ultra Series 3 processors with Phison’s Pascari aiDAPTIV, a memory extension solution that unblocks memory-constrained systems to support larger Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) AI models, longer-running AI sessions and agentic AI workflows. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260601878925/en/ Phison and Intel collaborate to bring larger local AI workloads to Intel AI PC Platforms Today, AI PCs are moving beyond simple assistant applications toward more advanced local AI use cases. These solutions now support end users and businesses in document analysis, multi-step workflow execution and private data protection while reducing reliance on cloud-only AI services. As
Phison Unlocks Full-Scale AI Deployment Across Industries2.6.2026 03:00:00 EEST | Press release
Phison Electronics (8299TT), a global leader in NAND flash controllers and storage solutions, today announced a new strategic initiative at COMPUTEX 2026 under the theme “AI Enabler: Evolving Data Storage Intelligence.” Expanding beyond its role as a storage technology leader, Phison is taking a systems-level approach to AI solutions spanning AI infrastructure, edge AI computing and AI software platforms. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260601070396/en/ Phison evolving data storage intelligence at COMPUTEX 2026 At COMPUTEX 2026, Phison is showcasing comprehensive AI storage and computing architecture solutions designed to address key challenges facing enterprises and end users in the AI era, including high AI deployment costs, GPU and memory limitations, data privacy concerns and the increasing storage bandwidth and power demands driven by AI workloads. Four Core Technology Directions for AI and High-Speed Sto
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