Michael Wacker, Managing Partner of BiomedPartners in Basel, co-led Tubulis' €10.7 million Seed/Series A round in 2020 and joined its board (Tubulis was just sold to Gilead for $5 bn).
Was Michael a prescient genius or what convinced him at the time to back what was still a risky proposition?
The first round is often the hardest one to fill. Choosing which investors to trust with a seed-stage cheque, years before there's much data to go on, is a different exercise than syndicating a much bigger, later round. Once a strong syndicate is already in place, the subsequent rounds should get easier, not harder.
In this session, we talk about building an investment case in general, then take you through the specific case study of Tubulis, a Munich-based ADC company co-founded and led by Dominik Schumacher and recently sold to Gilead in 2026 for $5bn. Michael came on board as the lead investor in the Seed/Series A rounds. Across two sessions, we will look at both sides of this story: the investor's journey, and the Founder CEO's.
Michael walks through how he approached the investment: what made him hesitate, what made him move, and what pushed it across the line. We also go inside the boardroom, to the moves that made Tubulis investable enough to close the next round. Whether a venture is investable has many facets beyond the science.
Eight aspects of building an investable case
What skills are investors looking for in founders?
Is a single strong founder enough, or do you need a strong founder team?
Who do you need on board to convince investors to buy in: KOLs, pharma partners, other investors?
Which part of the pitch deck is most critical?
What supporting evidence should you provide early on to maximize value?
How do you get investors to advocate for you?
Single lead or two leads at Series A: luxury problem, or strategic imperative?
What's the risk of bringing in US investors too early?
Gilead Sciences agreed this April to acquire Tubulis for up to $5bn, six years after that initial financing round.
Dominik Schumacher will join us in the next session to walk through that same round from the founder’s perspective, on the other side of the table.
You will walk away from these two sessions with a concrete read on what an early investor tests before writing a check.
Dr. Michael Wacker is a seasoned entrepreneur with 25 years of experience in the life science industry and a Managing Partner at BiomedPartners/BiomedVC since 2019, where he leverages his expertise to drive success for biotech companies. He is board member of several start-up companies, including NXI Therapeutics, Salvina Therapeutics, Tolremo, Scenic Biotech and Topas Therapeutics. He was chairman of Inositec (acquired by Vifor Pharma) and board member of Tubulis (acquired by Gilead). He co-founded and was board member of Limmatech (acquired by Eli Lilly). He co-founded GlycoVaxyn and developed the company as board member and Chief Scientific Officer until it was acquired by GSK for USD 212m in February 2015. Michael Wacker holds an MSc in biochemistry and completed his PhD and post-doctoral fellowship in microbiology at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ), where he invented a breakthrough vaccine development technology of GlycVaxyn.
Some things worth thinking about before the session:
Which member of your founding team could walk into a room and defend your science alone, without you there to translate it?
Look at your current cap table. How many of those names bring more than money to your next round?
What number have you told yourself the company is worth, and have you tested it against anyone who would have to defend it to their own investment committee?