These VCs Are Bringing 'Hard Science' to Fortune 500 Companies

Fortune's Erin Griffith features Breakout Labs, an incubator program for hard science startups working in areas like biology and chemistry, and the recently founded Breakout Ventures, with a $60.1 million fund to help those startups further mature. "Now a science startup can grow from entrepreneurial infancy to adolescence while staying in the Breakout family," Griffith wrote.

Breakout Ventures is managed by Breakout Labs Executive Director Lindy Fishburne (managing partner), Breakout Labs Scientific Director Hemai Parthasarathy (partner), and Breakout Labs Portfolio Director Julia Moore (partner).

"In an industry in which 89% of partner-level investors are men, a venture capital firm run by three women is rare. Of Breakout Labs' 37 companies, 11 have a female CEO or cofounder; at 30%, that exceeds the gender breakdown of most venture portfolios," Griffith wrote. "Of Breakout Ventures' companies, one (Cortexyme) has a female CEO and another a female cofounder. Some male investors attribute the tech industry's gender disparity to the lack of quality female entrepreneurs, but Fishburne says it hasn't been an issue: 'We're seeking radical scientific breakthroughs built by teams ready to change the world, regardless of which box they check.'"

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