Shahram Seyedin-noor
Managing Partner at Civilization Ventures
San Francisco, California
Overview
Work Experience
Founder + Managing Partner
2017 - Current
Civilization Ventures invests in visionary founders who are leading the future of health tech and biology-driven innovation. We are mentor capitalists who aim to be the first check and lead investor in highly disruptive companies in the life sciences and healthcare, including precision medicine diagnostics, digital health, and novel therapeutics (driven by AI, gene/cell therapies, regenerative medicine). Our team comprises serial entrepreneurs, top scientists (PhDs) and industry thought leaders who work tirelessly to help each of our portfolio companies succeed. Please direct inquiries to info@civilizationventures.com. Our fund has had 13 exits to date, including most recently the acquisition of Fluent Bio by Illumina in 2024. Other noteworthy exits: Replace acquired by Tome Bio; Rewrite acquired by Intellia (NASDAQ: NTLA); Lemonaid Health acquired by 23andme; Singular Bio acquired by Invitae. We had our first "unicorn" exit in 2018 with the public listing of gene and cell therapy leader Rocket Pharma (NASDAQ: RCKT).
Civilization Ventures is a venture capital firm focused on cutting edge innovations in exponential health tech and biology.
First / Lead Investor + Board Director
2022 - 2024
Replace Therapeutics combines the site-specificity of CRISPR/Cas9 with the writing enzyme DNA ligase to precisely manipulate small DNA sequences. We spun Replace out of Rewrite after its acquisition by Intellia. I was the first and lead investor in Replace and served on the Board with the founder/CEO from inception through its acquisition by Tome Bio for $185M in under 2 years.
First / Lead Investor + Board Director
2020 - 2022
Rewrite has developed promising new tools for genome editing, including DNA writing via CRISPR/Cas9-guided polymerases. I was the company's first and lead investor, working with the founder/CEO to spin it out of UC Berkeley. We sold the company to Intellia for $200M in under 2 years.
Angel Investor
2007 - 2017
Angel investor in innovative health tech companies such as Omada Health (ranked #3 most innovative healthcare company in 2015 by Fast Company), Counsyl (acquired by Myriad Genetics), Avantome (acquired by Illumina), Bina (acquired by Roche), and drchrono (acquired by EverCommerce). Outside of healthcare, I also invested in several tech startups, including Tubi TV (acquired by Fox). The common theme: inspiring teams working on transformative technologies that could have a positive global impact.
Omada Health is a digital behavioral medicine company that helps members change their mindsets to improve health and build lasting change.
Raised $528,520,000.00 from Trousdale Ventures, Wellington Management, Empede Capital, aMoon Fund, Civilization Ventures, Fidelity, Perceptive Advisors and Revelation Partners.
Co-Founder + CEO ➟ Executive Chairman
2010 - 2016
Inspirna licensed technology out of Rockefeller University to develop first-in-class drugs that target key pathways in cancer progression. We raised $150M in venture capital from tier one investors such as Novo Holdings, Sofinnova Partners, and Vivo to take multiple novel drugs into human clinical trials.
Inspirna is a biotechnology company developing drugs for the treatment of cancer.
Raised $144,596,738.00 from The New York City Investment Fund, Sixty Degree Capital, Sofinnova Partners, Dreavent 6, Novo Holdings, Sands Capital Ventures, Vivo Capital and Lepu Medical.
Co-Founder + CEO
2010 - 2014
I founded and led GraphDive from inception through its acquisition by Sociable Labs, an enterprise marketing company. GraphDive built a proprietary personalization platform to drive user engagement. Our investors included Crosslink Capital, Correlation Ventures and prominent angel investors.
GraphDive is a big data analytics and personalization platform providing demographic-based marketing solutions for businesses.
Raised $3,000,000.00 from Crosslink Capital, Plug and Play, Correlation Ventures, Streamlined Ventures, Pear VC and Start Capital.
CFO + VP of Corporate Development
2006 - 2009
NextBio built the leading software platform for genomics analysis powering personalized medicine. I joined NextBio as founding CFO when it was a pre-revenue, angel-funded startup and helped raise institutional financing to grow the team tenfold. During my tenure, we negotiated and closed over $25 million in transactions with investors, customers and strategic partners such as Merck, Eli Lilly, and Elsevier. NextBio was acquired by Illumina (Nasdaq: ILMN), a leader in the life sciences.
NextBio is a software company that provides a platform for life science researchers to discover and share knowledge.
Raised $16,100,000.00 from Newbury Ventures and Signatures Capital.
Vice President
2005 - 2006
Investment banking professional responsible for the execution of M&A and financing transactions for technology companies such as DivX (IPO) and Somera Communications. Structured deals, procured private equity investors and led term sheet negotiations.
Bank of America Neighborhood Builders is a signature philanthropic program that advances economic mobility and nonprofit leadership.
Associate
2002 - 2005
Advised technology startups and VCs on venture financing transactions. Represented companies such as Amgen, Genitope and Nuvelo on intellectual property, securities and business matters. Advised PG&E in landmark $13 billion corporate restructuring.
Associate
2000 - 2002
Investment banking professional responsible for advising leading technology companies on a variety of strategic and financial matters, including M&A, LBO and equity/debt financing transactions. Clients included public companies such as Inktomi, Cadence and Sun.
Goldman Sachs is a multinational financial services firm providing securities, investment banking, and management services.