NEWS
Recent press, public appearances, and other 50Y news
Seth was invited to join a conversation with a couple of co-authors of the NEO.LIFE’s project: a book entitled “Neo Life: 25 Visions for the Future of Our Species“. With the event buzzing with the energy of a mixed community (scientists, artists, entrepreneurs, investors and writers), the end result couldn’t have been any more interesting!
Warmest thank you to Kata Helaniemi for all your incredible work over the last ~1.5 years. What was meant to be a short fellowship turned into so much more! Best of luck as you return to Helsinki <3!!!
If you're in the Nordics & want to use tech as a force for good, talk to @KHelaniemi!
Seth was invited to join a session “How to Build Sustainability as a Business” at this year’s Disrupt Berlin. As climate change and the impacts of a warming world become more important for the consumers who are exposed to it, Seth and his co-panelists talked about building sustainability as a business.
Fifty Years hosted the first seminar in the PhD to VC event series.
Jun Axup, PhD (Scientific Director & Partner, IndieBio), Uri Lopatin, MD (Visiting Partner at Y Combinator), Megan Blewett, PhD (Life Sciences Investor at Venrock), Francisco Gimenez, PhD (Principal at 8VC), and Alice Cheng, PhD (Associate at Upfront Ventures) shared their experience and thoughts with a select group of participants.
Together with Impact.Tech, Fifty Years hosted another seminar focused on the science of aging. Why do we experience an exponential increase in disease as we age? Are the underlying processes treatable? What are the recent breakthroughs in anti-aging science, and how are these moving from academia into biotech? We’ve discussed all this during the seminar taught by Martin Borch Jensen, the CSO of Gordian Biotechnology.
What is the one characteristic that most impact-focused venture capitalists have in common? Why is impact investing so crucial in our times? These and other questions were answered during a discussion led by Impact Alpha’s David Bank with Seth Bannon and Maryanna Saenko of Future Ventures during this year’s SOCAP in San Francisco.
Ela participated in this year’s edition of Future Food-Tech in London, joining a panel and hosting a roundtable discussion on October 17th.
The discussion was described in detail in an article written by Nikki Hancocks for Food Navigator.
Fifty Years hosted a dinner with a great group of climate influencers during UN Climate Week in NYC. The attendees included:
Seth Bannon, Founding Partner at Fifty Years
Ela Madej, Founding Partner at Fifty Years
Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, Founder and CEO at KBW Ventures
Albert Wenger, Managing Partner at Union Square Ventures
Anna Marie Wascher, CEO and Founding Partner of Flat World Partners
Susan Rockefeller, Documentary Filmmaker, Artist, and Conservationist
Margaret Klein Salamon, Climate Activist, Founding Director of The Climate Mobilization
Edward Shenderovich, Co-founder and Chairman at Knotel
Michael Pellman Rowland, Partner and Co-Head of Impact Investments at Alpenrose Wealth Management
Douglas Scott, Co-founder and CEO of Ethic
Joby Gaudet, CEO at Wolf Creek, ex-Generation Investment Management
Shara Ticku, Co-founder and CEO at C16 Bio
Cathy S Cao, Co-founder and CEO at Gather
Gunhild Stordalen, Physician & Environmental Advocate, Founder & President of EAT Foundation
SOCAP continues to host the world’s largest gathering of thought leaders and practitioners of impact investing for conversations that focus on the why and the how of unlocking global markets for impact. This year, Seth will join a panel focusing on impact tech.
Ela was invited to participate in this year’s Future Food-Tech London panel “Taste, Texture & Nutrition: Ushering in the Next Generation of Alternative Proteins”. She will also host a roundtable discussion around the similarities and differences in starting, growing, and scaling a food-tech business versus your typical tech start-up.
Seth will participate in this year’s SynBioBeta panel focused on investing in Sustainable Future with Stephanie Marrus (Director at Entrepreneurship Center at the UCSF) and Travis Murdoch (Director at Softbank Investment Advisers).
David Bank discusses Fifty Years’ second fund in an article for ImpactAlpha: “Fifty Years’ $50 million fund signals tech’s turn toward impact”
Heather Mack wrote an article for WSJ entitled “Fifty Years Raises Second Fund Focused on Biotech Startups“.
Twice a year, Y Combinator’s latest batch of startups present to an invite-only audience of approximately 1,000 investors and media. Fifty Years’ team consists of YC alumni, who stay in close connection with the community.
Seth discussed the changing role of business in society and its impact on our planet in Sir David Attenborough's new Netflix documentary series Our Planet: Our Business. The series is a collaboration between WWF, Netflix and Silverback Films and showcases the world's natural wonders, iconic species and wildlife spectacles that still remain.
Seth was invited to speak at the Future Food-Tech Korea 2019 summit. The international gathering of food business leaders, investors and food-tech innovators will tackle the great challenges of the future: affordable nutrition and sustainability, discussing the transformation of the food industry.
Seth was invited to speak at TOA19 for a session entitled Biotech, health, and the age of fast capital – How do we balance innovation with responsibility? The event gathers 150+ thought-leaders from tech, art, and science, who share their vision on how they see the world evolving.
Seth discussed Fifty Years’ mission and portfolio companies, and how they can increase the world’s ability to adapt to climate change in an interview for Marketplace Tech, daily NPR show with an audience of 3 million. Marketplace’s overall suite of radio programs carries the largest audience for any business program in the U.S. on radio, cable or network television.
Held annually in New York, San Francisco, London and Singapore, the Future Food-Tech Summit is an international networking event, bringing together 400+ leading food brands, entrepreneurs and investors to showcase solutions, share ideas and create new alliances to accelerate the adoption of new technology solutions. Seth, who is a member of the FFT advisory board, will chair a session focusing on personalized nutrition at the New York Summit.
Together with Impact.Tech, Fifty Years hosted a deep dive seminar on Genome editing & gene therapy. The seminar covered the experiments and inventions that led to the development of these remarkable new tools and technologies. We learned the history of how genome engineering tools, including CRISPR, and delivery technology, including AAV capsids, were created in their modern form. We went through major companies and emerging trends in the gene therapy industry and learned how and where new discoveries, including accelerated algorithms for genetic engineering, will lead us in the near and distant future. The seminar was taught by Eric Kelsic, PhD, Founder and CEO of Dyno Therapeutics, a VC-backed biotech located in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
