CEO of Anima Biotech
A serial entrepreneur in software and biotech, Yochi Slonim has built multiple companies as a founder and CEO through all phases of growth all the way to IPOs and large M&A exits. As a Co-founder and CEO of Anima Biotech, he is driving the company's vision and strategy, fundraising, and partnering.
Yochi will tell you he is a “software guy,” and in his previous life, that was true. He’s started several companies that have been successfully sold to major corporations. He co-founded Mercury Interactive and lead the company to go public, helped it reach $1B annually in revenue and lead the company to an acquisition by HP for $4.5B, eventually becoming the corporation’s software division. Yochi has served as VP of Products and Marketing for Tecnomatix, a publicly traded NASDAQ company, which he lead to be successfully acquired by UGS for $230M.
Yochi has utilized his background to marry software and biology to discover drug targets and small molecules for previously "undruggable diseases" at Anima Biotech. Anima is changing the game when it comes to drug development by harnessing the power of AI and phenotypic screening to identify a variety of small molecules that act on modulators of mRNA translation and transcription, providing the ability to turn up or turn down the production of a protein that could lead to a particular disease. In tandem, the platform, known as mRNA Lightning can identify the mechanism of action (MOA) of compounds from the start of the experiment and automatically suggest follow up tests to further nail down how the molecule works. The platform de-risks projects early on, making it appealing to big pharma. In fact, Anima has survived solely from partnerships with big pharma and has not needed outside investor funds, a rare feat for a biotech company.
Yochi has given several talks on entrepreneurship and thought-leadership and would welcome to share his insight on the future of drug discovery, his unique entrepreneurial journey, or even his thoughts on building and maintaining successful partnerships.
Happy to provide more info if interested! Thank you for your time!