Han Chen

President, CEO @ ZeaKal, Inc

About

Han Chen is the Co-Founder and CEO of ZeaKal, Inc. Han brings with him over twenty years of management and venture experience. He has been a pioneer in changing how agricultural trait technologies are commercialized, focusing on innovative public-private partnerships between industry, venture, and research. To date, Han has started and successfully raised financing for three startups, totaling over thirty million in capital. Han is also the co-founder and Managing Director of Kapyon Ventures, a technology incubation firm behind the pre-venture development of ZeaKal. Prior to founding ZeaKal and Kapyon, Han was the Investment Manager for Finistere Partners, a San Diego based life science venture capital firm. He was responsible for seeding the deal flow of a nine million dollar strategic investment fund that resulted in the formation of several startups, generation of millions in research funding and also several technology licensing opportunities. Han graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College and has a master’s degree in international business from the University of California, San Diego. He is also a CFA Charterholder.

Country

United States

City

San Diego

Industry

Biotechnology

Skill

Venture Capital, Start-ups, Entrepreneurship, Biotechnology, Business Development, Cleantech, Investments, Product Management, Licensing, Intellectual Property, Venture Financing, Business Strategy, Financial Modeling, Agriculture, Strategy, Renewable Energy, Finance, Commercialization, R&D, Due Diligence

Experience

President, CEO

ZeaKal, Inc

2010-10 - Present · 16 yrs

ZeaKal, Inc. is a next generation agricultural biotechnology company. Our focus is on increasing the photosynthetic capacity and efficiency of plants — allowing crops to harvest more sunlight, capture more carbon dioxide and translate this into improved seed yield and composition. For farmers, this means new toolsets that can increase productivity with a smaller environmental footprint. Our mission is not just agricultural productivity for today, but to build a photosynthetic future that can sustainably feed the world for generations to come.

Managing Director

Kapyon Ventures, LLC

2010-1 - Present · 16 yrs 9 mos

Kapyon Ventures is a San Diego based incubation firm focused on the development of technology spinouts from global research institutes. Kapyon's areas of focus include agricultural biotechnology, industrial biotechnology and cleantech. It works closely with U.S. and international research partners as managers for an investment portfolio of several biotechnology joint ventures.

President, CEO

PhytaGro Corp

2010-3 - 2017-6 · 7 yrs 4 mos

PhytaGro is an forage biotech company incubated from the Kapyon Ventures pipeline. The company is developing high energy forage grasses for increased feed efficiency across forage legume and grasses.

President, CEO

Algenetix, Inc.

2010-6 - 2016-2 · 5 yrs 9 mos

Algenetix is a San Diego based renewable biotechnology company addressing the growing global demand for industrial plant oils. PhotoSeed, the company’s flagship product, increases the yield and energy (oil) content of renewable energy crops and microbes, creating an economical alternative to petroleum products.