Francisco Gimenez

Investment Team
San Francisco, CA
[overview]

Francisco focuses on Bio-IT investments and Enterprise AI.

Francisco previously was the Resident Data Scientist at Formation 8, where he worked with portfolio companies to strategize, prototype, and recruit for data products. He was the founder of Catenus Science, a data science consulting and recruiting firm that used an apprenticeship model to help early stage companies build data science teams.

Francisco received his Ph.D. in Biomedical Informatics from Stanford, where he was a Ruth L. Kirchstein Fellow. His research focused on clinical decision support for Radiology, which won him the Martin Epstein award for best paper at the American Medical Informatics Association in 2014. He was the commencement speaker for the Stanford School of Medicine in 2015.

He earned his BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences from UC Berkeley while doing research in Parkinson’s disease at UCSF.

[Q&A]
Posts
News
Jan 26, 2026

The Crisis and Opportunity in Rare Diseases

8VC stepped into life sciences to bridge the gap between groundbreaking biomedical innovation and real-world patient care. Our collaborations with visionary scientists have already begun transforming deadly diseases into manageable conditions, and in some cases, outright cures. Despite the immense potential of advanced diagnostics and therapies, however, rare disease medicine remains starkly underdeveloped. At their core, the unmet needs in rare diseases are not only scientific or medical challenges, but fundamental misalignments of commercial and societal incentives.

Posts
News
Jan 26, 2026

The Crisis and Opportunity in Rare Diseases

8VC stepped into life sciences to bridge the gap between groundbreaking biomedical innovation and real-world patient care. Our collaborations with visionary scientists have already begun transforming deadly diseases into manageable conditions, and in some cases, outright cures. Despite the immense potential of advanced diagnostics and therapies, however, rare disease medicine remains starkly underdeveloped. At their core, the unmet needs in rare diseases are not only scientific or medical challenges, but fundamental misalignments of commercial and societal incentives.

Posts
News
Sep 15, 2022

Announcing Our Investment in Photys Therapeutics

We’re pleased to announce 8VC’s participation in the $75 million Series A for Photys Therapeutics, led by MPM Capital and joined by Omega Funds, Longwood, Arkin Bio, Mass General Brigham Ventures, MRL Ventures Fund, Eli Lilly and Company, and Heritage Medical Systems.

Posts
News
Sep 15, 2022

Announcing Our Investment in Photys Therapeutics

We’re pleased to announce 8VC’s participation in the $75 million Series A for Photys Therapeutics, led by MPM Capital and joined by Omega Funds, Longwood, Arkin Bio, Mass General Brigham Ventures, MRL Ventures Fund, Eli Lilly and Company, and Heritage Medical Systems.

Podcasts
Apr 19, 2022

The Year That Changed Medicine Forever | Francisco Gimenez Explains the Biotech Revolution

Podcasts
Apr 19, 2022

The Year That Changed Medicine Forever | Francisco Gimenez Explains the Biotech Revolution

Posts
Aug 3, 2020

8VC’s Investment in Mantra Bio

Paul Ehrlich, one of the forefathers of modern medicine, famously proposed the idea of a “magic bullet” that would selectively kill pathogens while sparing the body. His research led to the first drug for syphilis and established the chemistry-driven paradigm of therapeutics that would persist for the next 70 years. Unfortunately, it turned out that there is no simple way to achieve arbitrary targeting of cytotoxic chemical compounds, and these magic bullet treatments proved difficult to reproduce. The lack of precision delivery presents pharma with a double-edged sword: higher doses with elevated toxicity, or lower doses that are potentially inefficacious.

Posts
Aug 3, 2020

8VC’s Investment in Mantra Bio

Paul Ehrlich, one of the forefathers of modern medicine, famously proposed the idea of a “magic bullet” that would selectively kill pathogens while sparing the body. His research led to the first drug for syphilis and established the chemistry-driven paradigm of therapeutics that would persist for the next 70 years. Unfortunately, it turned out that there is no simple way to achieve arbitrary targeting of cytotoxic chemical compounds, and these magic bullet treatments proved difficult to reproduce. The lack of precision delivery presents pharma with a double-edged sword: higher doses with elevated toxicity, or lower doses that are potentially inefficacious.

Posts
News
Jun 18, 2020

Announcing Our Investment in Orca Bio

Every year in America, roughly 23,000 people undergo a Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT). These procedures are typically last-line interventions to save cancer patients. When successful, the therapy is often curative.

Posts
News
Jun 18, 2020

Announcing Our Investment in Orca Bio

Every year in America, roughly 23,000 people undergo a Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT). These procedures are typically last-line interventions to save cancer patients. When successful, the therapy is often curative.

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