Christopher Mcleod

Christopher K. McLeod is a Managing Partner at Elm Street Ventures, a Yale-backed seed and early-stage venture fund based in New Haven, Connecticut. Elm Street Ventures describes its thesis as backing “great people and great science” and focuses heavily on Yale-linked technology commercialization, New Haven-area company formation, and seed-stage support for scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs.

Before Elm Street Ventures, McLeod co-founded AxioMx in 2012 and served as President and CEO. AxioMx developed technology for rapid custom antibody development for research and diagnostics and was acquired by Abcam plc in November 2015. Elm Street Ventures’ AxioMx profile says ESV invested in the seed financing alongside management and Connecticut Innovations and led the Series A.

McLeod was President and Chief Executive Officer of 454 Life Sciences from February 2005 through September 2011, where he led development, manufacturing, and marketing of DNA sequencing products and managed the integration with Roche Diagnostics after Roche acquired the company in 2007. Earlier, he was Executive Vice President at CuraGen beginning in November 1999, overseeing bioinformatics, strategic business development, and collaborative research, and spent more than two years as CEO of Havas Interactive, formerly Cendant Software.

He earned a B.S. magna cum laude from Yale University with a dual major in economics and engineering and applied science, and an M.S. in management from the MIT Sloan School of Management. He has also served on the boards of Sacred Heart University and the CT Yankee Council, Boy Scouts of America, and is listed as an MIT Sloan Health Systems Initiative advisory board member.

• Elm Street Ventures’ stated strategy is to “identify extraordinary investment opportunities based on Yale research,” while also investing beyond Yale through Connecticut relationships and, selectively, strong personal founder or investor connections.
• The firm’s “sweet spot” is “catalyzing company formation with management expertise and capital around the deep resources of intellectual property at Yale and other Connecticut institutions.”
• The firm weighs people heavily in investment decisions, saying it looks for “creative thinking, high intelligence, passion, and a deep commitment to working hard for success.”
• ESV invests very early: “as early as a good idea comes together,” including company formation and co-founding situations.
• Check sizes are seed-oriented: typically $500,000 to $1 million initially, with $2 million to $2.5 million reserved over follow-on rounds when progress is strong.
• Sector focus is broad but science-heavy: life sciences, therapeutics, medical devices, diagnostics, research tools and services, digital health, materials, healthcare services, clean technology with an emphasis on green chemistry, and information technology.
• McLeod’s operating background is especially relevant to life science tools, diagnostics, antibody development, sequencing, strategic partnerships, product development, and commercialization.