Ayokunmi Ajetunmobi

Director of Venture Development at Pioneer Group

Speaker

Dr Ayokunmi Ajetunmobi (AJ) oversees venture programmes at Pioneer Group, which brings together domain expertise, executive talent, venture capital, and lab infrastructure to help founders fund and scale breakthrough life sciences startups. He leads a team that has supported over 100 companies in raising over £450m in funding to date. This track record has led to strategic partnerships with universities, public funding agencies, and large corporates. AJ was previously Head of Sequencing Services at Desktop Genetics, a venture-backed techbio startup, enabling the development of novel cell and gene therapies. Desktop Genetics was backed by several investors including Illumina Inc and was acquired in 2018. AJ holds a PhD in Clinical Medicine from Trinity College Dublin.