Jason P. Hafler, managing partner at Sanofi Ventures, is one of the 100 leading corporate venturing professionals in our 2025 Powerlist.
Jason Hafler has been at Sanofi Ventures for more than a decade, having joined as director of investments in 2014 and going on to become managing director of the group in 2019.
French-headquartered Sanofi is a global pharmaceuticals and vaccines company, operating across more than 100 countries. Its long-established corporate VC unit, set up in 2001, invests in biotech and digital health startups across all stages of the private company lifecycle, from seed to series B and beyond.
The Sanofi Ventures fund has an evergreen structure, meaning returns from exits are recycled back into the fund to fuel the next set of portfolio company investments.
Sanofi has had a fast investment pace so far in 2025, with more than 10 investments in startups. These include backing Swiss therapeutic antibodies firm Granite Bio, replacement therapies developer Glycomine, non-mRNA vaccine firm Curevo Vaccine and non-opioid pain medicine developer Latigo Biotherapeutics.
The Sanofi Ventures fund has an evergreen structure, meaning returns from exits are recycled back into the fund to fuel the next set of portfolio company investments. In 2023, however, following a standout year for Sanofi Ventures the CVC received an additional multi-year commitment from Sanofi, increasing the fund size to more than $750m.
A number of Hafler’s investments have gone on to achieve large exits over the years, including Kymera Therapeutics, which listed on the Nasdaq in 2020 and now has a valuation of $2bn, as well as Lava Therapeutics, an immuno-oncology company that listed in 2021.
Investments that went on to be acquired include Escient Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Incyte), Icosavax (acquired by AstraZeneca) and Lysosomal Therapeutics (acquired by Bial).
Hafler had many years of experience in early-stage biotech investing even before taking on the role at Sanofi Ventures. He was a director of corporate development at Translate Bio (formerly RaNA Therapeutics), co-founded by his previous firm Atlas Venture. He has also served as a flagship ventures entrepreneurial fellow and consulted for the technology transfer company at the University of Cambridge while performing his doctoral research. Before Cambridge, Hafler was an analyst at investment banking firm JSB Partners, focusing on advisory and business development activities in the life sciences space.
The Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist represents the 100 individuals spearheading the future of the corporate venturing industry.
These individuals excel in terms of their venturing approach and structure, number and quality of portfolio companies and in their contributions to the corporate venturing profession.
