Berger will lead the biotech investment for the Saudi city project, contributing to the Kingdom's goal of becoming a global biotech hub.
Sascha Berger has become a director responsible for biotech investments for the Saudi state-run company Neom, which manages a project to build a city of the same name in the northwest of the country.
He joins from TVM Capital Life Science, a German VC firm, where he worked for eight years from 2016, starting as an investment principal and rising to general partner in 2021. As general partner he led investments in the biotech and medtech sectors.
Neom launched an investment arm in October 2023 called Neom Investment Fund. It has announced five inaugural investments, including $100m into Pony.ai, a US autonomous vehicle company.
In January 2024, the Saudi government launched its national biotechnology strategy, which Neom will help deliver. The strategy aims to make the country a leader of biotech in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region by 2030. It will do this by focusing investment in areas such as vaccines, bio-manufacturing for drugs, genomics and plant optimisation.
