Emerging Leaders 2025: Paimun “PJ” Amini, Leaps by Bayer

“People will always need food and we will always need to feed the world. Foodtech and agtech are not going anywhere,” says Paimun Amini, who is adamantly bullish on one of the hardest hit sectors of the venture downturn.  

Despite the difficult downmarket in the sector, he says this is when investors and entrepreneurs really have the chance to shine a little bit brighter.  

Amini’s path to corporate VC spanned across both the public and private sectors, having been a researcher at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), before moving to Monsanto, where he worked for eight years before its takeover by Bayer in 2018. Shortly after, he joined the Leaps venture team.  

“ At USDA, I caught the bug of wanting to work with plants to make the world a better place,” he says. It was not long before he realised that being in the lab was not the best use of his skills – there was great work done on technology, but it did not always translate to making an impact in the real world.  

Today, he invests in a range of companies – his global portfolio and interests span from biotech and genetics, to drones, AI-enabled technologies, digital marketplaces and more.  

“Paimun has a best-in-class ability to build strong and trusting relationships with leaders within Bayer, as well as investors in our sector. He has a professional network that would rival or exceed that of someone who has spent a career in the industry,” says Derek Norman, vice-president of agriculture venture investments.  

“On top of these relationship skills, Paimun has a deep technical understanding of technologies in our industry and a knowledge of what it takes to bring a product to market.” 

Looking ahead, he is excited to see the progress of digital tools in agriculture – everything from automation to satellite constellations – as well as the ‘fourth wave’ of genetic engineering with advances in epigenetics and DNA synthesis technologies.  

See the full list of Emerging Leaders 2025 here.