Karl Nägler

Managing Partner, Wellington Partners

Role: Associate

Site: CDL-Berlin

Stream: Health

Karl Nägler joined Wellington Partners Life Sciences (WPLS) as Managing Partner in 2020. He brings to Wellington a strong track record of investments in early and later stage life science companies as well as deep sector knowledge and an extensive global network from over 21 years of industry experience.

Previously, Karl was a Partner at Gimv, a publicly listed private equity and venture capital investment firm, where he had been responsible for life science investments within Gimv’s Health & Care team, since 2011. He began his professional career in 2002 at Atlas Venture in London and Munich, and later joined Ventech, a Paris-based venture capital firm focused on Europe and China.

Karl was instrumental in the formation, financing and/or exit of many European start-ups including Breath Therapeutics (acquired by Zambon), Covagen (acquired by Johnson & Johnson), Prosonix (acquired by Circassia Pharmaceuticals), Actogenix (acquired by Intrexon), Nitec Pharma (acquired by Horizon Pharma), U3 Pharma (acquired by Daiichi Sankyo) and Themis (now part of MSD).

Before joining the industry, Karl was a Scientific Fellow at CNRS for Neurochemistry in Strasbourg. He earned his Ph.D. in Molecular Neurobiology from Max-Delbrück-Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin and a Diploma in Biology from Free University of Berlin.