Ignacio Martinez

Ignacio joined Flagship Pioneering in early 2013 to lead sustainability venture creation activities. He also focuses on entrepreneurial activities in life sciences more broadly, with a special interest in food, nutrition, and human health.

Ignacio is co-founder and founding CEO of Montai Therapeutics; founding team member and director at Indigo Ag; and the co-founder, founding CEO and Chairman of CIBO Technologies, Inari Agriculture, and Invaio Sciences. Ignacio was also co-founder of Senda Biosciences, which merged with another Flagship-founded company, Laronde, to form Sail Biomedicines. Additionally, he is a member of the board of directors of YourBio Health and previously served on the board of Novomer, which was acquired by Danimer Scientific in 2021.

Prior to joining Flagship, Ignacio was founding member and managing director of Syngenta Ventures, the pioneering corporate venture capital group of agricultural giant Syngenta International, the world’s largest agrochemical business. During his tenure at Syngenta, Ignacio was directly involved in corporate strategy and led multiple venture capital investments in agribusiness, biotechnology, and sustainability companies in Europe, North America, and Latin America. Ignacio served on the Board of Directors of Biognosys AG (Switzerland), Population Genetics (England), BoMill AB (Sweden), and Agrinos AS (Norway) among others. He also played a key role in Syngenta’s external corporate venture capital activities managing Syngenta’s relationship as a limited partner with Life Science Partners (LSP) BioVentures, a $100 million agribusiness fund, and Gilde European Food and Agribusiness, a €90 million fund.

Prior to Syngenta, Ignacio was the founding CFO of Progenika Group, where he oversaw the corporate financial strategy, the launch of new companies and spinoffs and the expansion of the group to the U.S. and Latin American markets before the company was acquired by Grifols (NASDAQ: GFRS), the world’s largest supplier of blood plasma products. Earlier, Ignacio spent several years working for Najeti Ventures Fund, investing in software and biotech companies in Europe.

He holds a B.S. in Economics and Business Administration from Deusto University in Spain, and an International M.B.A. from Instituto de Empresa in Spain and WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany.