Linearis Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Linearis Ventures is a Quebec City-based venture capital fund investing in AI-powered life sciences companies. Founded in Q4 2024, the firm's thesis is that the future of healthcare will be predictive, personalized, and AI-driven, and it backs founders building companies that transform therapeutics, MedTech, diagnostics, and digital health through the combination of scientific innovation and applied AI. The firm operates a distinctive "Venture + Lab" tandem model: alongside its investment fund, Linearis runs Linearis Labs, one of the most advanced high-throughput metabolomics and bioanalytical platforms in North America, giving portfolio companies direct access to biological validation, disease-signature discovery, and AI-driven data analysis as part of the investment relationship.
Stage Focus
Linearis invests from late Seed through Series B, targeting AI-life sciences companies with high-impact clinical or commercial potential. Its first disclosed deals cluster around pre-seed/seed and growth-stage strategic rounds (see Recent Activity), consistent with a young Fund I that is still building out its stage mix.
Check Size
Check size was not disclosed on the website or in press coverage. The firm's Scopia Surgical investment was part of a C$2.65M oversubscribed pre-seed round with multiple co-investors, suggesting Linearis writes syndicate-sized checks rather than anchoring large rounds solo at this stage.
Lead Tendency
Mixed. Linearis co-led Scopia Surgical's pre-seed round alongside Anges Québec, but joined Zilia's bridge round and made a strategic investment in Feldan Therapeutics as one of several participating investors. The firm's own materials describe its role as sourcing, leading or co-leading, and syndicating rounds through its investor network.
Recent Activity
Since its Q4 2024 inception, Linearis has been actively deploying Fund I across AI drug discovery, therapeutics, and MedTech:
- September 2026: Co-led Scopia Surgical's oversubscribed C$2.65M pre-seed round for AI-powered robotic surgery navigation.
- May 2025: Joined Zilia's bridge financing round, supporting its non-invasive ocular biomarker platform ahead of a planned institutional raise.
- February 2025: Made a strategic investment in Feldan Therapeutics to accelerate its intracellular drug-delivery pipeline, including lead candidate FLD-103.
- January 2026: Portfolio company Noetik signed a five-year, $50M USD licensing partnership with GSK for its OCTO-VC virtual cell foundation models in cancer R&D, an early proof point for the fund's thesis.
Portfolio Highlights
Selected portfolio (per linearis.com/portfolio):
- Noetik — AI-native biotechnology company building generative "world models" of tumor biology to predict patient response and accelerate cancer drug discovery; licensed its OCTO-VC models to GSK in a $50M deal (Jan 2026).
- Zilia — Medical technology company developing Zilia Ocular, a non-invasive platform to measure ocular and systemic biomarkers via photonics and AI; holds FDA 510(k) clearance and Health Canada approval.
- Feldan Therapeutics — Clinical-stage pharmaceutical company using its Feldan Shuttle peptide platform for intracellular drug delivery; lead candidate FLD-103 is in Phase 1/2a trials for basal cell carcinoma.
- Scopia Surgical — Montreal-based TechMed company building a physical-AI, computer-vision navigation platform for minimally invasive and robotic surgery.
Team
- Alexandre Le Bouthillier, PhD — Partner & CEO
- Jacques Corbeil, PhD — Partner & CSO
- Manon Boisclair, MS, MBA — Partner (also referenced as General/Managing Partner in press materials)
- Claudia Carpentier, PhD — Director of Operations
- Yoshua Bengio, PhD — AI Advisor
- David Wishart, PhD — Metabolomics Advisor
- Karimah Es Sabar, MSc — Strategic Life Sciences & VC Advisor (joined September 2026; former CEO of Quark Venture, ex-GP at Global Health Sciences Fund, has raised over $1.5B USD across 32 companies and 5 unicorns)
- John Reichenbach, MBA — BioHub / Finance Advisor
- György Marko-Varga, PhD — Biomedical Advisor
- Takashi Bamba, PhD — Japan Metabolomics Advisor
- Xavier Fresquet, PhD — European/UAE AI Advisor
Decision Process
Partnership-led. Three named Partners (Le Bouthillier, Corbeil, Boisclair) run the fund with input from a large bench of scientific and AI advisors, several of whom (Bengio, Wishart) are globally recognized names in their respective fields.
Founder Preferences
Linearis backs founder-led AI-life sciences companies — drug discovery platforms, MedTech, biomarker/diagnostics, digital health, patient monitoring, and multi-omics platforms — where its Labs infrastructure can add validation value beyond capital.
Geographic Focus
Globally active with a stated focus on North America, Europe (including partnerships with AI institutes such as Sorbonne AI), and Asia-Pacific (including university collaborations in Japan). Its disclosed portfolio to date is concentrated in Quebec, Canada.
Additional Notes
Linearis Ventures is a first-time institutional fund (Fund I) built by an operator-investor team with a combined background of over 35 angel/VC investments, management of blockbuster BioPharma product launches at NASDAQ-listed companies, and involvement in Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) programs. The firm markets its "Venture + Lab" structure as a differentiator versus pure-capital funds, positioning Linearis Labs' metabolomics and AI-analysis infrastructure as a service that improves product/market fit and de-risks science for portfolio companies pre- and post-investment.