# Kareem Barghouti

> Kareem Barghouti is a San Francisco biotechnology founder and operator whose career has moved from an early social-media startup and Google to natural-product drug discovery. He co-founded VastBiome, later renamed Pragma Bio, and led the company as CEO while it built a computational and synthetic-biology platform for finding useful small molecules made by microbes. In September 2025, he joined Enveda as Entrepreneur-in-Residence to lead a new initiative powered by the company’s AI, metabolomics and automation platform.

- **Role:** Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Enveda
- **Organizations:** Enveda, Pragma Bio, VastBiome, Google, Wildfire Interactive, Texas Medical Center Innovation Institute, StingyCampus
- **Education:** Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences, University of California, Irvine, Master of Business Administration, Healthcare Sector Management, Duke University - The Fuqua School of Business, Studies in Physics, University of Sussex
- **Known for:** Co-founded and led VastBiome, later Pragma Bio, from a biodesign-fellowship concept into a venture-backed drug-discovery company., Helped Pragma Bio secure a $4.5 million seed round in 2020 and announce an additional $10 million equity financing in 2023., Worked on Google teams responsible for advertising data integrity and an online education product used globally.

## Career timeline

- **2007-2012** — Co-founded StingyCampus, an early college-focused venture.
- **2011-2017** — Worked at Google across sales, social media strategy, product marketing, strategy and operations; he also supported Google X commercialization work.
- **2017-2018** — Joined the Texas Medical Center Innovation Institute as a Biodesign Fellow, where the team that became VastBiome formed around needs identified with medical professionals.
- **2018** — Co-founded VastBiome in Houston before moving the company to the San Francisco Bay Area and joining the Illumina Accelerator and Plug and Play.
- **2019** — Completed MassBio’s MassCONNECT program; Barghouti described its eight weeks as among the company’s most productive period to that point.
- **2020** — VastBiome raised a $4.5 million seed round led by Viking Global Investors, Timewise Investment and Merck Global Health Innovation Fund.
- **2022** — A public SEC Form D identified Barghouti as Chief Executive Officer of Pragma Biosciences.
- **2023** — VastBiome became Pragma Bio and announced $10 million in new equity, bringing disclosed venture backing at the time to $15 million.
- **2024** — As Pragma Bio CEO, announced an independent board member and two strategic advisors with drug-development and business experience.
- **2025** — Spoke at SynBioBeta about AI-powered therapeutic discovery and gave an interview on Pragma Bio’s genome-informed biosynthesis approach.
- **2025-09** — Joined Enveda as Entrepreneur-in-Residence to lead a new initiative powered by the company’s platform.

## Achievements

- Co-founded and led VastBiome, later Pragma Bio, from a biodesign-fellowship concept into a venture-backed drug-discovery company.
- Helped Pragma Bio secure a $4.5 million seed round in 2020 and announce an additional $10 million equity financing in 2023.
- Worked on Google teams responsible for advertising data integrity and an online education product used globally.
- Was recognized as a top-performing sales representative in Google’s New Business Sales organization.
- Selected as an Aspen Institute Spotlight Health Scholar in 2017.
- Mentored a Venture for America fellow and volunteered with InnVision Shelter Network.

## Latest updates

- **2025-12** — Publicly highlighted Enveda’s initiation of another Phase 1 program and praised the team’s progress moving platform-derived molecules into clinical development.
- **2025-09** — Joined Enveda as Entrepreneur-in-Residence, leading an undisclosed new initiative powered by Enveda’s natural-chemistry platform.
- **2025-04** — Discussed Pragma Bio’s genome-informed biosynthesis strategy in a SynBioBeta interview before appearing at the 2025 conference in San Jose.

## Links

- Website: https://enveda.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kareem-barghouti-97b42015

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/kareem-barghouti
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-17