Dan Watkins, PhD | Managing Director

Dan Watkins has experience in founding and managing start-up companies in both the advanced materials and bioscience sectors.  Prior to co-founding DFJ Mercury, Dan was the founder and Managing Partner of A3 Associates, a Houston-based venture firm focused on seed-stage investments in university and research center-based technology transfer opportunities. In this capacity, Dan co-founded DNAtrix, Nanospectra Biosciences and X-EMI.  He has also been awarded a number of National Science Foundation grants as Principal Investigator for advanced materials and life sciences research.  Prior to A3 Associates, Dan was a VP at Schnitzius & Vaughan, a Houston-based investment banking firm, and served as worldwide manager for operations and control systems for Scientific Software Intercomp.  Dan received his B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Rice University and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Dan currently serves on the advisory boards of BioHouston, the Gulf Coast Regional Center for Innovation and Commercialization for the Texas Emerging Technology Fund, the Rice Alliance for Technology & Entrepreneurship, and Wayne State University’s Center for Molecular Medicine and Genetics.  Dan is a co-founder of the Rice Alliance for Technology & Entrepreneurship.

Portfolio Company Focus

Cgate Health, DNAtrix, GlycosBio, Illumitex, Imagnx, Marval Biosciences, Prolacta Bioscience, Swift Biosciences, Vertos Medical