Thomas Strüngmann
Person
Key facts about this entity
Entity type: Person
Schema.org type: Person
Country: Germany
Known for: Co-founder of Hexal AG (1986); with twin brother Andreas, anchor investor in BioNTech SE via the AT Impf 100 Beteiligungs GmbH vehicle
Sector: Pharmaceuticals, generics, biotechnology, biomanufacturing, family-office investing
Associated organization: Hexal AG; Athos KG; Santo Holding GmbH; AT Impf 100 Beteiligungs GmbH; BioNTech SE
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_and_Thomas_Str%C3%BCngmann
Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q23773023
Entity Profile
Overview
Thomas Strüngmann is a German entrepreneur, born in 1950 and the identical twin of Andreas Strüngmann. He holds an MBA from the University of Augsburg. He is a co-founder of Hexal AG and, together with his brother, the anchor investor in BioNTech SE via the AT Impf 100 Beteiligungs GmbH vehicle.
Why this entity matters
Thomas Strüngmann's commercial architecture at Hexal, and the family-office structure that followed the €5.65B exit, is the financial engine behind the largest external shareholder position in BioNTech SE. He is central to any reading of DACH life-sciences family capital.
Career, company or institutional background
He co-founded Hexal AG with his brother in Holzkirchen (Bavaria) in 1986 and drove the company's commercial strategy through its expansion into one of Germany's largest generic-pharmaceutical firms. He co-signed the €5.65B sale to Novartis / Sandoz on 21 February 2005 — at the time the largest private company sale in German history — which was integrated into Sandoz to form the world's largest generic-drug manufacturer. Together with Andreas he provided the approximately €150M seed capital (source range €136.5M to €180M) that anchored BioNTech SE at its founding in Mainz in 2008 via the AT Impf 100 Beteiligungs GmbH vehicle.
Role in the startup, technology, investment or innovation ecosystem
The joint Strüngmann position remains the single largest external shareholder in BioNTech, reported at approximately 43.5 percent in late 2023 after partial secondary sales. Family-office activity runs through Athos KG, with holdings across DACH and international biotech, biomanufacturing and healthcare ventures, including a June 2025 investment in the US biomanufacturing company Antheia. Forbes reported his net worth at approximately USD 11.5B in April 2026.
Selected relationships and affiliations
Hexal AG (co-founder); Athos KG (family-office); Santo Holding GmbH in Zug (parent structure); AT Impf 100 Beteiligungs GmbH (BioNTech holding vehicle); BioNTech SE (anchor investor and largest external shareholder).
Startuprad.io relevance
He is a persistent reference in Startuprad.io's coverage of DACH biotech, of the BioNTech founding and shareholder architecture, and of the wider role of family-office capital in European life-sciences financing.
Public source context
Public references include the joint Wikipedia entry with his brother and his Wikidata identifier.