BioNTech vs Toyota: Founders, CEOs and History
BioNTech was founded in 2008 by Prof. Ugur Sahin, M.D., Prof. Ozlem Tureci, M.D., Dr. Christoph Huber and is led by Uğur Şahin. Toyota was founded in 1937 by Kiichiro Toyoda, Sakichi Toyoda and is led by Kenta Kon.
Company facts
Founders
BioNTech
Prof. Ugur Sahin, M.D.
Ugur Sahin co-founded BioNTech in 2008 and has been its chief executive since. Born in Iskenderun, Turkey, he moved to Germany as a child, grew up in Cologne and studied medicine at the University of Cologne.
Prof. Ozlem Tureci, M.D.
Özlem Türeci is a co-founder of BioNTech and its Chief Medical Officer. A physician and immunologist born in Germany to a Turkish family, she trained at Saarland University, where she met Ugur Sahin; they married in 2002.
Dr. Christoph Huber
Christoph Huber is an Austrian hematologist-oncologist and co-founder of BioNTech. As head of hematology and oncology at the University of Mainz he mentored Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci, and he co-founded Ganymed Pharmaceuticals with them in 2001.
Toyota
Kiichiro Toyoda
Kiichiro Toyoda (1894-1952) founded the Toyota Motor Corporation in 1937, spinning it out of his father's successful textile machinery business.
Sakichi Toyoda
Sakichi Toyoda was not the founder of Toyota Motor Corporation but his inventions and philosophy created the foundation on which it was built. His loom patents generated the capital Kiichiro needed to experiment with automobiles.
CEOs and their tenures
BioNTech
- Uğur Şahin2008–present
Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder
Sahin has led BioNTech since its 2008 founding, took it public on Nasdaq in 2019 and directed Project Lightspeed in 2020, which produced Comirnaty with Pfizer.
Source - Özlem Türeci2008–present
Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder
Türeci has run BioNTech's clinical development since 2008, from early mRNA cancer vaccine trials to Comirnaty and the late-stage oncology portfolio. She leaves with Sahin by the end of 2026.
Source - Sean Marett2012–2024
Chief Business and Commercial Officer
Marett joined BioNTech's management in 2012 and helped negotiate its pharma partnerships, including the 2020 Pfizer collaboration on the COVID-19 vaccine.
Source - Ramón Zapata-Gomez2025–present
Chief Financial Officer
Joined from Novartis, where he was CFO of its biomedical research unit, and became CFO on July 1, 2025, succeeding Jens Holstein. He oversaw the 2026 guidance revision and the $1.0 billion ADS buyback launched in May 2026.
Source - Guido Oelkers2027–present
Incoming Chief Executive Officer (takes office by February 1, 2027)
Appointed by the Supervisory Board on August 3, 2026 to succeed Ugur Sahin. Oelkers has more than 30 years in pharma and biotech and has been CEO of Swedish Orphan Biovitrum (Sobi) since 2017.
Source
Toyota
- Akio Toyoda2009–2023
President and Chief Executive Officer (now Chairman)
Akio Toyoda took leadership during one of Toyota's hardest modern periods, including the global financial crisis and the unintended acceleration recall crisis.
Source - Koji Sato2023–2026
President and Chief Executive Officer (now Vice Chairman)
Koji Sato inherited a profitable but scrutinized Toyota.
Source - Kenta Kon2026–present
President and Chief Executive Officer
As CFO, he managed the immense capital allocation required for Toyota's massive $35 billion commitment to fully electrify its vehicle lineup by 2030.
Source
Timeline: BioNTech and Toyota side by side
1937Toyota
Toyota Motor Corporation incorporated
Toyota Motor Corporation was incorporated after Kiichiro Toyoda expanded the Toyoda family business from automatic looms into automobile manufacturing.
1955Toyota
Toyopet Crown launched
The Toyopet Crown gave Toyota a postwar passenger-car platform and later became its first passenger car exported to the United States.
1966Toyota
Corolla launched
Toyota launched the Corolla, a compact car that became central to its mass-market export strategy.
1989Toyota
Lexus launches
Toyota launched Lexus with the LS 400, moving into premium vehicles with a quality-led strategy.
1997Toyota
Prius launches in Japan
Toyota launched the Prius, turning hybrid technology into a mass-produced passenger vehicle.
2008BioNTech
BioNTech founded in Mainz
Ugur Sahin, Özlem Türeci and Christoph Huber founded BioNTech in Mainz to develop individualized cancer immunotherapies.
2013BioNTech
Katalin Karikó joins as senior vice president
Biochemist Katalin Karikó, whose work on nucleoside-modified mRNA reduced unwanted immune reactions to synthetic RNA, joined BioNTech. She shared the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Drew Weissman for that research.
2016Toyota
Acquired Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd.
Toyota Motor acquired Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd..
2019BioNTech
Nasdaq IPO under ticker BNTX
BioNTech listed American Depositary Shares on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in October 2019, pricing at $15 per ADS and raising $150 million, about three months before the first reports of the novel coronavirus.
2020BioNTech
Project Lightspeed and the Pfizer partnership
In late January 2020 Ugur Sahin redirected BioNTech's mRNA platform to a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine under Project Lightspeed. In March 2020 BioNTech agreed to co-develop the vaccine with Pfizer, which brought global trial, manufacturing and distribution capacity.
2020BioNTech
First authorized mRNA medicine
On December 2, 2020 the UK regulator authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (BNT162b2, later branded Comirnaty), the first mRNA medicine cleared for use anywhere. The U.S.
2021BioNTech
Peak year: ~$21.4 billion (€18.98 billion) revenue
Comirnaty sales lifted BioNTech's FY2021 revenue to ~$21.4 billion (€18.98 billion) and net profit to ~$11.6 billion (€10.29 billion), compared with ~$545 million (€482.3 million) of revenue a year earlier.
2021Toyota
Acquired Lyft Level 5
Toyota Motor acquired Lyft Level 5 for $550 million.
2021Toyota
Acquired CARMERA
Toyota Motor acquired CARMERA.
2023BioNTech
Revenue falls to ~$4.32 billion (€3.82 billion); InstaDeep acquired
As COVID-19 vaccination became seasonal, FY2023 revenue fell 77.9% to ~$4.32 billion (€3.82 billion), though BioNTech stayed profitable with ~$1.05 billion (€930.3 million) of net income.
2024BioNTech
First full-year loss since the pandemic
FY2024 revenue fell to ~$3.11 billion (€2.75 billion) and BioNTech posted a ~$752 million (€665.3 million) net loss as R&D spending of ~$2.54 billion (€2.25 billion) went mostly to oncology.
2025BioNTech
Bristol Myers Squibb partnership on pumitamig
In June 2025 Bristol Myers Squibb agreed to co-develop and co-commercialize pumitamig, paying $1.5 billion upfront plus $2 billion in non-contingent anniversary payments through 2028, with up to $7.6 billion more in milestones.
2025BioNTech
CureVac patent settlement and acquisition
In August 2025 BioNTech and Pfizer settled U.S. mRNA patent litigation with CureVac and GSK for an aggregate $740 million plus single-digit royalties on U.S. COVID-19 vaccine sales.
2026BioNTech
Founders announce departure; Guido Oelkers named CEO
On March 10, 2026 BioNTech said Ugur Sahin and Özlem Türeci would leave by the end of 2026 to lead a new company focused on next-generation mRNA.
2026BioNTech
Pandemic-era plants to close
On September 28, 2026 BioNTech said it would close its Tübingen, Marburg and Idar-Oberstein sites in Germany and a site in Singapore after failing to find buyers, affecting up to 1,860 jobs and handing all COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing to Pfizer.
2026Toyota
Kenta Kon becomes president and CEO
Kenta Kon became president and CEO on April 1, 2026, while Koji Sato moved to vice chairman and chief industry officer.
2026Toyota
FY2026 sales revenues reach ~$340B (JPY 50.685T)
Toyota reported FY2026 sales revenues of ~$340 billion (JPY 50,684.952 billion) and net income attributable to Toyota Motor Corporation of ~$25.8 billion (JPY 3,848.098 billion).
Acquisitions
BioNTech
- CureVac N.V.2025$1.3B
- Biotheus Inc.2025$800M
- InstaDeep Ltd.2023Undisclosed
- Kite Pharma solid-tumor TCR platform and Gaithersburg facility2021Undisclosed
- Novartis manufacturing site in Marburg2020Undisclosed
- Neon Therapeutics2020$67M
Toyota
- Lyft Level 52021$550M
- CARMERA2021Undisclosed
- Renovo Motors2021Undisclosed
- Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd.2016Undisclosed
- Toyota Auto Body2012Undisclosed
Questions about BioNTech vs Toyota
Who is the CEO of BioNTech SE and Toyota Motor Corporation?
BioNTech SE is led by Uğur Şahin and Toyota Motor Corporation is led by Kenta Kon. Both serve as the top executive responsible for the company's strategy, operations, and financial performance.
When was BioNTech SE founded vs Toyota Motor Corporation?
Toyota Motor Corporation was founded in 1937 — 71 years before BioNTech SE, which was founded in 2008. Toyota Motor Corporation's longer operating history gives it a deeper track record but also potentially more institutional inertia compared to the younger BioNTech SE.
How many employees does BioNTech SE have compared to Toyota Motor Corporation?
BioNTech SE employs approximately 7,807 people, while Toyota Motor Corporation employs approximately 375,235. Toyota Motor Corporation has the larger workforce at 375,235 employees, compared to BioNTech SE's 7,807. A higher headcount does not necessarily imply greater efficiency — it often reflects differences in business model (e.g., manufacturing vs. software).
Where are BioNTech SE and Toyota Motor Corporation headquartered?
BioNTech SE is headquartered in Germany and Toyota Motor Corporation is headquartered in Japan. Their different home markets mean they may face different regulatory frameworks, tax regimes, and currency exposure.
Who founded BioNTech SE and Toyota Motor Corporation?
BioNTech SE was founded by Prof. Ugur Sahin, M.D., Prof. Ozlem Tureci, M.D., Dr. Christoph Huber. Toyota Motor Corporation was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda, Sakichi Toyoda.
Which company has a longer operating history — BioNTech SE or Toyota Motor Corporation?
Toyota Motor Corporation has been operating for approximately 89 years, making it the more established of the two companies. BioNTech SE has been in operation for around 18 years. A longer operating history often signals greater institutional resilience and brand recognition, though it can also mean slower adaptation to new market conditions.
Figures come from each company's filings and the sources linked beside them. Amounts reported in another currency are shown in US dollars at an approximate rate and marked with ~. Back to the BioNTech vs Toyota overview