Luke Stangel, Contributing writer – Jan 26, 2017
Verily Life Sciences, one of the startups spun out of Alphabet, disclosed on Thursday it has closed an $800 million investment from Singapore-based Temasek, an investment company that recently landed in the Bay Area with plans to expand its holdings in North America.
Verily, previously known as Google Life Sciences, says it’ll get the majority of the money in the coming days, with the remainder coming later this year. Temasek will take a minority stake in the company and get a seat on Verily’s board.
The investment marks Alphabet’s latest attempt to reduce the financial risk inherent in its more experimental business units like Verily. In the past, a spinoff like Verily might have instead asked its corporate parent for the investment.
Around this time last year, Verily partnered with Johnson & Johnson to create a new robotic surgery startup called Verb. A few months later, it announced a $715 million joint venture with Glaxosmithkline to create a new bioelectronics medicine company called Galvani Bioelectronics. In September, Verily announced it was creating a $500 million joint venture with Sanofi called Onduo.
