Verily, the life sciences arm of Alphabet, raised $1 billion in fresh capital in a funding round led by private equity firm Silver Lake.
Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat is also joining Verily’s board along with Egon Durban from Silver Lake, according to a statement on Thursday. The announcement comes two years after Verily took in $800 million of outside capital from Singapore’s Temasek, and puts the company, one of Alphabet’s so-called Other Bets, a step closer towards potential independence.
“We are taking external funding to increase flexibility and optionality as we expand on our core strategic focus areas,” said Verily CEO Andrew Conrad, in the statement. The new investors will prepare the company to “execute as healthcare continues the shift towards evidence generation and value-based reimbursement models,” he said.
Verily, formerly known as Google Life Sciences, has a number of partnerships across the health and life sciences sector in areas ranging from diabetes management to surgical robotics. The company often provides the technical talent, while its counterparts in health care bring in expertise on clinical research and regulation. Partners include Johnson & Johnson, Dexcom and Walgreens.
Silver Lake’s Egon Durban said in the statement that Verily’s “unique capabilities, world-class partnerships and bold vision are enabling the company to tackle the most significant problems impacting global healthcare.”
Late last year, Google announced it had brought on a new executive, Geisinger Health’s David Feinberg, to consolidate its health efforts. Feinberg will work closely with Verily executives, according to people familiar with the matter, but he won’t directly manage its leaders, including Conrad.
With Porat joining the board, it’s likely that Alphabet will continue to oversee Verily’s financial performance. Alphabet doesn’t typically reveal revenues associated with its Other Bets, but Google co-founder Sergey Brin told employees in 2016 that Verily was already profitable and making money on a “cash basis.”
Silver Lake, which currently has about $45.5 billion under management, specializes in investing in technology companies. The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan was also part of the investment round.
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