Verily is joining forces with Singaporean investment company Temasek to expand its reach beyond the United States. Temasek will pay $800 million this year for a minority stake in the company.
“Temasek has a history of thoughtful and enduring capital investments, including in life sciences and healthcare, and this commitment to a long-term collaboration with Verily is a meaningful affirmation of our strategy,” said Verily CEO Andrew Conrad, in a statement. “With a substantial network and insights into the economies in Asia, Temasek will provide valuable guidance as we look to ex-U.S. markets with our development partners.”
Temasek will provide the majority of the $800 million “in the coming days,” with the remainder to follow in the second half of the year, according to the statement. It will also nominate a director to Verily’s operating board.
Verily has a number of partnerships, including three joint ventures: Galvani Bioelectronics with GlaxoSmithKline, Verb Surgical with Johnson & Johnson, and Onduo, a diabetes-focused JV with Sanofi. These projects, all announced within the last two years, are still early-stage, with the companies keeping mum on details.
Verily has also teamed up with 3M on population health management, with Dexcom on continuous glucose monitoring, and with Novartis’ Alcon on smart contact lenses. While Novartis and Verily committed to launching clinical trials of an autofocusing lens for age-related farsightedness in 2016, Novartis announced late last year that “it is too early to say when exactly human clinical trials for these lenses will begin.”
The company launched its second consumer product, the Liftware Level, in December. The device recognizes the angle of a user’s hand and adjusts the angle of a spoon or fork attachment to make eating easier for people with limited mobility that may be caused by stroke, cerebral palsy, Huntington’s disease or spinal cord injury.