Zuckerberg fund builds $100m stake in biotech company working with GlaxoSmithKline on coronavirus cures
A secretive investment firm that manages money for Silicon Valley moguls including Mark Zuckerberg has quietly built a $100million stake in a biotech company working with UK pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline on coronavirus cures.
Iconiq Capital – which manages investments for the Facebook billionaire, Twitter boss Jack Dorsey, and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman – has become a major shareholder in Vir Biotechnology, which listed on Nasdaq in October when it raised $143million.
San Francisco-based Vir is backed by Bill Gates, Japanese investment giant SoftBank and Abu Dhabi.
Shrewd: Iconiq manages the investments of Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan
Iconiq is now Vir’s eighth largest shareholder with a 2.8 per cent stake worth $113million (£91million).
At the start of April, Vir and GSK unveiled a tie-up to collaborate to find treatments and vaccines for the virus. The deal gives GSK access to Vir’s pioneering antibody platform technology.
GSK injected $250million in return for an 5.6 per cent stake in Vir, making it the third largest shareholder.
Iconiq is a secretive wealth manager investing on behalf of billionaire tech tycoons, mostly in tech companies.
Its other major investments include Zoom and Uber.