Verily

History

2023:15% staff cut

On January 11, 2023, Verily Life Sciences, a medical and technological research and development company, announced a staff reduction. Approximately 15% of employees will be laid off.

The restructuring was announced by Stephen Gillett, CEO of Verily, a holding company Alphabet (parent structure). Google According to him, in the current macroeconomic environment, changes are necessary in terms of increasing the value of products and achieving ultimate commercial success. It is planned to rethink the operating model, which will help simplify the work and increase the efficiency of interaction between different departments. In this regard, it is necessary to reduce the number of employees: more than 200 people will lose their jobs.

Verily Life Sciences reports staff cuts

We are making changes that improve our strategy, prioritize our product family and simplify the operating model. We will promote fewer initiatives with more resources. At the same time, Verily will move from several lines of business to a single centralized organization with more interconnected healthcare solutions, Gillett said.

The reorganization provides for the minimization of the development of medicalsoftware Verily Value Suite. In addition, some other projects that are at an early stage will be stopped. Verily will focus on medical research and care related initiatives. Important decisions will be made by a more centralized leadership team, rather than by individual groups as before. The company sets its main task to promote "high-precision healthcare." To do this, in particular, it is planned to develop the business of Granular, a subsidiary of Verily.

In addition, it became known that Intrinsic, an industrial robotics company and also part of Alphabet, laid off 40 employees, or about 20% of the state.^[1]

2022: Raising $1 billion in investments

In mid-September 2022, Verily Life Sciences, also known as Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences), announced a $1 billion investment.

The new funding will be used to support a number of major initiatives. These include real-world evidence-building, platforms, data health care research and care, and the basic technologies on which this work, aimed at improving people's health care outcomes, is based. Verily Life Sciences noted that the company will also consider further investments in strategic partnerships, global business development and potential acquisitions.

Google's medical subsidiary raised $1 billion

The company is focused on processing and using data from a variety of sources, such as clinical, social, behavioral and real-world data, to find the best human solutions based on a comprehensive view of the facts. Verily Life Sciences uses data science and technology to deliver better health outcomes using what it claims is a data-driven, people-centered approach.

One of the company's most well-known products is Baseline, a service designed to facilitate people's participation in clinical research. Baseline has been used in various medical projects, including COVID-19 testing initiatives.

Concurrent with the funding announcement, Verily Life Sciences was also told that the company's founder, Andy Conrad, would become Verily's executive chairman and current president, Stephen Gillett, would be named chief executive officer from January 2023.

Taking into account the new funding, according to Crunchbase, Verily Life Sciences raised $3.5 billion for September 2022, Among external investors are Temasek Holdings, Silver Lake and Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan.^[2]

2020: Raising $700 million in investments

In mid-December 2020, Verily raised $700 million in investments. The medical unit Google will direct these funds to expand research, including the Baseline platform for studying coronavirus. COVID-19

The investment came from Alphabet holding (parent to Google) as well as other investors outside Google's parent company, including Temasek, OntarioTeachers "Pension Plan and Silver Lake. Verily announced that it intends to use the funds to promote a number of life sciences programs, including in the fields of surgery, pathophysiology and immunology.

Verily raised $700 million in investments

Verily's division was created under Alphabet's previous CEO Larry Page, who resigned in December 2019. A key project of the division is the Baseline platform - an "employee project to create next-generation tools and services in the field health care." This initiative collects and analyzes data on the health status of patients participating in clinical trials. According to the Baseline website, the project is being created in collaboration with researchers, clinicians, engineers, designers and volunteers.

In March 2020, the company launched the Baseline project website for patients with COVID-19. In May, the company announced that it would begin investigating antibodies to the virus, and in the summer opened a clinical laboratory in San Francisco to expand COVID-19 testing capabilities. Verily says it has screened and tested nearly two million people at 351 centers throughout the pandemic.

In August, Verily announced it was starting health insurance, creating a subsidiary. Verily Health Platforms President Vivian Lee said the new type of insurance will help employers provide medical care to employees with diabetes.^[3]

2019: Raising $1 billion in investments

At the beginning of 2019, it became known about the attraction by Verily of investments in the amount of $1 billion. The money comes less than two months after Google's division scrapped the development of "smart" contact lenses designed to monitor sugar levels.

Verily's new funding round was led by investment firm Silver Lake. Its representative Egon Durban joined the board of directors of Verily along with Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat.

Google smart contact lens developer raises $1 billion

Verily raised $1 billion in investments two years after Singapore investment giant Temasek Holdings invested about $800 million in the startup. That deal allowed Verily to become a more independent company.

We are attracting external funding to increase flexibility and functionality as we expand our main strategic areas, "said Verily CEO Andrew Conrad.

Egon Durban noted that Verily's "unique capabilities, partnerships and bold vision enable the company to address the most important issues affecting global health."^[4]

In November 2018, Verily announced its refusal to develop the smart contact lens project, explaining the decision by "the difficulty of obtaining reliable tear glucose readings in a complex eye environment."

Between the concentration of glucose in the tear and the concentration of glucose in the blood, not enough correspondence was revealed to ensure the accuracy that is required for the release of the medical device, emphasized in the company.

The project, launched in 2014, aimed to help diabetics. To do this, sensors were built into the lens that track glucose levels in tears. Work on the lens was carried out in conjunction with Alcon, a division of Novartis, which also said that the decision to suspend the project was made jointly.

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