Tidjane Thiam pivots from SPAC to investment in Californian longevity biotech.
Tidjane Thiam, who is the former Chief Executive of Prudential Credit Suisse, has revealed he has launched a new fund to invest in the San Diego-based life sciences start-up Human Longevity. On a mission to accelerate living to beyond the age of 100, Human Longevity describes its ethos as the discovery and harnessing of the technological and biological unlocks that amplify span of life, health and high-performance.
Longevity.Technology: The executive chairman of Freedom Acquisition Corporation has been busy; not only is it reported that he is considering running for President in his native Ivory Coast, but he is also looking at the accelerating field of longevity.
Thiam told The Financial Times that although his original plan was to merge his SPAC Freedom Acquisition Corp with Human Longevity, with the talks having reached an advanced stage, he had decided that Human Longevity was not yet ready to list on the stock exchange.
Instead, Thiam plans to use the Free Tiger Fund, which he co-founded with Edward Zeng and Adam Gishen (his fellow Freedom co-founders) to invest in the biotech Human Longevity, with a view to helping with future fundraising [1].
READ MORE: Exclusive video interview with Human Longevity’s Chairman
SPACs, which are listed on stock exchanges, usually aim to acquire private companies in a two-year window; this acquisition enables the private company to go public in a way that bypasses the usual long and complicated process of listing on the stock exchange.
In order to fulfill SPAC expectations, Freedom merged with solar services company Complete Solaria on Monday [2].
However, Human Longevity remains on Thiam’s radar; he told the FT the Free Tiger Fund has been given the mandate by Human Longevity to lead the next funding round.
“They have two centres — San Diego and San Francisco — but they want to open more, so they will use that capital to open more centres,” Thiam told the FT [1].
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[1] https://www.ft.com/content/b800878d-fe48-4743-995a-c8a49a3abd22
[2] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221003005520/
