Picking the Right Bachelor for a Golden Start-Up Marriage to Google Co-Founder Brings Investment From His Company to Hers
By Miguel Helft
In Silicon Valley’s version of “The Bachelor,” Anne Wojcicki not only landed one of America’s richest men, Sergey Brin, a co-founder of Google, but she also got her husband’s company to finance her start-up.
Google said Tuesday that it invested $3.9 million this month in 23andMe, the biotech company co-founded last year by Wojcicki, a former health care industry analyst.
Google’s investment was disclosed in a regulatory filing, which also officially confirmed that Brin, 33, and Wojcicki, also 33, are married. The company had declined to comment on the couple’s relationship.
The company declined to disclose any details of the wedding, but various reports placed it in the Bahamas this month. Brin, Google’s president for technology, is said to be worth about $14 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
In a bit of classic Silicon Valley lore, the couple met after Wojcicki’s sister rented her garage to Brin and his partner, Larry Page, to serve as office space for their search-engine venture. Page, Google’s president for products, also is worth about $14 billion, according to Forbes.
The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said Brin had provided $2.6 million in interim debt financing to 23andMe and that his loan was being repaid as part of the financing of 23andMe, which Wojcicki started with a biotechnology executive, Linda Avey.
“Our audit committee requested that we disclose this in order to be completely transparent with our investors about the facts underlying this investment,” said Jon Murchinson, a Google spokesman.
Murchinson said the search giant, which has invested in other start-ups, made the investment in 23andMe because it furthered Google’s goal of organizing the world’s information.
“They are developing new ways for people to make sense of their genetic information,” Murchinson said.
According to 23andMe’s Web site, by encouraging individuals to learn about their own genetic information, the company will create a common, standardized resource that has the potential to accelerate drug discovery and bring personalized medicine to the public.
A press release on the site quotes Wojcicki as saying, “Our goal is to allow individuals to gain deeper insights into their ancestry, genealogy and inherited traits and, ultimately, the option to work together to advance the overall understanding of the human genome.” Reached by telephone, Wojcicki declined to comment further.
Both Google and 23andMe are based in Mountain View, California.
Other investors in 23andMe’s Series A financing include the venture capital firms New Enterprise Associates and MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures, as well as the biotech giant Genentech. Genentech’s chief executive, Arthur Levinson, is also a Google director.
The total amount of the Series A financing was not disclosed.
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