14 DAY TRIAL // A few weeks ago, Google announced a new venture, Calico, a company that aims to prolong human life or even "cure" death altogether. Obviously, Calico is focused on the long term, something that may not be so appealing to Google investors, particularly since the startup is funded entirely by Google.
In fact, Calico will get hundreds of millions of dollars from the search giant over the course of a few years, as Forbes has uncovered. This will likely be revealed at Google's next quarterly financial report.
More details have surfaced about the company and its birth. Apparently, it's the brainchild of Google Ventures' Bill Maris, who started pitching the idea to other venture capital firms and wealthy tech people.
He figured that, by studying the genetic makeup of people who live longer and healthier and finding out more about the causes and effects of aging, people’s lives would be improved on the whole, a lot more than by focusing on any individual illness.
Maris talked to Google X's Sergey Brin as well. Larry Page joined the discussion, and they eventually decided to fund the entire company through Google.
The startup got a big break when it managed to attract Art Levinson as CEO. Maris initially asked Levinson for suggestions for CEO, since it was assumed that Levinson had given up leadership positions.
Under Levinson, Calico will initially focus on studying the genetics of aging. The company is still in its early days though and it is still hiring people, so things may evolve.
However, Calico won't have any trouble attracting talent. The fact that Levinson, the former CEO of Genentech, is involved is enough to convince most researchers. That the company focuses on long term research should also help.
It will be a while before Google starts seeing a return on its investment in Calico, if ever, but with the two founders along with Eric Schmidt controlling most of the voting shares and the board, this isn't as much of a problem as for other companies.