Billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli recently caught the headlines with an investment in U.K. carmaker Aston Martin. But his other new investments may be more in tune with an adjustment to the long-term strategy of his family's asset managers.
Ernesto Bertarelli, who earned his family a fortune when he sold the Serono biotech firm to Merck in 2007, has developed the taste for exclusive investments. His shares in U.K. carmaker Aston Martin, worth some 20 million Swiss francs ($20.7 million) will remain small beer, given his family’s assets of some 14 billion. His investments in tech-, IT- and software companies looks more interesting.
Bertarelli recently launched a new investment firm, Forestay Capital, based in Geneva, and hired risk capital expert Randy Castleman to get the firm off the ground.
Autonomous Driving
Under the guidance of Castleman, the firm has now made a series of investments, according to a report by «Handelszeitung» (in German). Forestay has invested in a U.S. company called Wasabi Technologies, which offers cloud solutions. Another stake was made in Icometrix, a Belgian startup that uses artificial intelligence to develop computer tomography systems.
Forestay also put money into Bluebotics, a Swiss firm that offers solutions for autonomous driving in logistics centers and that sports food giant Nestle as a client.
The investments of the Bertarelli family are particularly interesting for investors who are looking for new tech firms during the volatile corona market. All the companies seem at an advanced stage of their product development, the Swiss business paper noted.
