The organization provides grants for agricultural development, global health, and technical education programs. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was formerly known as William H. Gates Foundation and changed its name in 2000. The organization was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Seattle, Washington.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a grant-making foundation that supports initiatives in education, world health and population, and community giving in the Pacific Northwest. In its local region, the foundation promotes strategies and programs that help low-income families. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was co-founded by Bill Gates and Melinda Gates in 2000 and is based in Seattle, Washington, with regional offices in Washington, D.C.; New Delhi, India; Beijing, China; and London, United Kingdom. Its trustees are Bill and Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a partner of the Global Fund, provides cash contributions, participates on its board and committees, and supports the Global Fund's advocacy, communications and fundraising efforts.
The Gates Foundation has contributed US$2 billion to the Global Fund as of January 2018, and pledged US$600 million for the Global Fund's Fifth Replenishment, covering 2017-2019. This includes US$132 million in matching funds with the United Kingdom's private sector malaria matching challenge, and up to US$100 million to unlock other private sector contributions, including funds that go through (RED). The Gates Foundation and other foundations are represented on the Global Fund Board through the private foundations delegation.
The main mission of the foundation is to make advances in:.
- Discover new insights to fight diseases and other health problems affecting developing countries.
- Develop effective and affordable vaccines, medicines, and other health tools.
- Deliver health solutions.
The foundation's Global Health Program that accounts for about 50 percent of total spending focuses on 20 diseases. The top five are: diarrheal diseases (including rotavirus), pneumonia, malaria--most deadly to kids--and AIDS and TB, which mostly affect adults.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation supports advocacy efforts to build awareness of global health challenges, develop new ways to finance health programs, and improve health data.
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has made 93 investments. One such investment was on Jan 29, 2019, when they invested $55M in Lyndra Therapeutics. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has had 14 exits which include Novartis, Moderna Therapeutics, and Synlogic. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has $43M in revenue annually and it competes with Carnegie Corporation of New York, Open Society Foundations, and Lumina Impact Ventures.
The Gates Foundation has funded many of the Friends of the Global Fund organizations as well as advocacy partners in both developing and developed countries. The foundation provided support to develop and launch initiatives like Debt2Health and (PRODUCT)RED. The foundation has also funded special initiatives in the health supply chain related to the Global Fund.
Timeline
Funded Companies
Novartis is a healthcare and pharmaceutical company based in Basel, Switzerland, incorporated in 1996.
A company developing antibody-based biological medicines for kidney diseases and other chronic diseases. Visterra was acquired by Otsuka Pharmaceutical in 2018.
Butterfly Network is a company developing and designing a medical imaging device for real-time and three-dimensional or 3D imaging and treatment.
A biopharmaceutical company developing T cell vaccines and immunotherapies
A medical company in Massachusetts focusing on lowering the cost of vaccine distribution.
A biotechnology company that develops medicines based on live bacterial consortia that can colonize the human intestine.
Clinical stage biotechnology company focused on treating infectious diseases using recombinant nanoparticle vaccine technology
Univercells is a Belgium-based bio manufacturing company founded in 2013.
Evolve Biosystems is a company developing a consumer product, Evivo, that improves infants' gut health.
Masimo is an Irvine, California-based biosensor company founded in 1989 by Joe Kiani.
BetterLesson is a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company.
Affinivax is a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company founded in 2014 by Richard Malley, MD, Fan Zhang, PhD, Yingjie Lu, PhD and Kamran Tavangar.
A company developing targeted monoclonal antibody immunotherapies for the treatment of infectious diseases
Atomo Diagnostics is a Leichhardt, New South Wales-based designer and manufacturer of blood-based medical diagnostic and test devices.
A company developing diagnostic platforms such as test for HIV/AIDS and cell counting
CropIn Technology Solutions is an India-based business analytics company founded by CropIn Technology.
Lyndra Therapeutics is a Watertown, Massachusetts-based company.
PnuVax is a Kingston, Ontario-based company founded in 2011 by Dr. Donald Gerson, Jonas Elliott Gerson and Allison Turner.
Stellapps Technologies Private Limited is an India-based company founded in 2011.