Palihapitiya-backed Spac agrees merger amid Uyghur backlash
A SPAC backed by billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya has agreed to merge with a kidney healthcare firm after the controversial tech investor sparked backlash this week over comments on China’s Muslim Uyghur population.
The merger of Palihapitiya’s Social Capital Suvretta III Spac with ProKidney, a company which provides treatment for chronic kidney disease, values the combined firms at $2.64bn.
ProKidney will receive $825 million, including a private-public equity investment of $575 million and $125m from Palihapitiya’s Spac.
The therapeutics firm was founded by a group of investors led by Pablo Legorreta, the founder and chief executive officer of Royalty Pharma Plc, and will use the funding injection to develop a first-of-its-kind, patented cell therapy to treat chronic kidney disease.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe merger comes after prolific-Spac backer Palihapitiya sparked widespread anger after saying on his podcast this week “nobody cares what’s happening with the Uyghurs” in China.
He said: “Every time I say that I care about the Uyghurs, I’m really just lying.”
The World Uyghur Congress, an advocacy group, said it was “appalled” by the tech investor’s comments.
Zumretay Arkin, a spokeseperson for the group said on Twitter: “It’s absolutely sickening and despicable that someone with a great reach would say he doesn’t care about an ongoing GENOCIDE.”
The comments also led to political backlash in the US. Republican senator Mitt Romney said: “The “arrogant dismissal of China’s genocide of the Uyghurs and other minorities by the billionaire venture capitalist who founded the ironically named ‘Social Capital’ fund is repulsive, immoral, and disgusting”.