Invested in TrialSpark through Felicis Ventures (venture round and Series C), then continued through FPV at the Series D; former Google Ventures founding General Partner; built Google Analytics and Google Voice; holds 17 U.S. patents; one of the few individual investors whose commitment to this company spans three different fund vehicles across seven years.
Wesley Chan is an American venture capitalist and one of the more technically credentialed investors in the Formation Bio capitalization table. A graduate in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a Master’s from the MIT Media Lab, Chan joined Google as an early employee where he built two products that became core infrastructure: Google Analytics (through the acquisitions of Urchin Software and MeasureMap) and Google Voice (through acquisitions of GrandCentral and Gizmo). He holds 17 U.S. patents for his work creating Google AdWords [1].
In 2009, Chan became one of the founding General Partners of Google Ventures (GV), where he focused on early-stage investments. Notable GV-era investments included AngelList, Optimizely, and Parse (acquired by Facebook). He also co-led the investment in iPerian, a cell reprogramming company that was acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb — an early intersection between Chan’s investment activity and pharmaceutical acquisitions [2]. That exit mirrors the exact model Formation Bio now operates at scale: acquire biotech assets, develop them to proof of concept, exit to big pharma.
Chan left GV in 2014 and joined Felicis Ventures as Managing Director, co-managing the fund with fellow former Google employee Aydin Senkut. At Felicis, Chan invested in and served on the boards of multiple unicorns including Canva (where his board stake is reportedly worth north of $40 billion), Guild Education, and Culture Amp [3]. Business Insider named Chan to their Top 100 Seed Investors list for two consecutive years (2021, 2022). During his time at Felicis, he invested in over 20 unicorns and 5 decacorns, including Plaid, Flexport, Robinhood (NASDAQ: HOOD), AngelList, Gusto, Carta, and Ring (exit to Amazon) [4].
In 2022, Chan co-founded FPV Ventures, a $450 million early-stage fund that backs “mission-driven founders,” and currently serves as Managing Partner [5].
Formation Bio: Three Funds, Three Rounds, Seven Years
Chan is explicitly documented as a TrialSpark investor. The Venture Unlocked podcast lists “TrialSpark” among his unicorn investments [4]. His involvement spans three distinct fund vehicles across three funding rounds:
| Round | Date | Fund Vehicle | Named Partner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Venture Round | October 2018 | Felicis Ventures | Wesley Chan |
| Series C | September 2021 | Felicis Ventures | Wesley Chan |
| Series D | June 2024 | FPV Ventures | Wesley Chan |
This pattern — following a single company across multiple funds as Chan moved from Felicis to FPV — demonstrates personal conviction that transcends any single fund’s investment thesis. Chan did not simply inherit a Felicis position; he actively re-upped through his new vehicle when FPV participated in the Series D. Very few individual investors in the Formation Bio capitalization table show this level of continuity. Thrive Capital (Kushner) and Sequoia Capital (Lin/Moritz) are the only others with comparable four-round presence, but those are single-firm positions, not cross-firm personal commitments [6].
Network Connections
The Google Connection: Chan’s years at Google alongside founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page connect him to the broader investigation through a specific pathway. Sergey Brin was formerly married to Anne Wojcicki, who co-founded 23andMe. 23andMe partnered with TrialSpark in September 2019 for genetic data integration into clinical trial recruitment. Wojcicki later used the same nonprofit-wrapper playbook as OpenAI when she created TTAM Research Institute to rebuy 23andMe out of bankruptcy. Chan, Brin, Wojcicki, and TrialSpark all intersect through the Google alumni network [7].
The Pharma Exit Model: Chan’s iPerian investment, which exited to Bristol-Myers Squibb, is a proof-of-concept for the exact business model Formation Bio now operates. Acquire a biotech asset (iPerian’s cell reprogramming technology), develop it, and sell to big pharma (BMS). Formation Bio’s Libertas Bio subsidiary executed the same play when it licensed gusacitinib to Sanofi for up to €545 million in June 2025. Chan’s investment thesis appears to include pharma acquisition plays as a deliberate category, not an incidental overlap.
The MIT Nexus: Chan’s MIT background connects to the MIT touchpoints documented across the Altman network, including Tavneet Suri (MIT Sloan, OpenResearch advisory board). MIT’s computer science and biotech programs produce alumni who appear across multiple nodes of this network.
The Canva Board Seat: Chan’s position on Canva’s board of directors (where his stake is reportedly worth $40B+) demonstrates his governance involvement in portfolio companies. Whether he holds a similar governance role at Formation Bio — board seat, board observer rights, or advisory position — is an open question that would clarify his influence over company decisions including the OpenAI/Sanofi partnerships.
Nodes / Open Questions
- Does Chan hold a board seat or observer rights at Formation Bio through any of his three fund vehicles (Felicis venture round, Felicis Series C, FPV Series D)?
- The iPerian → Bristol-Myers Squibb exit directly prefigures Formation Bio’s model. Is pharma acquisition a stated thesis for FPV, or is Chan selecting these opportunities based on pattern recognition from the iPerian outcome?
- Chan was at Google with Brin. Did Chan have any direct involvement with the 23andMe partnership that TrialSpark announced in September 2019, given his Google-era connections to the Brin/Wojcicki network?
- Aydin Senkut (Felicis co-manager with Chan) — does Senkut have any independent position in the Altman network?
- FPV manages $450 million. What percentage of that fund is allocated to the Formation Bio Series D position?
- Chan’s 17 patents relate to advertising technology (AdWords). Does Formation Bio’s patient recruitment system (including the Muse AI tool) use any advertising-adjacent technology for clinical trial participant targeting?
Sources
- [Archive] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Chan)
- [Archive] (https://techcrunch.com/?p=1104921)
- [Archive] (https://ventureunlocked.substack.com/p/fpvs-wes-chan-the-path-to-backing)
- [Archive] (https://ventureunlocked.substack.com/p/fpvs-wes-chan-the-path-to-backing)
- [Archive] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Chan)
- [Archive] (https://www.linkedin.com/in/kareemzaki)
- [Archive] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Chan)