Life Sciences
Five million children die before their fifth birthday every year; more than 250 million cases of malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV lead to 2.8 million deaths; and 1 in every 4 children grow up malnourished. Today’s most exciting advances in biotechnology hold enormous potential to help tackle these major global health challenges.
We invest in new frontiers of science to address global health challenges through paradigm-shifting drugs, vaccines, biologics, and gene therapies. We support the development of critical assets and platform technologies that facilitate the discovery, manufacturing, and delivery of more effective, lower-cost vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. These include novel technologies in vaccine and drug development and delivery, alternative biologics, in vivo cell therapy and gene editing, low-cost point-of-care diagnostics, and food and microbial therapeutics.
Investments
Investors
Vanessa Bhark
Principal
Seattle
Vanessa Bhark is a Principal at the Gates Foundation’s $2.5 billion Strategic Investment Fund (SIF), the foundation’s venture capital, debt, and guarantee fund. Prior to joining the Gates Foundation in 2021, Vanessa was a member of the investment team at Frazier Healthcare Partners, focused on biopharmaceuticals. Vanessa has also held positions in corporate and business…
Zainab Bakrin
Associate
Seattle
Zainab Bakrin is an Associate at the Gates Foundation’s Strategic Investment Fund, focused on the Biotech Accelerator program. Prior to joining the Gates Foundation in 2024, Zainab was a member of the investment team at Casdin Capital, where she focused on life science tools, diagnostics, healthcare IT, and industrial applications of biotechnology. Zainab started her…
Elisabeth Di Domenico
Associate
Seattle
Elisabeth joined the Gates Foundation in March 2026 and serves as an Associate of the Strategic Investment Fund (SIF), where she works as a generalist across the Fund’s investment areas. Prior to joining the Foundation, Elisabeth was an Investment Banking Analyst at Morgan Stanley within the Industrials Group in New York City, where she executed…
Antonio Garcia Maldonado
Principal
London
Antonio Garcia Maldonado is a Partner at SIF. He works on international investments with a focus on biotech in Europe and Israel, and tech-enabled service/product delivery in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining the foundation, Antonio worked in the investment banking division at JPMorgan. There, he worked on structuring and executing M&A, equity…
Ryan Kreitzer
Partner
Seattle
Ryan Kreitzer joined the Strategic Investment Fund in 2014. Based in Seattle, Ryan invests across fintech, healthtech, agritech & climate, focusing on innovative companies that develop new solutions to long-standing challenges that impact patients, farmers and consumers globally. He also leads SIF’s investing practice in Sub-Saharan Africa, where he invests in businesses that deliver innovations…
Logan Morwick Miller
Associate
Seattle
Logan Morwick Miller joined the Gates Foundation in 2023 and serves as an Associate of the Strategic Investment Fund (SIF). Since joining, Logan has evaluated and structured investments in the biotech, agriculture technology and education technology sectors, as well as volume guarantees supporting new HIV PrEP products. She is the Foundation’s Board Observer for Carnegie…
David Rossow
Founding Partner
London
David Rossow joined the foundation in 2010 as part of a $400 million pilot to establish the Strategic Investment Fund. He currently heads the fund’s international work with a focus on biotech in Europe, and tech-enabled service & product delivery in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining the foundation in 2010, David worked…