In January, we reported on billionaire investor Antonio Gracias’ bid to take control of embattled MDMA drug developer Lykos Therapeutics. Now, Gracias appears to be teaming up with an unlikely co-investor.

Psychedelic Alpha understands that the Musk associate and DOGE advisor is joined by an even deeper-pocketed individual: Sir Christopher Hohn.

The British decabillonaire investment manager and philanthropist helms TCI Fund Management, the second largest hedge fund in the UK and among the top half-dozen in the world, with over $60bn in assets under management.

Hohn is a prominent figure in British society, having been knighted in 2014 “for services to UK philanthropy and international development”, and in that same year being ordered to pay half-a-billion dollars in a divorce settlement, the largest of its kind in the UK at the time. Former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also worked as a partner at TCI under Hohn.

But he’s not exactly a household name, perhaps owing to his preference to maintain his private life. While he might not be well-known among the average Brit, his reputation precedes him in the City of London and on Wall Street. There, he is known not only as the founder of one of the world’s best-performing hedge funds, but also as a ruthless activist investor.

That activist streak has seen him and his firm overthrow the leadership of German stock exchange company Deutsche Börse, take legal action against the Government of India, and pen letters to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai calling for sweeping changes at his companies. It’s also earned him the title of ‘Europe’s most feared investor’.

Aside from his apparent skill in navigating the market and turning around companies, Hohn is also a prolific philanthropist.

While cynics have suggested that his charitable endeavours are primarily a means of reputation management, it is a fact that a substantial portion of TCI’s management fees flow directly into the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF). That ‘venture philanthropy’ model has seen over $6 billion in assets accrue under the foundation, which has deployed large amounts of cash to projects and issues related to children, reproductive health, and tropical diseases, among other things.

Hohn also has a clear interest in the climate crisis, being the largest donor to the polarising protest group Extinction Rebellion.

But how did Hohn become interested in stepping in to save Lykos?