Don't Die: The Rise of Longevity Technology
Humans have always dreamed of eternal life
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At 35, I found myself hitting the brakes on life to give my health the attention it deserved. The catalyst? Navigating the storm of stress that accompanied building a startup in Brazil. That's when I started making some changes – cutting down on dairy and meat, diving into cold showers, giving intermittent fasting a shot, and incorporating more cardiovascular exercises such as marathons (now my favourite hobby). Now, as I dug into research for this newsletter, it hit me that these shifts aren't just routines; they're little personal revolutions impacting how we age based on the life we choose.
We should live longer and better, with innovations in this field ensuring improved well-being during the final 20/30 years of our journey.
You might be familiar with Bryan Johnson (I love his slightly sarcastic sense of humor), the 45-year-old tech entrepreneur and millionaire, who is determined to experience the rejuvenation of an 18-year-old through an elaborate and expensive routine designed to reverse the aging process. His ambitious endeavor, known as "Project Blueprint," comes with an annual price tag of $2 million. Johnson's regimen includes unconventional practices such as infusing blood from his teenage son, following over 100 daily protocols that incorporate numerous supplements, having dinner as early as 11 a.m., and retiring for the night at 8:30 p.m.
The Opportunity
As people increasingly seek to delay the aging process and extend their healthspan, a notable business opportunity is emerging for companies to introduce innovative products and services in this field.
Longevity encompasses four (4) key areas, each playing a role in enhancing the quality of life throughout extended healthspans:
Prevention: Aiming to forestall damage leading to aging.
Diagnostics: Focusing on early detection of aging-related damage.
Treatment: Addressing and treating existing age-related damage.
Renewal: Undertaking measures to reverse damage that has already occurred.
Various disciplines, such as biotechnology, regenerative medicine, AI, genomics, epigenetics, and senescence biology, collectively strive towards a common goal—prolonging human lifespan and enhancing the overall quality of life during the aging process.
Why Do We Age?
David A. Sinclair identifies one root cause of aging centered on the epigenome - the collection of chemical modifications to a person’s DNA that determine which parts are switched on or off. According to Sinclair, as we age we lose information in the epigenome, which causes cells to start behaving in ways that they should not.
There are three ways to expand a person’s healthspan: (1) Lifestyle, (2) Supplements (Nutraceuticals) and (3) Advanced Therapeutics.
Sounds Promising, Doesn't It? Let's See The Size Of The Market
The market potential of longevity therapeutics is intricately tied to the perception of aging as a fundamental contributor to various chronic diseases. While traditional estimates project a value of $25.1 billion in 2020, rising to $44.2 billion by 2030 according to Allied Market Research, a more comprehensive view emerges when considering the potential of longevity therapeutics to replace conventional treatments. First Technology Ltd, a UK-based biotech company, suggests that the annual market value for diseases treatable with senotherapeutics, a crucial element targeting cellular senescence within longevity therapeutics, reached $127 billion in 2021.
A thriving market signals business opportunities.
In Europe, these 10 startups are actively disrupting the aging process, exploring areas such as cell reprogramming, gut health, and innovative health clinics.
Rejuvenate Biomed (Belgium): a biotech company dedicated to the discovery and development of therapeutics to delay the onset of multiple age-related diseases.
Rejuvenate Biomed has raised a total of €19.4M in funding over 3 rounds.
Neko Health (Sweden): Founded in 2018 by Hjalmar Nilsonne and Daniel Ek (founder/CEO of Spotify), Neko Health believes that with the help of the latest sensor technology and AI, it is possible to create more affordable and thorough examinations that can raise the quality of healthcare and focus on prevention. Neko Health has raised a total of €60M in funding.
Ayun (Switzerland): a longevity day clinic targeting the upper middle class. It’s part of Maximon’s portfolio, a Swiss longevity company builder.
Cellvie (USA/Switzerland): is pioneering Therapeutic Mitochondria Transplantation, a novel treatment approach aimed at the cellular energy metabolism. Cellvie has raised a total of $10.5M in funding over 2 rounds
Epiterna (Switzerland): a biotechnology company that focuses on long-term medicines for humans and animals. It has developed a platform to evaluate drugs and assess their effect on healthy lifespan. Epiterna has raised a total of €10M in funding from Prima Materia.
Avea (Switzerland): a science-based longevity supplements company. Avea Life has raised a total of €5M in funding over 2 rounds.
Shift Bioscience (UK): a bio-pharmaceutical manufacturer of a biologically safe machine-learning approach that controls age. Shift Bioscience believes that reprogramming of the cells will lead to a rapid development of new treatments for a range of diseases associated with old age, such as neurodegenerative diseases.
Cleara Biotech ( Netherlands): is targeting cellular senescence to extend human healthspan at old age and to counteract late stage cancer. Cleara Biotech has raised a total of $2.5M in funding.
Biolytica (Switzerland): is a health data company developing a platform for data-driven personalised health optimisation. Biolytica has raised a total of €5.3M in funding.
Years (Germany): is a data-driven precision medicine company, developing a deep proprietary and holistic dataset of various health parameters to enable the reliable discovery and validation of novel biomarkers.
Investment
The global pursuit of longevity has gained momentum, attracting venture capital funds worldwide. The longevity industry reveals distinct waves of growth and contractions, and despite market dynamics, funding remained substantial at $7.18 billion in 2022, emphasizing sustained enthusiasm for longevity-related ventures.
2024 Prediction: Longevity medicine goes mainstream
As longevity medicine gains traction among consumers, there's a projected resurgence in consumer healthcare in 2024, emphasizing preventative care models and longevity science. This shift presents a significant business opportunity for companies to develop products and services leveraging multimodal and longitudinal data, providing consumers with a holistic view of their health and personalized recommendations. Think of it as an AI personal health manager.
Beyond ongoing research in therapeutics and diagnostics for major chronic diseases, such as heart disease and cancer, the regulatory and payment landscape for longevity-focused medicine, health tech, and digital services is yet to fully unfold in what's referred to as "Medicine 2.0". Achieving mainstream adoption requires minimizing false positives and integrating learnings into protocols. Pioneering companies like Prenuvo (direct-to-consumer) and Rupa (B2B2C and provider enablement) are leading this shift, representing the emergence of Medicine 3.0—a broader movement towards data-driven, personalized healthcare that empowers consumers to prioritize prevention and longevity.
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Other topics that might pique your interest 💡📍 Closing The Women’s Health Gap: A $1 Trillion Opportunity.
A research, published in Davos in January 2024 by the World Economic Forum and the McKinsey Health Institute (MHI), found that on average women were in poor health for 25% longer than men and that this could be cut by almost two-thirds if the health gap was closed. 👉 Click here to read the full article.
📍The 18 Most Promising Fertility Startups To Watch.
As fertility rates decline and people choose to have children later in life, venture capitalists are now recognizing the potential in investing in reproductive tech startups. 👉 Click here to read the full article.
The contents of this newsletter have the potential to influence those around you. Feel free to share it with anyone you believe might find it interesting.
+ Health-Tech innovation is good
Martin
P.S. I used some of the following sources to obtain the data for this article:
(1) PWC (2) Longevity.Technology (3) Forbes (4) PitchBook (5) David A. Sinclair PhD (6) Lifespan.io (7) Crunchbase (8) Bessemer Venture Partners
