Last Week in Longevity #3 - $154M Raised + OpenAI's latest longevity contribution
Your weekly business digest of everything that happened in longevity.
👋 Hi, I am Fabian, and welcome to my newsletter Last Week in Longevity. Every week, I track where the money, talent, and ideas are moving in the longevity business.
Here’s what you need to know this week:
Top longevity business news (international),
Closed funding rounds (international),
Events & meetups (Europe-only), and
Longevity jobs (Europe-only).
Let’s get started.
📰 Top longevity business news
Longevity clinic SHA has integrated WHOOP wearables into its program, combining real-time recovery, sleep, and strain data with cellular therapies, precision nutrition, and diagnostics. Read more here.
👉 Why this is interesting:
If the last 20 years have proved one thing: You can build hugely successful companies around data. After all, “data is the oil of the 21st century”. And the amount of data WHOOP & co are collecting is crazy, with still so many untapped use cases outside of their own app ecosystems. From a strategic perspective, longevity clinics are early adopters and will become proving grounds for wearable data. If SHA validates outcomes with WHOOP, expect insurers (who care about lowering costs; see example last week) and healthcare providers (who care about delivering better outcomes at scale) to follow.OpenAI built GPT-4b micro, a downsized model specialised for protein engineering, in collaboration with longevity startup Retro Biosciences. The model designed new variants of the Yamanaka factors, proteins used to reprogram adult cells into stem cells (e.g. used to replace damaged tissues or used in personalised cell therapies), achieving 50-fold higher efficiency in lab tests. Read more here.
👉 Why this is interesting:
This gives us early evidence for what we are all hoping for: AI has the potential to accelerate life sciences and longevity research so that death becomes optional - and all during our own lifetime.The Japanese company AutoPhagyGO, a XPRIZE semi-finalist, focuses on harnessing autophagy to demonstrate rejuvenation in muscle, cognition, and immunity. Therefore, they blend Nobel-backed autophagy science with Japan’s cultural lifestyle heritage to create safe, measurable interventions for healthy aging, based on wearable tools, dietary strategies, and supplements. Their flagship Awabancha extract extended lifespan in C. elegans by 14%. Read more here.
👉 Why this is interesting:
Japan is a natural hub for autophagy innovation: the 2016 Nobel Prize in Medicine for its discovery went to Japanese biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi. If AutoPhagyGO succeeds in quantifying human autophagy biomarkers without the need for traditional wet labs, it creates an entirely new diagnostics category, which could become the “CGM for cellular cleanup”. Whoever validates individual autophagy metrics has the chance to own the personalisation layer of nutrition and supplements, an untapped market that dwarfs generic hacks like intermittent fasting or keto.The first longevity clinic opened in India. Read more here.
👉 Why this is interesting:
Last week, we discussed the emergence of longevity clinics “on every corner”. It is great to see that this trend is not limited to North America and Europe.Aubrai, a blockchain-native AI agent, is transforming longevity research through AI-powered hypothesis generation, DAO governance, and tokenised intellectual property (IP). By converting validated discoveries into IP-tokens licensed to biotech firms and returning proceeds to researchers and AUBRAI token holders, the startup is trying to bridge the “Valley of Death” in longevity research. Read more here.
👉 Why this is interesting:
While this article feels very buzzword-heavy, Aubrai tackles a real problem: research funding. Not all projects appeal to conventional VC or philanthropic gatekeepers, and projects might want to seek capital elsewhere. Nonetheless, DeSci (decentralised science) is not new (e.g. longevity-focused VitaDAO), so let’s see if throwing agentic AI into the mix will help it to become more mainstream. If it really helps to accelerate discoveries and cuts validation timelines by up to 70% (!), it should have a real chance.
💸 Closed funding rounds
US$ 154M raised across 7 deals (↘️ down 40% from US$ 258M across 8 deals last week)
Twin Health - US$ 53M Series E
The Mountain View-based (USA) company empowers customers to address the root causes of metabolic conditions (like obesity or type 2 diabetes), using a real-time model (digital twin) of their unique metabolism. Using sensors and wearables to feed the digital twin, you can get insights and professional help to optimise your metabolic health. On the heels of their near-unicorn funding round (US$ 950M valuation), they published a study that shows that 71% of participants using the digital twin lowered their blood sugar level and were frequently able to stop using medications. Maj Invest led the round, with participation from existing investors, including Iconiq and Temasek. Learn more here: Company, Article
Wellth - US$ 36M Series C
The Los Angeles-based (USA) company provides “high‑risk populations” (e.g. patients) a mobile-first behavior-change platform delivering daily motivation to drive adherence to care plans. Wellth uses behavioral economics and financial incentives to encourage members to complete daily healthy actions like taking medications, checking blood pressure, measuring glucose, and showing up to appropriate preventative care visits, thereby helping to build lasting habits that lead to better health outcomes and measurable ROI for partners. Investors include: Mercato Partners, FCA Venture Partners, Comcast Ventures, and existing investors SignalFire, NY Life, and CD-Venture. Learn more here: Company, Article
Debut - US$ 20M
The San Diego-based (USA) company develops novel ingredients and formulations for skin longevity, using its own AI-based ingredient discovery platform. Funding will be used to screen more than 50 billion ingredients and their impact on skin health and longevity, as well as expanding into Asia. Investors include Fine Structure Ventures, EDBI, Wealthberry, BOLD (the venture fund of L'Oréal), among others. Learn more here: Company, Article
Sava - US$ 19M Series A
The London-based (UK) company is developing a wearable microsensor platform enabling real‑time, multi‑molecule detection, starting with painless continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) and expanding to broader biomarkers. The funding will pave the way for regulatory approval and commercialisation of the new wearable. Investors include Norrsken VC, JamJar Investments, True Global, Italian Founders Fund, Athletico Ventures, and Exceptional Ventures. Learn more here: Company, Article
MORROW - US$ 15.6M
The Singapore-based company is building a longevity clinic, intending to be more affordable for a wider customer base in helping them to adopt a healthy lifestyle through personalised roadmaps supported by a team of professionals and coaches. The goal is to open several locations around the globe, with a pledged investment of US$ 156M. So far, it seems entrepreneur Allen Law is financing the venture by himself.
Learn more here: Company, Article
Sleep.ai - US$ 5.5M
The San Diego-based (USA) company offers a sleep intelligence platform designed to generate advanced sleep insights, used by third-party products and services, as well as its own B2C app. Investors include Treasure Coast Ventures, Nurture Ventures, and more. Learn more here: Company, Article
Molecular You - US$ 5M Series A
The Vancouver-based (Canada) company focuses on health insights based on blood biomarker testing. They work with clinics as well as sell directly to individuals. The round was led by Voloridge Health, Dynamic Leap, and others. Learn more here: Company, Article
🗓 Events & meetups
(IT) 2nd Seno-Therapeutics Summit (Sep 16-19, 2025)
(LV) 3rd International Baltic Conference on Healthy Longevity (Sep 16-17, 2025)
(CH) St. Moritz Longevity Forum (Sep 18-21, 2025)
(CH) Longevity Investors Conference (Sep 22-25, 2025)
(UK) Healf Experience (Oct 3-5, 2025)
(CH) Global Longevity Summit (Oct 28-30, 2025)
(ES) 4th Longevity World Forum (Feb 18-20, 2026)
(CH) SIP Longevity Retreat (Apr 20-24, 2026)
(PT) 4th Global Longevity Med Summit (May 6-7, 2026)
(DE) LIFE Summit (May 29-30, 2026)
(IE) Longevity Summit Dublin (Jun 24-26, 2026)
(NL) HLTH Europe (Jun 15-18, 2026)
(CZ) 8th World Aging & Rejuvenation Conference (Jun 18-19, 2026)
💼 Longevity jobs
(Berlin) Co-Founder @ stealth startup
(Berlin) Co-Founder / CXO @ Life Summit
(Berlin) Product Development Manager Longevity @ Sunday Naturals
(Berlin) Founder Associate @ Kalia Lab
(München) Creative Designer- Video & Performance Design @MoleQlar
(Karlsruhe) Medizinische Fachangestellte für Longevity-Medizin @ belleaesthetics
(Rostock) Postdoc: Bioinformatics and AI for Longevity @ Uni Rostock
(London) Registered Nurse @ London Longevity
(London) Product Manager @ Juniper UK
Keep building,
Fabian
P.S. Got feedback, fun ideas, or longevity-related news? I would love to hear from you - just reach out by replying to this email.