Last Week in Longevity #4 - $48M raised + The Smart Ring War
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.
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📰 Top longevity business news
The Smart Ring War is heating up: Oura, the maker of smart rings loved by many longevity enthusiasts, has won a decisive ITC ruling (U.S. International Trade Commission) that bans Ultrahuman and RingConn smart rings from the U.S. market, leveraging a newly issued patent on ring form factors. Samsung even filed a preemptive lawsuit over its Galaxy Ring (later dismissed), highlighting how seriously competitors take Oura’s IP strategy. With Ultrahuman now countersuing in India, smart rings are entering full-blown patent warfare. Read more here.
👉 Why this is interesting:
Patent wars mean wearables have matured: Oura is no longer a scrappy startup but a patent fortress with 100 granted and 270 pending patents. That is a lot of ‘ammunition’ to defend its territory in the billion $$$ wearables market and probably directly copied from the playbook their competitors like Samsung have used in the past (e.g. when suing Apple over the iPhone design).McKinsey: Healthspan could add US$ 2T GDP. Biomedical interventions that affect the aging process and improve health outcomes could translate to as much as US$ 2 trillion in annual GDP uplift (globally). To accelerate progress in healthspan science, the report suggests the field could advance efforts across seven dimensions, including derisking investments by stronger collaboration between different types of investors with different skillsets, as well as the development of more practitioner talent. Read more here.
👉 Why this is interesting:
Reports by McK and the likes signal growing institutional recognition of healthspan as a strategic category. It elevates longevity from being a niche topic to a high-impact investment domain, mobilising regulators, investors, and biotech toward scalable health-extension solutions.Portfolia launches its US$ 20m Women’s Health Fund IV. The fund targets underinvested yet impactful areas like fertility, menopause, cardiovascular health, nutrition, and longevity. The first investment of the fund was Gameto (stem cell-derived therapies for reproductive health), which we featured two weeks ago. Read more here.
👉 Why this is interesting:
For decades, clinical research defaulted to men, and results often fail to translate to women. Yet with 4 billion women globally, this is hardly a niche. The disconnect is stark: women’s health attracts just ~2% of venture funding, despite representing a $1T+ market (with female-focused longevity therapeutics already worth ~$20B).ProLon released an updated iteration of its fasting-mimicking diet (a short-term, low-calorie diet designed to trigger fasting-like effects on the body without complete food restriction). The program consists of shelf-stable, ready-to-eat organic soups and teas while preserving its clinically validated FMD science. Read more here.
👉 Why this is interesting:
Fasting is hard. Humans are lazy and comfort-seeking. So how can companies help people get the metabolic/longevity benefits of fasting? They do what the food industry has already perfected: Packaged, ready-to-eat convenience food - this time just with reduced calories (but not a reduced price tag, of course).St. Bernards opens Longevity Center in Jonesboro (USA), repurposing a previously unoccupied space in the existing hospital. Read more here.
👉 Why this is interesting:
While most longevity clinics have opened in big cities, Jonesboro has an estimated population of approximately 80k. If successful, this longevity center offers a blueprint for broader deployment of longevity-focused clinics.5 out of 7 days, people think about their weight, but 87% delay taking action due to life responsibilities. What sounds like a paradox was revealed by Pritikin Longevity Center survey. Read more here.
👉 Why this is interesting:
The disparity between health awareness and action reveals a major longevity-commercial opportunity: services and products must help people overcome their inner ‘demons’/inertia holding them back from desired change (see also ProLon above) and help to build healthy habits.
💸 Closed funding rounds
US$ 48M raised across 6 deals (↘️ down 69% from US$ 154M across 7 deals last week)
Leal Therapeutics - US$ 30M Series A
The 4-year-old Worcester-based (USA) company is developing therapeutics to correct metabolic imbalances in the brain, focusing on treating neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases. Transforming age-related neurodegeneration (e.g., ALS, Alzheimer’s) can extend healthy lifespan. Investors include SV Health Investors' Dementia Discovery Fund (DDF) as well as existing investors OrbiMed, Newpath Partners, Chugai Venture Fund, Euclidean Capital, and more. Learn more here: Company, Article
Therna - US$ 10M Seed
The San Francisco-based (USA) company, founded in 2020, is building generative AI models for decoding the language of RNA (claiming to be the largest RNA model to date). Using these models, the goal is programmable RNA therapeutics engineered for enhanced translation, durability, immune evasion, and precise tissue targeting. RNA medicines regulate protein production or deliver instructions for protein synthesis. Investors include: AIX Ventures, Pear VC, and Fusion Fund. Learn more here: Company, Article
Feel Goods - US$ 4.7M Seed
The West Hollywood-based (USA) company, founded in 2020, sells supplements for gut and immune health. The round was led by Cutting Horse, with participation from Adapt VC, SuperAngel.Fund, Air Ventures, TA Ventures, and OpenSky Ventures. Learn more here: Company, Article
Model Health - US$ 1M Pre-Seed
The 1-year-old Brussels-based (Belgium) company enables physical therapists and athletic trainers to capture and interpret lab-grade movement analysis using standard smartphone technology. The technology originated from research by co-founders Antoine Falisse (CEO) and Scott Uhlrich (CSO) at Stanford University, where it has already been adopted by more than 10,000 users in the academic community. APEX Capital led the round with participation from Syndicate One, LeanSquare, imec.istart, and various angel investors. Learn more here: Company, Article
One Stop Wellness - US$ 1M
The Texas-based (USA) company, founded in 2018, offers an on-demand health literacy platform that incentivises employees to adopt healthy habits with the goal to add up to 9.5 years to the lifespan of its users. The funding will help to launch an AI-powered food scanner, the first of its kind designed to recognise and analyse culturally relevant foods commonly eaten in Black and Caribbean communities. It is part of a broader mission to make health tools inclusive, data-driven, and accessible to those often overlooked in traditional wellness tech. Investors include Amazon’s Alexa Fund, Jumpstart Foundry, and several angel investors. Learn more here: Company, Article
Seluna - US$ 1M
The Glasgow-based (Scotland) company, founded in 2022, is developing AI-powered diagnostics for paediatric sleep disorders like sleep apnea. Left untreated, sleep apnea in children can impair neurocognitive development, mimic ADHD, and increase long-term risks of chronic neurological, cardiac, and metabolic disease. Investors include Gabriel Investment Syndicate, Scottish Enterprise, University of Strathclyde, and STAC Invest. Learn more here: Company, Article
🗓 Events & meetups (Europe-only)
(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) Biostasis 2025 (Oct 10-12, 2025)
(LU) Longevity & Biohacking Retreat (Oct-Nov 24-04, 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)
(AT) 2nd World Congress on Future of Aging & Rejuvenation Science (Jul 20-21, 2026)
(DE) POLLY Longevity Festival (Aug 21-23, 2026)
💼 Longevity jobs (Europe-only)
(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) Product Manager @ Juniper UK
Keep building the future of longevity - one week at a time.
Fabian
P.S. Want your open positions or events to be featured? Just send them my way by replying to this email.