Agetech investment round-up featuring Life Biosciences, Eli Lilly, L-Nutra & LinkGevity
Agetech investment round-up featuring Life Biosciences, Eli Lilly, L-Nutra & LinkGevity
The first quarter of 2026 has been a record one in healthy-ageing finance with some US$3.74bn of investment across 49 deals – an increase of 56% in total financing against the same period last year
And, the second quarter has gotten off to a flying start with Dr David Sinclair’s Life Biosciences securing a further $80m in its latest funding round.
This will be used by the company to complete its recently initiated Phase 1, trial of its ER-100 trial drug aimed at reversing human ageing and the continued advancement of its broader Partial Epigenetic Reprogramming (PER) platform, across multiple therapeutic indications.
The most notable deals in Q1, 2026, were Eli Lilly’s $2.75bn commitment to Insilico Medicine – aimed at accelerating its AI drug-discovery potential – and L-Nutra’s US$36.5m, series D, funding from Mubadala to establish a joint venture delivering longevity nutrition to the Middle East and North Africa.
The increasing interest from institutional capital and ‘big pharma’ in the longevity space is expected to continue as the scientific advancements in epigenetic reprogramming, mitochondrial health and AI-driven drug discovery, for age-related diseases, accelerates into 2026 and beyond.
Booming market
Research from US market research and consulting agency SNS Insider entitled ‘The Longevity Market Size’, says it is currently valued at US$27.61bn and will reach US$67.03bn by 2035.
In a press release accompanying the launch of its latest research SNS says: “One of the main factors driving the growth of the longevity market is the increased awareness of health hazards associated with aging, as well as the rising prevalence of chronic and age-related disorders.
“Technological advancements in genomics, biomarker analysis, AI-powered health analytics, and digital health monitoring are also driving the use of nutraceuticals, anti-aging medications, regenerative and personalized medicine solutions by individuals, wellness centers, and healthcare providers to extend lifespan and healthspan.”
Sisters’ ageing fight
A healthy lifespan company set up by two sisters in the UK aimed at combatting cell deterioration is receiving backing from the Health Innovation Network in its bid to progress drug development.
Their company LinkGevity, based at Babraham Research Campus in Cambridge, believes it has developed the first-of-its-kind drug that can block cell, calcium overload, thereby allowing cells to stabilise and repair themselves.
Speaking to the BBC Dr Carina Kern and her sister Serena Kern-Libera, said the initial target of their research is necrosis in the kidney. An estimated seven million people in the UK suffer from kidney failure.
UK-based biotechnology company Clock.bio has entered administration. Based at Cambridge Biomedical Campus, its primary mission had been to extend the healthy human lifespan by identifying and activating the body’s epigenetic programs to reverse cellular ageing.
It was founded in 2020 by Mark Kotter – a neurosurgeon and biologist at the University of Cambridge – and Koby Baranes. It appointed the administrators last month.
Maintaining appearance
Just 6 per cent of Brits say they actively try to slow or reverse the signs of ageing, according to a new YouGov anti-ageing report.
The report concludes that anti-ageing in Great Britain is less about actively reversing the signs of ageing and more about maintaining appearance through everyday habits.
Some 34% of Britons say it is important to prevent the signs of ageing, while a further 29% take a ‘neutral, maintenance-led approach, highlighting a market where engagement exists but intensity remains relatively low’, say the report authors
Ireland needs 5,000 additional hospital beds to cope with its ageing population and ‘must at least have a plan’ for substantially increased provision in the future, says the new president of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) has said at its annual general meeting in Killarney.
Prof Matthew Sadlier said the country’s health services traditionally had a different demographic breakdown to many other European countries because of mass emigration, and that had spared the health service some of the strain experienced elsewhere.
He said: “Previously, where the percentage of the population over 65, in a developed world country, would be somewhere around 20%, historically in Ireland it was 10, 11, 12% so now…we have a much bigger population and we’ve a much bigger older population, people who tend to need hospital beds.”
