We round up the latest ageing and longevity investment news.
Regenerative cellular medicine company Celularity Inc has secured a US$10m financing package to support its healthy-ageing innovations.
The NASDAQ-listed business which focuses on addressing age-related and degenerative diseases secured the financing from Philip Barach, co-founder and former president of US investment house DoubleLine Capital.
“This closing strengthens Celularity’s financial position and provides meaningful flexibility as we continue to analyse and prioritise our platform and pipeline,” said Dr Robert Hariri, chairman and chief executive officer of Celularity.
Celularity develops and commercialises off-the-shelf, allogeneic cell therapies and advanced biomaterial products derived from the postpartum placenta.
Dr Hariri added, “In the new year, we intend to more fully articulate Celularity’s corporate strategy, including our plan to align our scientific capabilities with long-term opportunities in longevity and age-related disease.
“Our objective is to reshape Celularity into a durable, disciplined organisation that can translate innovation into sustainable value for patients and shareholders.”
GlycanAge boost
UK innovators GlycanAge has raised EUR7.4m (US$8.7m) as it looks to bring its diagnostics technology into mainstream care.
The investment round, totalling US$10m, is led by Fifth Quarter Ventures with participation from Guinness Ventures, BrightCap Ventures, South Central Ventures, Impetus Capital, Vesna Deep Tech VC and Lightfield Equity.
Its existing backers, which include LaunchHub Ventures and Kadmos Capital, have delivered pro-rata support, too. In 2024, GlycanAge raised a US€3.9m seed round.
Glycans are complex sugars that coat cells and many proteins, helping control immunity and cell signalling.
GlycanAge technology reads these signals to estimate biological age and deliver timely warnings of disease development.
Prof Gordan Lauc, co-founder and chief scientific officer of GlycanAge, said: “Our goal is to make glycan testing part of standard preventive diagnostics, where everyone over the age of 30 can access it through their healthcare provider.”
Chinese researchers say they have developed a new model capable of predicting the degree of ageing in individual human organs, allowing for a more precise assessment of how different organs age over time.
US$16.5m boost for biomarker start-up
The research team at Xi’an Jiaotong University said previous studies had largely focused either on general characteristics of overall ageing, which made it difficult to identify distinct genetic patterns and molecular pathways linked to the ageing of specific organs.
In the new study, the researchers identified 554 genes associated with a high risk of organ ageing, saying this allowed their model to lead to the early screening of high-risk groups, and identify causal links between organ ageing and chronic diseases, thereby supporting disease prevention efforts.
Glucose biomarker startup Liom has secured an additional US$16.5m for its Series A financing, bringing the round to US$48m, as it succeeded in shrinking its non-invasive, biomarker-monitoring platform to wearable size.
The Swiss company is developing a glucose-monitoring wearable, capable of providing continuous metabolic insight – without requiring needles or user calibration – and is targeting a commercial launch in 2028.
The vast majority of glucose monitoring devices currently rely on microneedles inserted under the skin.
Bank secures longevity boost
Almost 40 per cent of respondents to Life Time’s annual report identify that longevity is the wellness trend most likely to define 2026.
Findings from Life Time’s annual health and wellness survey, indicate strength training, and longevity health habits, are key priorities for Americans in 2026.
“People are training more intentionally, to feel and perform better for longer – and pairing that with smarter recovery and objective health metrics,” said Danny King, director of recovery and performance at Life Time, one of America’s leading healthy lifestyle brands.
The increasing longevity of its former employees has seen Lloyds Banking Group Pensions Trustees Limited enter into three new longevity insurance and reinsurance transactions, safeguarding a further £4.8bn of pension liabilities against the risk of unexpected increases in member life expectancy.
Vicky Paramour, trustee director and chair of the investment & funding committee, said: “We are pleased to have successfully completed these transactions, which further reduce the Schemes’ exposure to longevity risk and make the schemes more secure to the benefit of all members.”
