age1 – a VC firm catalyzing the next generation of founder-led longevity biotech companies – recently launched to build a community of visionaries advancing new therapeutics, tools, and technologies targeting aging and age-related disease. And age1’s specialized team has an industry-leading track record and unwavering commitment to the field, having pioneered the first longevity-focused venture capital fund in 2011 (five years ahead of any other fund of its type) and since backed multiple IPOs and acquisitions.
age1 held an initial closing for $35 million to invest in companies with the most potential to shift the current paradigm of sick care to health preservation and extension.
The firm was co-founded by Laura Deming, founder of The Longevity Fund, and Alex Colville, Ph.D. – who studied the biology of aging at Stanford and was a previous biotech investment manager at prestigious family offices. And Dr. Colville previously established the biotech investment arm of Starbloom Capital and the philanthropic work of the Amaranth Foundation to advance the field of the biology of aging, where he managed more than $100 million in investments and philanthropy. Plus, he will lead age1 as the firm’s General Partner, creating the only current longevity biotech fund managed by a Ph.D. who studied the biology of aging.
A portfolio company from The Longevity Fund made history in March 2023. Loyal was the first company to receive protocol concurrence from the U.S. FDA for a clinical study with the endpoint of health span and lifespan. This study moves beyond only proving efficacy against a single disease and intends to show that a drug extends health span and lifespan in dogs. The longevity biotech industry is on the brink of a similar regulatory milestone in human clinical trials.
age1 focuses on founders and companies at the earliest stages of first money in pre-seed and seed funding and is well-capitalized to continue to support companies through later rounds. And the firm’s portfolio companies have access to strategic and regulatory guidance from successful founders, the longevity field’s leading experts, and access to an exceptional talent network. age1’s executive team has funded leading companies including Loyal, Gordian Biotechnology, Fauna Bio, Spring Discovery, Arda Therapeutics, Rubedo Life Sciences, Conception, and Bexorg.
KEY QUOTES:
“What started out as Laura’s recognition of a huge gap in the biotech industry of a lack of funding supporting longevity biotech has grown into an unprecedented growth in the amount of longevity biotech companies that promise to change the way people age. The Longevity Fund put longevity biotech on the map. We feel strongly that a next-generation fund with more founder resources is required to accelerate the longevity paradigm shift we are on the precipice of. age1 will back ambitious and pragmatic founders building companies to give people the agency to choose how long they live, in good health.”
— Dr. Colville
“age1 is the next chapter in The Longevity Fund’s mission and the inflection point for the field. We’re motivated by the idea that age1 will be the group to make the seemingly impossible possible–extending healthy lifespan.”
— Laura Deming, co-founder of age1
