Longevity Fundraising Roundup: September 2022

$408M Raised Across 14 Funding Rounds

The month of September has proven to be full of activity, with many exciting companies emerging and/or raising capital in the longevity space.

In the following post, we’ll highlight each longevity-related funding announcement from the month of September and will follow up with some notable observations surrounding today’s investment landscape.

September’s Funding Roundup:

• Lento Bio, a preclinical pharmaceutical company focused on developing small-molecule therapeutics to target molecular damage driving age-related disease, raises $680,000 in an oversubscribed seed round led by Ichor Life Sciences
• InsideTracker, a leading healthspan optimization platform raises $15 million, with participation from PeakBridge, Cornucopian Capital, OurCrowd, and BASF Venture Capital GmbH
• Rootine, a precision health company relied on by professional athletes, raises $10 million Series A, with participation from Relevance Ventures, Techstars, and DSM Venturing
• Gameto, a biotech company using cell engineering to develop therapeutics for diseases of the female reproductive system, raises $17 million, with participation from Insight Partners, Future Ventures, Arcadia Investment Partners, Bold Capital Partners, Plum Alley, Myelin VC, TA Ventures, Gaingels, and Korify Capital
• Pretzel Therapeutics, a biotech company developing therapies to modulate mitochondrial function launches with a $72.5 million Series A, with participation from ARCH Venture Partners, Mubadala Capital, HealthCap, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Cambridge Enterprise, Angelini Ventures, GV, Invus, Eir Ventures, GU Ventures, and Karolinska Institutet Holding
• Innervace, a regenerative drugs firm growing an implantable biofabricated neural pathway to revive mind circuitry raises $40 million, with participation from Deerfield Administration, IP Group, Penn Medication, WARF Ventures, and BioAdvance
• Form Bio, a spin-out from Colossal Biosciences that offers an advanced, comprehensive software platform that replaces cumbersome, code-heavy processes, enters the market with an oversubscribed $30 million Series A funding round led by JAZZ Venture Partners
• Capstan Therapeutics launches with $102 million seed and Series A financings to deliver on the clinical promise of precise in vivo cell engineering, with participants from Pfizer Ventures, Leaps by Bayer, Novartis Venture Fund, Eli Lilly and Company, and Bristol Myers Squibb
• CytoReason, a company boasting an AI platform that enables pharmaceutical and biotech companies to prioritize new targets, find biomarkers and predict which patients may best respond to novel treatments, lands a $20 million equity investment from Pfizer.
• Cleara Biotech, a preclinical-stage biotechnology company focused on developing therapies for treating different pathologies of “scarred cellular” senescence, announced that it closed a $2.5 million seed financing round earlier in the year, led by Apollo Health Ventures, with participation from Curie Capital B.V., ROM Utrecht Region and Longevity Tech Fund
• Forge Biologics, a gene therapy-focused contract development and manufacturing organization, announced that it has raised $90 million in a Series C financing, co-led by Drive Capital and Aisling Capital
• Transdermal Diagnostics, a Bristol-based MedTech spin-out, has secured £1.1 million to develop the world’s first 100% needle-free platform for blood sugar monitoring in a funding round led by QUBIS Innovation Fund, Pioneer Group, Immetric, Bristol Private Equity Club, Science Angel Syndicate, and Innovate UK1.1
• MitoChem Therapeutics, a startup focusing on developing treatments to address the effects of cellular and metabolic dysfunction in neurodegenerative conditions, received a $200,000 investment from SC Launch Inc., an investment affiliate of South Carolina Research Authority (SCRA)
• AOA Dx, a startup committed to bringing the first accurate early-stage liquid biopsy ovarian cancer diagnostic test to market, closes $7 million seed funding round led by Avestria Ventures, AlleyCorp, The Helm, RH Capital, Olive Tree Capital, and Tencent

Key Observations:

VC’s Are Waking Up To The Longevity Industry
It is always great to see broader media coverage for the longevity industry. We can attest to the statement as we have noticed an increase in our conversations with dedicated VC funds that are broadening their pipeline to include longevity. Additionally, brand new groups like Life Extension Ventures, who are peripherally fueling the industry by backing entrepreneurs and startups leveraging software and data engineering, will be critical for the ecosystem’s continued progress.

DisCo Companies Remain Popular
Last month, we predicted that DisCo’s would continue to emerge. This month our prediction came true as a new and notable DisCo, Matter Bio, quietly launched.

There’s More To Longevity Than Just Preclinical Biotech Companies
While the therapeutics and drug development side of the industry remains critically important, it seems that many of the companies supporting the industry outside of drug development are continuing to pick up momentum. This month we saw InsideTracker, which is using its AI platform for personalized nutrition and healthspan, raise a $15M Series B round of funding. Rootine also raised a $10M Series A round to advance their precision nutrition to optimize health and human performance.

Fertility Efforts Are On The Rise
There is also a lot of work happening in the reproductive health and fertility sector of the industry. This has traditionally been an overlooked sector that is now getting more attention and recognition. Gameto announced this month they raised a fresh new round of investment to the tune of $17 million from some notable investors. 

Closing Thoughts

The Spannr Ventures team remains in multiple conversations with both new and existing companies that we are looking forward to sharing directly with our group of investors soon.

If you are an accredited investor and have yet to join us at Spannr Ventures, you can do so by filling out the form provided here.

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