New Age-tech fund will capitalise upon trend towards “multi-generational living”
4Gen Ventures, a new venture capital fund entering the Agetech space, plans to begin investing in early 2020, founder Dominic Endicott has revealed to Longevity.Technology. The funding round’s raise is targeting between £50-100m, according to Endicott, and will include contributions from a broad-range of corporate and institutional investors. The fund will start putting its money to work once it has reached £50m in commitments, which is slated to happen by the end of this year.
The news comes at a time of increasing interest in the Age-tech market from angel-investors and VCs, who see great opportunity in companies serving the later-life needs of aging western populations.
“By 2035, there will be 78.0 million people 65 years and older compared to 76.7 million (previously 76.4 million) under the age of 18,” the US Census Bureau declared this year. 4Gen plans to take full advantage of this tipping point, with its founders projecting a potential $30tn global spend in the market by 2025.
Mr Endicott forecasts that the broad appeal of Agetech will see investment into new VC funds not just from the traditional institutional sources, like pension funds or banks — but from a broader range of corporate investors.
“In a perfect world, we would love to have partnerships and investment from a broad range of verticals,” says Mr Endicott. “We would love to work with financial services companies, but we’d also love to work with real estate, utilities, food, retail and transport. It’s not just their lender’s capital that we want to harness, but their expertise, as well. This isn’t just an investment opportunity, but a very broad social shift as well.”
4Gen takes its name from an anticipation of this shift, with rising costs in housing and social care causing families in the US & UK to increasingly consider “multi-generational living,” — cohabiting or living together in close neighbourhoods across four generations.
Mr Endicott says the fund will be targeting the US and UK market, where he and co-founder Alasdair Greig have the most experience. It will also be run in partnership with Northstar ventures, a fund that has been investing in UK tech businesses since 2004. Mr Endicott enters the Age-tech funding space with his own experience, having sold GreatCall to BestBuy in 2018 for $800m. The Age-tech company, which Mr Endicott invested in when he was a General Partner at Nauta Capital, provides health and safety services for older adults through mobile devices and wearables.
