A new early-stage longevity investment fund in the Baltics gets underway targeting seed and pre-A Longevity rounds.
Latvian investment group LongeVC has announced its first official early-stage fund and shared details of its Deep Longevity exit.
Longevity.Technology: Not long after Deep Longevity, Inc was acquired by Regent Pacific, funding details have been revealed. LongeVC is using this latest exit to create its first early-stage investment fund, which will be focused on biotech and Longevity opportunities.
Deep Longevity closed a Series A funding round at the end of June 2020. LongeVC was joined in the round by some of the most worldwide well-known venture capitalists specialising in biotechnology, Longevity and AI, including ETP Ventures, Human Longevity and Performance Impact Venture Fund, BOLD Capital Partners, Longevity Vision Fund, Oculus co-founder Michael Antonov, as well as other AI and biotechnology investors.
LongeVC is an investment group, specialising in curating, facilitating and executing early-stage venture investments in the fields of biotech and Longevity. Its current investment portfolio includes Insilico Medicine, a global leader in AI-driven drug discovery and Longenesis, an end-to-end collaborative biotech research enabler, as well as other biotech industry-specific companies.
“LongeVC will have a strong focus on companies working with solutions in longevity and biotechnology.”
Deep Longevity‘s deep aging clocks and platforms for measuring and tracking rates of aging aim to help physicians to make better decisions on interventions that may slow or reverse aging processes. Deep Longevity’s deep haematological clocks are also being explored as a predictive tool for the analysis of COVID-19 positive patients. The aging clocks were created in research partnership with Human Longevity, Inc.
Addressing the Regent Pacific acquisition of Deep Longevity and his fund’s exit, LongeVC Partner Sergey Jakimov told us: “Our team welcomes this acquisition and is proud to have participated in one of the testimonies to the enormous future potential that the longevity industry has to offer. It is a unique deal for the Baltic area, and we are determined to use our expertise to screen and invest in similar deals globally.”
Currently the new fund LongeVC is being set up, with the total amount of the money available from the fund estimated to be $35m.
“We are targeting seed-stage and pre-A funding round companies as there are limited opportunities worldwide to get investments at these stages,” Jakimov explains.
“LongeVC will have a strong focus on companies working with solutions in longevity and biotechnology. This is the focus that will drive our interest and not the geographical perspective. LongeVC is already discussing investments with companies from Europe, Asia and the US.”
There is also expert advice available to start-ups, as LongeVC is already collaborating with co-founder of Oculus Michael Antonov and founder and Chief Longevity Officer of Deep Longevity, Alex Zhavoronkov, among others.
“… throughout the last 5 years, the Baltics – and Latvia in particular – have become a hot spot for deep-tech and science-heavy innovation.”
When we asked Jakimov why Latvia is a destination of choice he told us: “When we were looking for an area to operate from, the LongeVC team considered multiple factors that resulted in Riga, Latvia.
“First and foremost, the fund’s management team is historically rooted in the Baltics and understanding the local market, can secure access to the best talent in analytics, research, and deal-flow analysis. Second, throughout the last 5 years, the Baltics – and Latvia in particular – have become a hot spot for deep-tech and science-heavy innovation, seeing the rise of multiple biotech and digital health ventures, some dealing specifically with combatting or assisting research of age-related diseases, such as Koatum, Anatomy Next and Verita Cell.
“All were recognized for their highly competent teams, lean cost structures and unique, university-developed IP. LongeVC wants to congratulate this development and be able to support such ventures early.
“Last but not least, Latvia is uniquely placed as an EU member state with flexible legislation, a trustworthy international reputation and a growing biotech community, which allows for both local and international deal sourcing.”
Longevity is big business, on track to be a half-trillion-dollar industry in five years’ time, so we welcome Longevity-focused investment funds that are joining us and others on this journey.
