The rich invest fortunes in longevity. They explain to us why

Winter is not entirely sure what was the remedy and whether it existed at all. He could afford these treatments thanks to the family fortune from the German Supplier of Automotive parts Fritz Winter. Through his family office in 2018, he began to invest in health care and natural sciences, initially wanting to help in developing better methods of treating Lyme disease, but he was interested in startups Deeptech, which try to print 3D organs and use artificial intelligence to discover medicines. He transformed these investments into a fund that has invested over $ 20 million from 2021.

“It is said that entrepreneurs are people who solve their own problems they experience, but also those that affect many people,” said Winter, currently a 34-year-old, in an interview with Business Insider. “I think it was true in my case,” he added.

Winter belongs to a growing group of family offices, including heirs like him and entrepreneurs in the first generation, who make direct investments for a longer and healthier life. They are in good company, Startups dealing with longevity attracted global investments in 2022 in the amount of over $ 5 billion 200 million.according to Venture Capital Longevity Tech Fund, which used the Pitchbook data. Billionaires like Peter Thiel found the headlines to the headlines, supporting attempts to reverse the aging process at the cellular level.

For many investors, such as Winter, the goal is not to cheat death. Guided by your own health struggles or the death of loved ones, They want to extend not only life expectancy, but more importantly, our vitality, i.e. how many years you can spend without chronic diseases or age -related ailments.

Winter believes that the life expectancy of health from 90 to 120 years is “quite sensible” for him, taking into account the rate of progress in medicine, although there is only one documented case of a person who lived for 120 years. At the same time, Winter is skeptical about the idea that scientific discoveries can overtake aging, enabling people to live forever.

– There has been a lot of noise around longevity. We did not notice that much of it would happen – he said. – I think that the most reliable approaches we have seen are still involved in choosing specific diseases and things that really affect older people and can either prevent it, or can treat them reactively He added.

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Selection between scientists and dream sellers

Three years ago, Winter moved the investments of his family office to health care to the Venture Capital company called Harmonix. Since the adoption of external investors, Harmonix has raised funds worth $ 20 million until the end of July last year, and the closing of the next funding round is planned until the end of March.

The company based at La Quinta, California made over 30 investments. One of the portfolio companies, Pathologatwatch, which uses artificial intelligence to help dermatologists in faster and more accurate analysis and diagnosis of cases, has been taken over for $ 150 million. in November.

According to Winter, improving detection and prevention of diseases such as cancer and other main causes of death would be a breakthrough affecting life expectancy and health. Unfortunately, it was difficult for him to find potential companies that would meet these assumptions because he believes that the American healthcare system is more encouraging to treat diseases than to prevent them.

Investors of longevity faces many other challenges. Investing in biotechnology is risky and expensive even to the rich. Research and development of new drugs and therapy are not cheap, and investors cannot afford scantiness in terms of due diligence.

Kathrin Genovese, founder of KGM, a Swiss company management company who advises the richest families, does not make direct investments. She and some of her clients are investors in Maximon, the Swiss Longevity Fund, which includes the “Health Clinic”.

– At this point, I can't say what really works and what is not. And I think that the industry is also unable to tell me because she is too young – said Genovese, who had previously worked for UBS and ran a family office for 15 years. “We'll say who will handle and who doesn't,” she added.

Sellers of what the Americans call “Snake Ola”, or promises without coverage, also operates in the longevity industry. They can also be called “dream sellers”. They offer solutions and products without real medical value, promising wonderful results. Investors with high funds are an attractive goal of such people. Winter's Harmonix Fund has six advisers who verify offers, use the procedure of due diligence with over 200 criteria and analyze huge amounts of data.

Peter Fioretti, an entrepreneur from the real estate industry and a member of R360, a club for people with a property worth at least $ 100 million, is passionate about longevity. Six years ago he went to over 10 doctors to get a thorough assessment of his heart and diagnosis of arterial embolism. Now the 64-year-old, thanks to diet, exercises and supplements, has reached “heart age” 47 years.

However, an enthusiast of preventing aging is careful in investment after he has made several investments in research on stem cells, as well as an application that monitors the training and health of the user and provides the advice of a dietitian. Fioretti club, R360, does not advise on investment, but has its own team, which carries out inspections, verifies marketing offers and performs other tasks.

“The assessment is difficult,” he said about the possibilities of biotechnology. – They are very unpredictable. The capital needed is difficult to determine, and regulatory locks usually cause great negative surprises He added.

How do the rich include these investments in their lives?

Genovese goals are simple: feel good and adversely aged.

– When you start a new business at the age of 60 with a partner, which is half the younger than you, you must keep the form and think soberly for the next few years She said. – Grateful aging as a woman is an even bigger problem than in the case of men, because we cannot come to the office and do not look good or run companies without being in shape She added.

For six years, she used a program of exercises and supplements aimed at reducing inflammation, which is associated with age -related diseases. The drug is included in the portfolio of its fund.

Eric Becker, co -founder of the Creset property managing company, together with his two sons founded a family office and chose Blue Zone Foods as the first investment. The startup dealing with ready food uses recipes from so -called “blue zones” known for longevity. Becker Venture Partners also invested in NewPath Partners, a fund dealing with natural sciences, founded by Becker, Dr. Dan Yadegar.

For Becker, whose daughter died of leukemia at the age of 21, and for his family longevity is not an abstract topic.

– My philosophy is not regretted anything and minimize regret – he said. “We just do things that are healthy and productive and try to do everything in our power,” he added.

Becker and his wife, sons and their wives are members of “100+ Experience” The Human Longevity Institute, a medical program that includes extensive research to predict the future risk of age -related diseases.

He received tips on how to live better, especially in the field of meal and sleep control. However, his favorite advice comes from his mother's boyfriend, who recently turned 100: Drink a glass of Johnny Walker every day at 18.

“This is the simplest advice to be fulfilled,” he joked.

Above is the translation of the article from the American release of Insider.

Crowd: Mateusz Albin