Cure
Overview
A list of the most promising anti-aging and longevity startups to watch in 2026, featuring companies developing epigenetic reprogramming, senolytics, AI-driven drug discovery, and next-generation cell rejuvenation therapies.
The desire to slow down aging isn’t new, but the way we pursue it is changing fast. What used to be a fringe category built on vague promises has turned into a serious, data-driven sector that spans skincare, supplements, devices, and emerging therapeutics. The global anti-aging market generated more than $85 billion in 2025, and projections put it close to $120 billion by 2030. The space is no longer defined by vanity products alone. It has become a broader push toward extending health span, improving performance, and preventing age-related decline before it begins.
“People no longer want to wait around to see if they get sick. They’re trying to perform better, live longer, and feel younger now, and not have to worry about major health problems down the road,” Kyle Zagrodzky, CEO at OsteoStrong, told Cure. “The longevity market is flourishing because people want a higher quality of life, not just more time on the clock. From biohacking to wearables, consumers are hungry for solutions that deliver concrete, measurable results.”
That shift is changing expectations for companies in the field. According to Zagrodzky, 2026 is when the industry hits an inflection point. “Investors and consumers are getting more sophisticated, and they’re looking for data, not hype. Startups that show real results in expanding health span will thrive, and those based on generic ‘anti-aging’ claims will fade fast.”
Against that backdrop, we’ve gathered a list of US-based anti-aging and longevity companies that are grounded in credible science, building toward clinical impact, and positioned to create real value in 2026.
Altos Labs
Sector: Cell rejuvenation and induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) approaches
HQ: Redwood City, CA
Year Founded: 2022
Origin Story: The company grew out of a meeting that Yuri Milner hosted at his home, where attending scientists discussed the potential of cellular rejuvenation based on Shinya Yamanaka’s findings.
Key Leaders: Hal Barron, MD, CEO, Founder, and Board Co-Chair; Rick Klausner, MD, Chief Scientist and Founder; Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte, PhD, Founding Scientist and Senior Vice President; Shinya Yamanaka, MD, 2012 Nobel Prize winner in physiology, advisor.
Number of Employees: Around 500
Stage: Series B
Financial Snapshot: $3 billion financing commitment in 2022
Notable Investors: Jeff Bezos, Yuri Milner, ARCH Venture Partners
Key Products: Research in epigenetic reprogramming; building computational models that can analyze biological systems and interpret cellular resilience.
Recent Highlights: In October 2025, a Cell paper from Belmonte and colleagues showed that turning off specific genes may prevent cellular drift and restore a more youthful and regulated state. The company’s Distinguished Fellow for AI, Thore Graepel, PhD, is developing advanced computer models for cellular reprogramming that aim to guide cells toward healthier and more youthful profiles. His related research appeared in Cell Research in July 2025.
Retro Biosciences
Sector: Cellular autophagy and reprogramming to rejuvenate cell and tissue function
HQ: Redwood City, CA
Year founded: 2021
Origin story: Joe Betts-LaCroix worked with Sam Altman at Y Combinator. After reading a 2020 paper that found diluting the blood plasma of mice could show rejuvenating effects, Altman told Betts-LaCroix he would fund further works on this if Betts-LaCroix pursued it.
Key leaders: Joe Betts-LaCroix, Founder and CEO
Number of employees: About 150
Stage / Funding round: Seed round
Financial snapshot: Sam Altman, the Co-Founder of OpenAI, provided an initial funding of $180 million in seed funding. He is currently participating in a $1 billion funding round to support the company.
Notable investors: Sam Altman, Co-Founder of OpenAI
Key products: The company is explicitly focusing on adding 10 healthy years to the life span, calling aging a treatable problem. They plan to launch their first clinical trial by the end of 2025 that is for a molecule that is intended to reverse Alzheimer’s disease by improving autophagy. They anticipate that their first drug will be prescribable by physicians around the end of the 2020s.
Recent highlights: In 2025, the company announced a breakthrough with a ChatGPT-based model that significantly improved reprogramming efficiency. In an interview with Lifespan Research Institute, Betts-LaCroix said that biology is too complicated for humans to figure out alone. “The models that have been showing lots of traction lately were these LLMs, but they work on sequential data types, like text. A protein sequence is a sequential data type, essentially equivalent to a DNA sequence, but it’s a little closer to actual function, so there’s lower-hanging fruit operating at the protein level. There’s meaning based on proximity in similar ways to text, so how about if we train on that?”
Junevity
Sector: Cell reset therapeutics
HQ: San Francisco, CA
Year founded: 2023
Origin story: Spun out of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) research
Key leaders: John Hoekman, PhD, Co-Founder and CEO; Janine Sengstack, PhD, Co-Founder and CSO
Number of employees: 11-50
Stage: Seed
Financial snapshot: Raised ~$10M seed in 2025
Notable investors: Goldcrest Capital and Godfrey Capital were the lead investors in the $10 million seed funding round in February 2025
Key products: The company’s RESET platform uses AI and large-scale human data to identify and target transcription factors that drive aging. It uses siRNA therapies to “reset” cells to a healthier state. It focuses on Type 2 diabetes, obesity, and frailty.
Recent highlights: Junevity’s preclinical data on its first siRNA therapeutic candidate for Type 2 diabetes showed that it improved glucose control and insulin sensitivity in diabetic mice without causing weight gain or other side effects associated with insulin sensitizers.
The company’s second siRNA candidate for obesity showed improved adipose tissue metabolism and reduced food intake, leading to 30% weight loss versus controls.
YouthBio Therapeutics
Sector: Epigenetic rejuvenation via partial reprogramming to reverse aging markers
HQ: Seattle, WA
Year founded: 2021
Origin story: The company was built upon the research of João Pedro de Magalhães, PhD, focusing on epigenetic rejuvenation through partial reprogramming, and officially emerged from stealth mode in April 2022.
Key leaders: Yuri Deigin, Co-Founder and CEO; João Pedro de Magalhães, PhD, Chief Science Officer
Number of employees: Between 1-10
Stage: Incubator/accelerator and non-equity assistance
Financial snapshot: Not disclosed
Notable investors: MassChallenge provided non-equity assistance in 2023
Key products: YB002 is the company’s gene therapy intended to treat Alzheimer’s disease by partially reprogramming cells in the brain. The therapy uses Yamanaka factors to reverse epigenetic changes that occur with aging, restore youthful gene expression, and improve cellular function without causing cells to lose their identity.
Recent highlights: In September 2025, YouthBio announced that it completed a productive INTERACT meeting with the FDA regarding its Alzheimer’s disease gene therapy, YB002. The FDA stated that YouthBio’s preclinical results demonstrate therapy’s bioactivity and the agency supports plans to move toward a first-in-human trial. The company is concentrating on CMC work and a pilot toxicology study to get ready for a Pre-IND meeting and to complete the design of its IND-enabling studies.
Gero
Sector: AI-driven drug discovery focusing on age-related diseases
HQ: Palo Alto, CA and Singapore
Year founded: 2018
Origin story: Co-Founder Peter Fedichev is a Russian scientist with a PhD in theoretical physics. After working in physics for more than a decade, he transitioned into biotech and co-founded Quantum Pharmaceuticals before starting Gero. Gero’s technology applies physical laws to biological processes.
Key leaders: Peter Fedichev, PhD, Co-Founder; Maxim Kholin, Co-Founder and Chief Corporate Development Officer
Number of employees: 11-50
Stage: $6 million Series A round in 2023
Financial snapshot: Has raised about $19 million in total capital
Notable investors: Melnichek Investments, VitaDAO
Key products: Physics-informed AI model trained to identify and develop new therapeutics that target the root causes of aging and age-related diseases. The product is marketed to pharmaceutical companies.
Recent highlights: In July 2025, Gero announced that it entered into a joint research and license agreement with Chugai Pharmaceutical to develop novel therapies for age-related diseases. The agreement allows Chugai to create novel antibody drugs using its proprietary antibody engineering technologies for new drug targets discovered by Gero through analysis of human datasets using their AI target discovery platform. Chugai gave an upfront payment and may also pay up to $250 million dollars based on successful developments. The company will also pay Gero royalties.
Turn Biotechnologies
Sector: Epigenetic reprogramming technologies
HQ: Mountain View, CA
Year founded: 2018 Origin story: Stanford University scientists Jay Sarkar, Marco Quarta, and Vittorio Sebastiano founded the company based on their research into mRNA and epigenetic reprogramming to reverse the effects of aging on cells. The research was exclusively licensed from Stanford. In 2020, the company transitioned into a biopharmaceutical company.
Key leaders: Vittorio Sebastiano, Co-Founder, Head of Research, and Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board; Anja Krammer, CEO
Number of employees: 11-50
Stage: Closed Series A
Financial snapshot: In September 2023, the company closed its Series A round, raising $29.1 million.
Notable investors: Khosla Ventures, Astellas Venture Management, and Formic Ventures
Key products: ERA Platform and the eTurna Delivery Platform are used together to create and deliver mRNA-based therapies for age-related diseases.
Recent highlights: In March 2025, Turn Bio announced that it acquired ARMMs vesicular technology to enhance its delivery of epigenetic reprogramming therapies.
In September 2025, Klotho Neurosciences signed a letter of intent to acquire Turn Bio’s ERA platform and eTurna RNA delivery system. The partnership will allow Turn Bio to gain access to Klotho’s resources and expand its own capabilities.
In 2026, the company plans to initiate clinical trials for its skin rejuvenation therapy.
Rubedo Life Sciences
Sector: Therapeutics that selectively clear senescent cells
HQ: Sunnyvale, CA
Year founded: 2018
Origin story: The company’s name is derived from the alchemical term “rubedo,” which means “redness,” and symbolizes the final stage of creating a universal medicine for longevity.
Key leaders: Frederick Beddingfield, MD, PhD, CEO; Marco Quarta, PhD, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer
Number of employees: About 30
Stage: Series A
Financial snapshot: In April 2024, the company closed its Series A funding stage with a $40 million round
Notable investors: Khosla Ventures and Ahren Innovation Capital
Key products: RLS-1496, a GPX4 modulator for treating age-related diseases and ALEMBIC drug discovery platform, which uses AI to develop new small-molecule drugs that target senescent cells. Compounds in preclinical phases include RBO-4XX for nervous system diseases and RBO-3XX for metabolic diseases.
Recent highlights: In May, 2025, the company received FDA clearance for its IND application for drug candidate RLS-1496 to treat actinic keratosis, with a Phase 1b/2a study planned for late 2025.
Cambrian Bio
Sector: Therapeutics that target the biological drivers of aging
HQ: New York, NY
Year founded: 2019
Origin story: The name “Cambrian” was chosen to signify “explosion” of new life and a pivotal moment of diversification
Key leaders: James Peyer, PhD, CEO and Founder; Ruth Thieroff-Ekerdt, MD, Chief Medical Officer
Number of employees: 11-50
Stage: Clinical stage Financial snapshot: Raised a total of $211 million over seven rounds, including a $100 million Series C in 2021
Notable investors: Anthos Capital, SALT Fund, Apeiron Investment Group, Future Ventures, Moore Capital Management
Key products: AMPK activator for metabolic and age-related diseases; safer rapalogs for autoimmune conditions and cancer; transglutaminase 2 inhibitors for fibrotic diseases; and an ovarian function extender
Recent highlights: In July 2025, the company’s pipeline company Amplifier Therapeutics announced preclinical data that highlighted the efficacy of ATX-304, a peripherally restricted pan-AMPK activator, in two studies. The studies looked at effects on body weight, food intake, and body composition in a mouse model of diet-induced obesity with ATX-304 dosed as monotherapy, in combination with semaglutide, and after semaglutide withdrawal.
Life Biosciences
Sector: Epigenetic reprogramming, mitochondrial uncoupling, chaperone-mediated autophagy
HQ: Boston, MA
Year founded: 2018
Origin story: Founder David Sinclair, a Harvard researcher, and Tristan Edwards, a financial expert, gathered top longevity researchers and a network of subsidiary companies to hold independent and collaborative research related to the eight pathways of age-related decline.
Key leaders: Tristan Edwards, Co-Founder; David Sinclair, PhD, Co-Founder; Jerry McLaughlin, CEO
Number of employees: 11-25
Stage: Series C financing
Financial snapshot: $82 million in Series C in 2022
Notable investors: Alpha Wave Global, The Longevity Fund
Key products: ER-100 is a partial epigenetic reprogramming therapy for age-related eye diseases
Recent highlights: The company’s partial epigenetic reprogramming therapy, ER-100, is in the works to begin the first-ever human clinical trials in early 2026.
In August 2025, Life Biosciences announced preclinical data about the cross system therapeutic impact of its Partial Epigenetic Reprogramming (PER) platform, a novel therapeutic approach for reversing optic neuropathies and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH).
