Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
Author｜Azuma (@azuma_eth)
On June 3rd, Beijing time, longevity tech startup NewLimit announced the completion of a $435 million Series C funding round, led by the Founders Fund, a fund under Peter Thiel, with continued participation from Abstract Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, NFDG, Eli Lilly Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, and new investors including Thrive Capital, Greenoaks, and Quiet Capital.
WSJ reports that NewLimit's valuation for this funding round is $3.1 billion, more than tripling from a year ago.
NewLimit revealed in its funding announcement that, following breakthrough research results, the company is advancing longevity medicine to human clinical trials, with the first drug targeting alcohol-related liver disease expected to begin clinical trials next year.
NewLimit also emphasized: “By reprogramming cell age, humanity is expected to gain longer healthy lifespans, and now we are closer to the goal of 'delaying and even reversing aging' than ever before.”
The Founder is a Familiar Face
It is worth mentioning that the co-founder of NewLimit is none other than our familiar figure — Brian Armstrong, founder and CEO of Coinbase.
In 2021, Brian Armstrong co-invested $110 million with former GV partner and bioengineer Blake Byers, and stem cell biologist Jacob Kimmel to establish NewLimit in Southern San Francisco.
The image shows the founding team of NewLimit
Prior to this funding round, NewLimit had already completed three rounds of funding, as follows.
- In May 2023, completed a $40 million Series A funding, with investors including Dimension, Founders Fund, and Kleiner Perkins;
- In May 2025, completed a $130 million Series B funding, reaching a valuation of $810 million, with Kleiner Perkins leading and followed by Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, and Human Capital;
- In October 2025, received an additional investment of $45 million, raising the post-money valuation to $1.62 billion, with investors including Lilly Ventures, Duke University, and Section 32;
According to NewLimit's official introduction, the company is dedicated to developing drugs that can extend people's healthy lifespans — “As people age, cellular functions gradually decline, making individuals more prone to illness. It was once thought that aging was inevitable, but emerging sciences indicate that the aging process can be reversed at the cellular level. We are developing the first drugs based on these findings to restore the youthful functions of aging cells.”
In simpler terms, NewLimit is scientifically researching immortality!
Reversing Aging is Not a Wishful Thought
Over the past few decades, the scientific community has long recognized the relationship between aging and cellular functional decline but has been unable to pinpoint a precise method to “rejuvenate” cells. A breakthrough occurred in 2006 when Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka discovered that activating just a few specific transcription factors could reprogram adult cells to a youthful state similar to embryonic stem cells. This discovery was later named the “Yamanaka Factors” and helped him win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2012.
Odaily note: The image shows Shinya Yamanaka giving a talk in Tokyo
Shinya Yamanaka's research first proved something that was previously thought to be impossible — that cellular age is not irreversible, and the story that NewLimit tells is built upon this discovery.
NewLimit states on its official website: “Our drugs can reprogram the cellular epigenome to a younger state by activating specific transcription factor genes. We already know that this reversal is possible. However, it is still unknown what combinations of transcription factors are needed to restore the youthful functions of different types of cells. Finding and discovering these effective gene combinations (payloads) is the core challenge of our work.”
NewLimit's strategy is to start with a specific disease in order to obtain drug approval and then explore broader applications. As mentioned earlier, NewLimit is advancing a drug targeting alcohol-related liver disease into clinical trials.
Jacob Kimmel, co-founder and CEO of NewLimit, further explained, liver disease can actually be viewed as an “accelerated aging,” as it presents the aging process that everyone experiences in a faster and more intense manner.
The People Who Love to Invest in This Field Are All Millionaires
NewLimit is not the only tech company currently targeting “immortality.”
In 2022, Sam Altman invested $180 million in Retro Biosciences, which is currently developing drugs that can rejuvenate aging cells and revealed last month that its valuation has reached $1.8 billion.
Additionally, Altos Labs, reportedly funded by Jeff Bezos, also launched in 2022 with $3 billion in funding and has since raised nearly twice that amount.
It is not hard to see that from Peter Thiel to Sam Altman to Jeff Bezos, the super-rich at the pinnacle of the technology and wealth pyramid are all fond of investing in this field. Peter Thiel has publicly expressed extreme disdain for death, stating multiple times similar viewpoints: “Death is humanity's greatest enemy, yet we treat it as a natural law…”
The reason why these tech giants are willing to spend billions of dollars is not difficult to understand — when wealth and power reach their peak, time becomes the only enemy and the only luxury that cannot be directly purchased with money.
Having made enough money, the biggest question then becomes, “How to live longer?”
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