Author | Azuma(@azuma_eth)
At 3:00 AM Beijing time on June 3, longevity technology startup NewLimit announced the completion of a $435 million Series C funding round. This round was led by Peter Thiel's fund Founders Fund, with continued participation from Abstract Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, NFDG, Eli Lilly Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, among others, while also introducing new investors such as Thrive Capital, Greenoaks, and Quiet Capital.
A WSJ report indicated that NewLimit's valuation in this round reached $3.1 billion, more than triple its valuation from a year ago.
In its funding announcement, NewLimit revealed that following breakthrough research achievements, the company is advancing longevity medicine into the human clinical trial stage. Its first drug targeting alcohol-related liver disease is expected to commence clinical trials next year.
NewLimit also emphasized: "By reprogramming cell age, humans may achieve longer health spans, and now, we are closer than ever to the goal of delaying or even reversing aging."
The Founder Turns Out to Be an Old Acquaintance
It is worth mentioning that one of NewLimit's co-founders is none other than our old acquaintance — Coinbase founder and CEO Brian Armstrong.
In 2021, Brian Armstrong, together with former GV partner and bioengineer Blake Byers and stem cell biologist Jacob Kimmel, invested $110 million to establish NewLimit in South San Francisco.
Picture: The NewLimit founding team
Prior to this funding round, NewLimit had already completed three rounds of financing, as detailed below.
- May 2023: Completed a $40 million Series A round, with investors including Dimension, Founders Fund, and Kleiner Perkins;
- May 2025: Completed a $130 million Series B round, reaching a valuation of $810 million, led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, and Human Capital, among others;
- October 2025: Received an additional $45 million investment, bringing the post-money valuation to $1.62 billion, with investors including Lilly Ventures, Duke University, Section 32, etc.;
According to NewLimit's official introduction, the company is dedicated to developing drugs that can extend human health span — "As humans age, cellular function gradually declines, making people more susceptible to diseases. It was once believed that aging was inevitable, but emerging science shows that the aging process can be reversed at the cellular level. We are developing the first drugs based on these discoveries to restore the youthful function of aging cells."
In simpler terms, NewLimit is using scientific methods to research immortality!
Reversing Aging is Not a Fantasy
Over the past few decades, while the scientific community has long recognized the link between aging and cellular functional decline, it could not precisely find a way to make cells "rejuvenate." The turning point came in 2006 when Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka discovered that activating just a few specific transcription factors could reprogram adult cells into a youthful state resembling embryonic stem cells. This discovery was later named "Yamanaka Factors" and helped him win the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Odaily Note: Picture shows Shinya Yamanaka speaking in Tokyo
Yamanaka's research first proved something previously considered impossible — that cellular age is not irreversible. And the story told by NewLimit is built precisely upon this discovery.
NewLimit writes on its website: "Our drugs can reprogram a cell's epigenome to a younger state by activating specific transcription factor genes. We already know this reversal is possible. However, for different cell types, exactly which combinations of transcription factors are needed to restore their youthful function remains unknown. Finding and discovering these effective payloads is the core challenge of our work."
NewLimit's strategy is to first target a specific disease to obtain drug approval, and then explore broader applications. As mentioned earlier, NewLimit is advancing a drug for alcohol-related liver disease into clinical trials.
NewLimit Co-founder and CEO Jacob Kimmel further explained, "Liver disease can actually be viewed as an 'accelerated version of aging,' it just presents the aging process that everyone experiences in a faster and more intense manner."
The Biggest Investors in This Sector Are All Billionaires
NewLimit is not the only tech company currently targeting "immortality."
In 2022, Sam Altman invested $180 million in Retro Biosciences, which is developing drugs to rejuvenate aging cells. Last month, Retro Biosciences disclosed its valuation had reached $1.8 billion.
Furthermore, Altos Labs, reportedly backed by Jeff Bezos's funding, also launched in 2022 with $3 billion and has since raised nearly twice that amount in total funding.
It's easy to see that from Peter Thiel to Sam Altman to Jeff Bezos, the biggest investors in this sector are without exception super-rich individuals at the pinnacle of technology and wealth. Peter Thiel has publicly expressed extreme aversion to death, advocating similar views on multiple occasions: "Death is humanity's greatest enemy, yet we treat it as a natural law..."
The logic behind these tech titans' willingness to invest hundreds of millions is not hard to understand — when wealth and power reach their peak, time becomes the only enemy, the only luxury that cannot be bought directly with money.
Having earned enough money, "how to live longer" becomes the greatest challenge.
