TVM Capital Healthcare, an international healthcare expansion and growth capital firm, today announced a recent equity investment in San Francisco-based Human Longevity, Inc. (HLI), a global leader since 2013 in advancing precision medicine in the pursuit of healthy aging, often referred to as longevity medicine. The investment will support the company’s growth within the U.S. market, as well as its expansion into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Southeast Asia.
Founded by Dr. J. Craig Venter, one of the pioneers of the human genome sequencing effort, HLI builds on his vision for a longer, healthier life and the democratization of genomics to revolutionize the way we evade “avoidable disease” and stay healthy longer. The company is recognized as a leader in the rapidly expanding industry of longevity medicine due to its deep expertise in genomics and other fields of precision medicine such as imaging, and its unmatched, longitudinal patient dataset built on decades of research in the field. The company has proprietary tools for the detection of gene-disease associations, including HLI’s artificial intelligence health risk and recommendation platform, and provides its clients with pre-symptomatic diagnosis and customized treatments, preempting disease at a very early stage and maximizing health outcomes. In short, HLI is transforming healthcare from a reactive practice to one that is predictive, proactive, and preventative, which not only enhances the quality of lives of individuals but improves the efficiency and efficacy of the entire healthcare system.
TVM Capital Healthcare brings extensive global investment experience combined with operating experience in the Middle East and Southeast Asia and a track record of building innovative healthcare companies. Through this investment provided by the Saudi Arabia-focused TVM Healthcare Afiyah Fund LP, which closed earlier this year and is the largest growth capital fund of its kind in the region, the firm will support HLI in its expansion, initially with a special focus on market entry in the Kingdom. The country’s Vision 2030 and Health Sector Transformation Program call for an evolution of “sick care” to true “health care,” focusing on the most critical fields of oncology, neurology, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes, as well as cardiovascular and autoimmune disease. Saudi Arabia is highly receptive to healthcare business models such as HLI and has been increasingly active in longevity science with several government-backed initiatives, including the Saudi Human Genome Program and the Hevolution Foundation, a Riyadh-headquartered global non-profit organisation, investing in scientific projects and life science companies in the longevity field.
Dr. J. Craig Venter, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Advisor of Human Longevity, Inc., commented: “Human Longevity, Inc. is a health firm where the goal is to stay ahead of aging and illness. We believe this platform will save millions of lives and significantly reduce healthcare costs in the future. TVM Capital Healthcare’s investment enables us to strengthen our position globally as the most data-backed longevity practice, as well as establishes our foothold in markets, like Saudi Arabia and SEA, that see the potential of our approach in preventive medicine and the huge impact it will have on changing the cost of medicine.”
Dr. Helmut M. Schuehsler, Chairman and CEO of TVM Capital Healthcare, remarked: “With our investment in HLI, we contribute to the transition towards the ‘healthcare of the future’ which is all about precision medicine, personalized care, and disease prevention, in short: true ‘health care.’ The potential long-term impact of longevity medicine in society is immense. We are excited to be part of the journey through this new investment which supports the growth of the company in the U.S., but also introduces HLI into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Southeast Asia.”
Dr. Ghida Harfouche, Partner at TVM Capital Healthcare, added: “HLI’s cutting-edge science has enabled precision medicine for disease prevention and highly personalized interventions for their clients. We are pleased we can support the company in its global growth, and work with them on democratization of healthy longevity and preventative care.”
TVM Capital Healthcare is recognized as the first international Healthcare fund manager investing in and operating healthcare companies in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The firm is also active across the wider Middle East and Southeast Asia. In addition to backing healthcare growth companies in the U.S. and Europe to support their expansion plans into these regions, TVM Capital Healthcare also invests in leading local companies. With this two-pronged, highly catalytic strategy, TVM Capital Healthcare improves quality and affordable access to world-leading products, technologies, and services across its target markets.
