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Healthspan Capital Rolling Fund
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Subscription Amount
$5,000+ Quarterly
Subscription Period
1-8 Quarters
Management Fee
2% per year over 10 years
Carry
20%
Admin Fee
0.15% per year over 10 years
Starting Q1 2025, this fund will transition onto updated Rolling Fund admin fee pricing terms. See the Investment Details section for more.
Invest Account
Select invest account
Note from Nathan S. Cheng, Michael Chinen, and Sebastian A. Brunemeier
Led by Healthspan Capital
Longevity Biotech
Thesis
We invest in companies developing new medicines that target the aging process to extend healthy lifespan (“healthspan”) – including regenerative medicine and longevity therapeutics. There is a revolution taking place in biomedical research on aging (“geroscience”) and drug discovery, with a 5 year old trend of exponential growth in longevity biotech (“LongBio”) companies and government R&D funding
Why Healthspan Capital?
Team: Our team has a combined 15 years of experience in this new field of geroscience and have co-founded or helped launch some of the most prominent companies and venture funds in the field, with >$300M raised across these entities in just the last 4 years. Our SAB is comprised of prominent drug hunters, professors, and pharma executives. (See the team bios below and in our deck)
Dealflow: We have ‘network centrality.’ Unique dealflow and access – in addition to serving as a hands-on, value-adding investor at the board level to enable our portfolio companies to achieve their maximum potential. We produce the most widely read newsletter in the field “Longevity List – Longevity Marketcap Newsletter,” a popular podcast “The Longevity Biotech Show,” and run the main database website for the field “LongevityList.com.” We have also launched the On Deck Longevity Biotech Fellowship. We know nearly everyone in the field.
Diversification: Most venture funds and company-builders in the LongBio field are highly concentrated – with exposure to 5-15 assets. We aim to offer broad exposure (>50 companies), similar to an ETF or index fund, to the entire universe of high quality private companies in LongBio. This allows investors to place a bet on the entire LongBio theme. “Diversification is the only free lunch in finance.”
The Geroscience Revolution
Aging is a costly disease that incurs a cost of a trillion dollars per year in the U.S. alone. Humans have sought longer life for millennia, so why now? Simply put: Breakthroughs in biotech R&D, most succinctly summarized in the Hallmarks of Aging paper.
Breakthroughs in the lab over 20 years demonstrated >30% healthy lifespan extension in mammals by >10 different types of pharmacological interventions that can be combined for synergy.
The industry is still young, and the number of startups and capital is growing rapidly. Any drug that extends healthy lifespan and enhances resilience will work for multiple age-related diseases (“pipeline in a pill”) and the ‘total addressable market’ is 7 billion people.
Today, there are over a hundred companies in the space exploring aging-targeted research directions, with a growth rate of about 20 to 30 companies being formed per year.
“Anti-aging” vs. “Geroscience / LongBio”: ‘Anti-aging’ medicine has often offered therapies with insufficient evidence. We don’t invest there. We’re investing in companies from top-tier institutions such as Stanford, Harvard, UCSF, Scripps, Oxford, and journals such as Nature, Science, and Cell. Our scientific founders are university professors and ex-biopharma execs planning to perform rigorous clinical trials for FDA/EMA approved pharmaceuticals.
Social proof: There are prominent groups entering the field, from the NIH’s “Geroscience Interest Group” to Apollo Health Ventures ($200M AUM, led by the former head of GSK’s venture fund), to Google’s $2.5B secretive Bell Labs company Calico, led by Arthur Levinson (CEO of Genentech) and Cynthia Kenyon (UCSF), to the recent Altos Labs (>$3B backed by ARCH, Rockefeller, Bezos), led by the former CSO of GSK and Calico (Hal Barron) and former National Cancer Institute head and biotech legend Rick Klausner.
Contact us on LinkedIn and we’re happy to provide more information. Also, there are a number of non-fiction/pop-science introductions to the longevity landscape that you can refer to, such as David Sinclair’s Lifespan or Andrew Steele’s Ageless.
Team:
Nathan Cheng is a Canadian entrepreneur, longevity advocate, and investor. He is currently the Program Director for the On Deck Longevity Biotech Fellowship. He is also the author of the Longevity Marketcap newsletter, a weekly analysis of developments and trends in the longevity biotechnology industry. His writing is read by top academics, hedge funds, venture capitalists, and professionals of biotech companies and large pharmaceutical firms.
Nathan is also the founder of Longevity List, a longevity industry platform featuring listings for jobs, companies, and investors. He is also the co-host of the Longevity Biotech Show podcast, a weekly Q&A with prominent individuals building, funding, and championing technologies that extend healthy lifespan.
Nathan obtained his Master’s degree in Physics from the University of Toronto. His research utilized ultracold atoms to investigate quantum many-body physics. He was a recipient of the NSERC Master’s and Doctoral Scholarships. (Profile)
Sebastian A. Brunemeier is a biotech founder and VC investor focused on the biology of aging. He is CEO of ImmuneAGE Pharma, focused on immune system rejuvenation. Sebastian was a Principal at Apollo Health Ventures, the first and largest aging-focused venture capital fund in the world (AUM >$200M), as well as Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer at Cambrian Biopharma, a biotech VC holding company focused on the biology of aging (raised >$160M). Sebastian was CEO of Cyclone Therapeutics, a Scripps Research Institute spinout focused on proteostasis, and the founding EIR and COO of Samsara Therapeutics, focused on autophagy-enhancing small molecule drug discovery in Oxford, UK, which was recognized as ‘best startup’ at the Financial Times Pharma Conference. Prior to Apollo, he was a Fulbright Fellow in the biology of aging at the Gulbenkian Institute, awarded the Skaggs-Oxford fellowship at the Scripps Research Institute, and a SENS Foundation Scholar at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. His education includes partial DPhil (PhD) training on the biochemistry of aging at the University of Oxford as a Clarendon Scholar, and received an MSc in Life Science Business Management and an MSc in Molecular Neuroscience from the University of Amsterdam as an Amsterdam Excellence Scholar. He serves on the board of the clinical stage CNS pharmaceutical company Revivo Therapeutics, served as a trustee of the British Society for Research on Aging, and as an advisor to VitaDAO/Molecule and McKinsey & Company. (Profile)
Michael Chinen is a software engineer, machine learning researcher, and angel investor. He currently works at Google with an interest in audio, after working in startups in the San Francisco Bay Area, and at several tech companies including Microsoft, Dolby, and Adobe.
Michael also worked on DNA sequence alignment software for the Thomas lab in the Genome Science department at the University of Washington, which sparked his interest in biology and aging. Upon receiving his Master’s degree from Dartmouth College, Michael was a Fulbright scholar at the Technical University of Berlin and later received a PhD from Tokyo Denki University. His previous education includes undergraduate degrees in Computer Science and Music at the University of Washington.
Michael has been involved in non-profit and open source organizations including as a team member of Audacity and as a board member of both the Japanese Society for Sonic Arts and for the Tommy Holmes Foundation. (Profile)
Cian Doherty is a PhD student in stem cell biology at the University of Cambridge. He is based in the Brand Lab at the Wellcome/CRUK Gurdon Institute, where his work focuses on the regulation of neural stem cell quiescence and reactivation. Cian previously graduated from the University of Oxford with First Class Honours in Biological Sciences, here he earned the top-of-year mark for his dissertation on leveraging autophagy to extend healthy lifespan. He interned at the Longevity Fund in San Francisco, was a Venture Fellow at Hummingbird Ventures, and consults for Start Codon, a Cambridge-based biotech accelerator.
Prof. Matt Kaeberlein, Ph.D., is a Professor at the University of Washington focused on the basic biology of aging. Matt is an expert on mTOR and rapamycin biology. He works with C elegans and yeast genetics to understand the fundamental mechanisms of aging. He is currently also CEO of the American Aging Association, the largest academic aging organization in the US. He is co-Director of the University of Washington Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging, and the director of the Dog Aging Project to test rapamycin in companion dogs.
Dr. Kaeberlein has been recognized with several awards, including a Breakthroughs in Gerontology Award from the Glenn Foundation, an Alzheimer’s Association Young Investigator Award, an Ellison Medical Foundation New Scholar in Aging Award, an Undergraduate Research Mentor of the Year Award, and a Murdock Trust Award. In 2011, he was named the Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star in Aging Research by the American Federation for Aging Research and appointed as a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, and in 2012 he joined the Board of Directors of the American Aging Association. Dr. Kaeberlein currently serves on the editorial boards for Science, eLife, Aging Cell, Cell Cycle, PloS One, Frontiers in Genetics of Aging, BMC Longevity and Healthspan, F1000 Research, Ageing Research Reviews, and BioEssays.
He holds a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and undergrad degrees in mathematics and biochemistry from Western Washington University. (Profile)
Josef Christensen
Josef Christensen is Global Commercial Associate Director for Stem Cell Therapies at Novo Nordisk. He previously spent 5 years at McKinsey & Company focusing on pharmaceutical strategy consulting in Europe and the US. He was a Partner at Apollo Health Ventures, the first and largest LongBio-focused venture capital fund and company builder in the world. He conducted his doctoral training at the Stem Cell Institute of Harvard University (focused on muscle stem cells) and the University of Copenhagen. He also holds an MSc and BSc in Molecular Biomedicine, a 6 year program at the University of Copenhagen, where he also conducted research for Novo Nordisk.
Claes Wahlestedt, M.D., Ph.D
Claes Wahlestedt, M.D., Ph.D. is Professor and Director of the Center for Therapeutic Innovation at the University of Miami where he also serves as Associate Dean for Therapeutic Innovation. A native of Sweden, Dr. Wahlestedt obtained his MD and PhD degrees from Lund University. Prior to joining the University of Miami, Dr. Wahlestedt was a founding professor and director of neuroscience at The Scripps Research Institute’s Florida campus. Before that he was an endowed professor, founding genome center director and department chair at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. He has also been a faculty member at Cornell University Medical College and at McGill University. He has also directed R&D for AstraZeneca and Pharmacia/Pfizer for over a decade. In recent years, he has co-founded several biotechnology companies. Dr. Wahlestedt’s own lab focuses on drug discovery, genomics, and epigenetics. He has extensive experience with most therapeutic modalities, in particular small molecules and oligonucleotides, across all major therapeutic areas.
Dan Catron
Dan Catron is Executive Director of BD at Allele Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals in San Diego, California. He has served as Executive Director of Tech Transfer at the Scintillon Institute, and Director of the OTD at the Scripps Research Institute, where he also taught the “Business of Biotechnology” course. He was a senior licensing associate at the University of Miami, where he executed the largest licensing deal in Florida ($800M). He was a clinical research associate at IQVIA (Quintiles), VP of R&D at Novelios Pharmaceuticals, research scientist at the DNAX Research Institute (a subsidiary of Schering-Plough, later acquired by Merck), founded by Stanford professor and Nobel Laureate Arthur Kornberg. Prior to that, he was a clinical trial coordinator at Stanford in the department of Ophthalmology. He holds an MS in Genetics and Genomics from Duke, a BS from Santa Clara University, and an MBA from the University of Miami.
How it works:
- You show to AngelList that you are an accredited investor.
- You subscribe to the Fund, sign the documents, and wire funds through AngelList's platform. (±1 hour)
- We aim to invest in 10-20 on-thesis deals per year.
- When liquidity events happen (e.g. acquisition, sale of IP) you receive a distribution according to your equity percentage.
Mechanics:
A rolling fund is a fund that you can subscribe to and contribute to each quarter. Each quarter, a new multi-asset SPV is created from newly raised funds plus the previous quarter’s SPV’s remaining funds. This means that you will have exposure to many assets acquired after your initial contribution. You can also change the amount of your subscription, or even contribute to the fund just once, although you will have less equity in the later investments. The rolling fund will raise capital this way for 4 years using this periodic structure.
GP commitment:
We will invest a minimum of 7% alongside you over the span of the fund through a combination of cash and management fee waivers.
Fees:
We charge a 2% per annum management fee and 20% carried interest on profits. This means that 2% of the assets under management per annum are used for management fees . The 20% carried interest means that if there is any profit in the distributions, 20% of the profit is distributed to Healthspan Capital.
Risks:
- Early-stage investing has a high risk. Most startups fail. It is possible to lose your entire investment. Only invest what you can afford to lose.
- This is a highly illiquid investment. It is generally not allowed to withdraw your funds or sell/transfer your position. Distributions only happen through liquidity events that can take a significant amount of time (e.g. at least 5 years).
FAQ:
How is this different from a traditional fund?
More flexibility. Some major differences are that this structure allows the capital to be deployed immediately, while traditional funds must wait to raise their target fund size before investing. Additionally, this structure allows our investors (Limited Partners or LPs) to increase or decrease their exposure as desired in future quarters.
What is the advantage of using a fund multi-asset SPV structure instead of single asset SPVs?
For LPs, the fund will be more diverse than individual investments. Additionally, the periodic nature allows LPs the option of altering their commitment.
The rolling fund can allow for lower fees on average than individual SPVs. It allows us to focus on finding interesting companies to invest in instead of focusing on fundraising.
Will you syndicate any single asset SPVs for oversubscribed deals?
Yes, if there is more allocation available for an interesting deal, we may offer single asset SPVs after investing through the fund. However, our primary focus will be this fund.
Can you tell me more about what the management fees are used for?
The management fees are used for maintenance and administration (e.g., lawyers). Whatever is left over from this goes to the Healthspan Capital team, who may optionally waive the fees by reinvesting them into the fund. We have invested a significant amount of our own money already.
Investment Details
Subscription Start Date
October 1, 2024
Minimum Quarterly Subscription
$5,000
Management Fee
Investors pay management fees of 2% per year for the first 10 years.
Management fees are taken as a percentage of the total committed capital. The total management fee is paid out quarterly over the first
four years of the fund's life.
Carry
Twenty percent (20%)
Admin Fee
0.15% per year over 10 years
Starting Q1 2025, this Rolling Fund will transition onto updated Rolling Fund pricing terms. Under these new pricing terms, each new quarterly fund in the Rolling Fund Program will pay an annualized rate of $2.5k + 0.2% of contributed capital over 10 years.
Fees for each quarterly fund in the Rolling Fund Program will vary based on each quarterly fund’s capital contributions since the fee includes a flat fee component. The last quarterly fund in this Rolling Fund Program closed $178k in contributed capital. Learn more about how to estimate your commitment’s fees at our help center.
Fees for each quarterly fund in the Rolling Fund Program will vary based on each quarterly fund’s capital contributions since the fee includes a flat fee component. The last quarterly fund in this Rolling Fund Program closed $178k in contributed capital. Learn more about how to estimate your commitment’s fees at our help center.
Fund Lead Commitment
Nathan S. Cheng, Michael Chinen, and Sebastian A. Brunemeier will satisfy their GP commitment in part by waiving 100% of management fees otherwise owed to them by the fund.
Special Disclosure
Sebastian Brunemeier (a "Fund Lead") may serve as a scientific and strategic advisor to the portfolio companies the Fund invests in. He may receive equity for his advisory services. The Fund Leads do not expect this to pose a conflict and will continue deploying capital as normal.
Investor FAQ
How is this program different from venture fund investing?
How do subscriptions work?
How do management and admin fees work?
How does carried interest work?
How do distributions work?
Will a Limited Partner (LP) participate in all investments made by the funds offered through this Program?
Will an LP's percentage ownership of quarterly funds always be the same?
Are LPs guaranteed access to Healthspan Capital Rolling Fund's future funds?
How are subscriptions funded?
How does changing or canceling a subscription work?
Who manages these funds?
Do funds in this Program have minimum or maximum investment sizes?
What happens if funds in this Program do not invest their total capital each quarter?
When will LPs learn about companies the funds invested in?
Can LPs opt out of specific deals?
Can LPs sell their investment in the fund?
Can LPs redeem their interests in the fund?
When will funds launched under this Program begin deploying capital?
How do I receive tax documents from this Program?
Unanswered questions? Contact AngelList
The performance of past deals or a lead investors' track record is not a guarantee of future returns. Venture capital fund investments are inherently risky and illiquid. Such investments involve a high degree of risk and are suitable only for sophisticated and accredited investors.
AngelList and its affiliates do not provide investment advice to investors. The information on this page should not be relied upon as research, investment advice or a recommendation of any kind. Information on this page is qualified in its entirety by the fund's Limited Partnership Agreement, Private Placement Memorandum and Subscription Agreement, which should be reviewed carefully prior to making an investment decision. Please see these documents for full details regarding risks, minimum investment, fees and expenses. The Fund Lead and the fund's investment advisor have the right to waive or charge additional carry to certain investors. The fund's legal name may be different from the name used above.
This fund may accept new investors after the fund undergoes a valuation update. Certain potential investors in the fund may then have access to materially different information concerning fund value at the time of their investment.
Current or future portfolio companies in this fund may use AngelList's recruiting platform and may pay an affiliate of the fund's investment adviser for premium recruiting tools and services. This may create a potential conflict of interest for the investment adviser, which you will consent to by subscribing to the fund.
Please read the disclosures in full here.
Apply To Subscribe
Subscription Amount
$5,000+ Quarterly
Subscription Period
1-8 Quarters
Management Fee
2% per year over 10 years
Carry
20%
Admin Fee
0.15% per year over 10 years
Starting Q1 2025, this fund will transition onto updated Rolling Fund admin fee pricing terms. See the Investment Details section for more.
Invest Account
Select invest account