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Generation Lab raises $11 million, becoming Accel’s first longevity bet

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The word “longevity” derives from Latin, and more or less means “long life” or “great age.”

Each translation is informative at a time when people are simultaneously living longer than ever, and gathering increasingly personalized health data through wearables, devices, and tests. Longevity has become a banner industry in recent years, bolstered by the expansive cultural influence of entrepreneur Bryan Johnson and his famous slogan, “Don’t Die.” 

Now, we’re all slated to die at some point. However, there’s a salient question and pursuit at the center of the longevity boom—if we’re living longer lives, what does it mean to live out those years fully? If we monitor our health thoughtfully throughout our lives, can we have more years that are high-quality, active, and independent? It’s a question that Generation Lab, a startup providing personalized epigenetic testing, seeks to answer. 

“We’re aiming to add 20 extra healthy years to your life—more years where you can play tennis, run around, travel,” said Alina Su, Generation Lab cofounder and CEO. “We’re not talking about living forever, we’re talking about living healthier for a longer time.” 

Generation Lab—started in 2023 by Su, Berkeley’s Dr. Irina Conboy, and Michael Suswal—is so named because the cofounding team spans three generations: Conboy—regarded as the “mother of longevity” for her decades of cell regeneration work—is a Baby Boomer, while Suswal is a millennial whose previous company was unicorn Standard AI. Su, Gen Z and effusive, chased down Conboy while an undergraduate at Berkeley. The three believe we’re on the cusp of an “ageless generation,” where people will be defined by their ability to be active for longer periods and linger around a “biological 30.” 

If this seems a touch far-fetched, consider: Generation Lab is now Accel’s first bet in the longevity space. The Silicon Valley stalwart has led Generation Lab’s $11 million seed round, Fortune has exclusively learned. Samsung Next also participated, plus an array of celebrity investors including Steve Aoki’s Aoki Labs, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s BYL Ventures, and Simu Liu’s Markham Valley Ventures. This round brings the company’s total funding so far to $15 million.

“Longevity’s going to be one of the biggest markets of our generation,” said Accel partner Kerry Wang, adding that: “As people start spending more money on [longevity] treatments, they’re not just spending it on things that don’t matter… there needs to be a trusted eval for longevity.”

Generation Lab’s product is its SystemAge report, which starts with a blood draw. The blood test analyzes 460 different biomarkers across 19 organs and systems, then provides a detailed breakdown of how quickly each part of your body is aging. (I took the test myself—thrilled to report my cardiac and auditory systems are aging in reverse, while my blood and vascular system needs some work.) The goal: Pinpointing health signals and potential problems before symptoms appear. Right now, the test is rolled out as an option for more than 300 clinic partners in 18 countries, Kim Kardashian’s doctor among them. The test costs $490, with additional options for subscription-based testing.

That’s cost-prohibitive for most, but Suswal has been thinking about societal downstream possibilities for Generation Lab’s tests, especially in relation to public health: “Imagine if everyone in the country took the test, we could have predicted issues like the Flint Water Crisis.”

Conboy pointed out something to me that I’ve been pondering since we met: Much in the same way we all experience time differently, aging also isn’t linear: It happens in fits and starts, plateaus and accelerations. (No one, for example, grows exactly one grey hair each day.) Aging also continuously evolves around technological and societal advancement. 

“See, on a long enough timescale, everyone’s survival rate becomes zero,” Conboy laughs. “The question is, how long is the timeline?… The directional goal of longevity in academia—or in a company—is to expand [quality of life in our final years]. Remember, 100 years ago, 40 years of age was very old, people died then. Then, we invented antibiotics, sanitation, and then vaccines. And now we move on to the next breakthrough.”

See you tomorrow,

Allie Garfinkle
X:
@agarfinks
Email: alexandra.garfinkle@fortune.com
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Venture Deals

Findem, a Redwood City, Calif.-based AI-powered hiring platform, raised $51 million in funding. SLW led the round and was joined by Wing Ventures and others.

ROLLER, an Austin, Texas-based venue management platform, raised $50 million in funding. Insight Partners led the round and was joined by J.P. Morgan.

Starbridge.ai, a New York City-based AI-powered sales platform designed for the public sector, raised $42 million in Series A funding. Craft Ventures led the round and was joined by others.

Pave Bank, a Singapore and Tbilisi, Georgia-based commercial bank designed for integration with digital assets, raised $39 million in funding. Accel led the round and was joined by Tether Investments, Quona Capital, Wintermute, Helios Digital Ventures, and others.

Sumble, a San Francisco-based sales intelligence platform, raised $38.5 million across seed and Series A rounds led by Canaan Partners and Coatue, joined by Square Peg Capital, Zetta Venture Partners, Bloomberg Beta, and others.

CurbWaste, a New York City-based operating system for waste hauling, raised $28 million in Series B funding. Socium Ventures led the round and was joined by Flourish Ventures, TTV Capital, B Capital Group, and SquarePoint Capital.

VitriVax, a Boulder, Colo.-based vaccine formulation technology company, raised $17.3 million in Series B funding. Adjuvant Capital and RA Capital Management led the round.

SenseNet, a North Vancouver, Canada-based developer of wildfire detection platform, raised $14 million in Series A funding. Stormbreaker led the round and was joined by Thin Line Capital, Fusion Fund, Plaza Ventures, FOLD36 Capital, and B Current Impact Investment.

Gimlet Labs, a San Francisco-based applied AI research and product company, raised $12 million in seed funding. Factory led the round and was joined by angel investors.

roclub, a Berlin, Germany-based teleoperation platform for medical technology, raised $11.7 million in Series A funding. Smedvig Ventures and YZR led the round and were joined by Speedinvest and angel investors.

Acoru, a Madrid, Spain-based fraud detection platform, raised €10 million ($11.6 million) in Series A funding. 33N Ventures led the round and was joined by Adara Ventures and Athos Capital.

Casium, a Seattle, Wash.-based platform designed to accelerate and simplify immigration processes, raised $5 million in seed funding. Maverick Ventures led the round and was joined by A12 Incubator, GTfund, Success Venture Partners

Coolant, a San Francisco-based company using 3D vision and AI for environmental intelligence, raised $4.3 million across seed and pre-seed rounds. General Catalyst led the seed round and Floodgate led the pre-seed round.

Pavewise, a Bismarck, N.D.-based road construction technology company, raised $2.5 million in seed funding. C2 Ventures led the round and was joined by Connetic, Service Provider Capital, and others.

Private Equity

Chroma Color Corporation, backed by Arsenal Capital, acquired Ferco Color, a Chino, Calif.-based custom colorants manufacturer. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Southern Home Services, a portfolio company of Gryphon Investors, acquired Nick’s Plumbing & Air Conditioning, a Houston, Texas-based plumbing, heating, and air conditioning services company. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Exits

Mammoth Brands agreed to acquire Coterie, a New York City-based baby care brand, from American Pacific Group. Financial terms were not disclosed. 

MJH Life Sciences acquired BPD Healthcare, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based marketing services and communications firm for health care businesses, from WindRose Health Investors. Financial terms were not disclosed.



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SpaceX to offer insider shares at record-setting $800 billion valuation

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SpaceX is preparing to sell insider shares in a transaction that would value Elon Musk’s rocket and satellite maker at as much as $800 billion, people familiar with the matter said, reclaiming the title of the world’s most valuable private company. 

The details, discussed by SpaceX’s board of directors on Thursday at its Starbase hub in Texas, could change based on interest from insider sellers and buyers or other factors, said some of the people, who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public. SpaceX is also exploring a possible initial public offering as soon as late next year, one of the people said. 

Another person briefed on the matter said that the price under discussion for the sale of some employees and investors’ shares is higher than $400 apiece, which would value SpaceX at between $750 billion and $800 billion. The company wouldn’t raise any funds though this planned sale, though a successful offering at such levels would catapult it past the record of $500 billion valuation achieved by OpenAI in October.

Elon Musk on Saturday denied that SpaceX is raising money at a $800 billion valuation without addressing Bloomberg’s reporting on the planned offering of insiders’ shares. 

“SpaceX has been cash flow positive for many years and does periodic stock buybacks twice a year to provide liquidity for employees and investors,” Musk said in a post on his social media platform X. 

The share sale price under discussion would be a substantial increase from the $212 a share set in July, when the company raised money and sold shares at a valuation of $400 billion. The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times earlier reported the $800 billion valuation target.

News of SpaceX’s valuation sent shares of EchoStar Corp., a satellite TV and wireless company, up as much as 18%. Last month, EchoStar had agreed to sell spectrum licenses to SpaceX for $2.6 billion, adding to an earlier agreement to sell about $17 billion in wireless spectrum to Musk’s company.

Subscribe Now: The Business of Space newsletter covers NASA, key industry events and trends.

The world’s most prolific rocket launcher, SpaceX dominates the space industry with its Falcon 9 rocket that lifts satellites and people to orbit.

SpaceX is also the industry leader in providing internet services from low-Earth orbit through Starlink, a system of more than 9,000 satellites that is far ahead of competitors including Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Leo.

Elite Group

SpaceX is among an elite group of companies that have the ability to raise funds at $100 billion-plus valuations while delaying or denying they have any plan to go public. 

An IPO of the company at an $800 billion value would vault SpaceX into another rarefied group — the 20 largest public companies, a few notches below Musk’s Tesla Inc. 

If SpaceX sold 5% of the company at that valuation, it would have to sell $40 billion of stock — making it the biggest IPO of all time, well above Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion listing in 2019. The firm sold just 1.5% of the company in that offering, a much smaller slice than the majority of publicly traded firms make available.

A listing would also subject SpaceX to the volatility of being a public company, versus private firms whose valuations are closely guarded secrets. Space and defense company IPOs have had a mixed reception in 2025. Karman Holdings Inc.’s stock has nearly tripled since its debut, while Firefly Aerospace Inc. and Voyager Technologies Inc. have plunged by double-digit percentages since their debuts.

SpaceX executives have repeatedly floated the idea of spinning off SpaceX’s Starlink business into a separate, publicly traded company — a concept President Gwynne Shotwell first suggested in 2020. 

However, Musk cast doubt on the prospect publicly over the years and Chief Financial Officer Bret Johnsen said in 2024 that a Starlink IPO would be something that would take place more likely “in the years to come.”

The Information, citing people familiar with the discussions, separately reported on Friday that SpaceX has told investors and financial institution representatives that it’s aiming for an IPO of the entire company in the second half of next year.

Read More: How to Buy SpaceX: A Guide for the Eager, Pre-IPO

A so-called tender or secondary offering, through which employees and some early shareholders can sell shares, provides investors in closely held companies such as SpaceX a way to generate liquidity.

SpaceX is working to develop its new Starship vehicle, advertised as the most powerful rocket ever developed to loft huge numbers of Starlink satellites as well as carry cargo and people to moon and, eventually, Mars.



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National Park Service drops free admission on MLK Day and Juneteenth while adding Trump’s birthday

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The National Park Service will offer free admission to U.S. residents on President Donald Trump’s birthday next year — which also happens to be Flag Day — but is eliminating the benefit for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth.

The new list of free admission days for Americans is the latest example of the Trump administration downplaying America’s civil rights history while also promoting the president’s image, name and legacy.

Last year, the list of free days included Martin Luther King Jr Day and Juneteenth — which is June 19 — but not June 14, Trump’s birthday.

The new free-admission policy takes effect Jan. 1 and was one of several changes announced by the Park Service late last month, including higher admission fees for international visitors.

The other days of free park admission in 2026 are Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Constitution Day, Veterans Day, President Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday (Oct. 27) and the anniversary of the creation of the Park Service (Aug. 25).

Eliminating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, which commemorates the day in 1865 when the last enslaved Americans were emancipated, removes two of the nation’s most prominent civil rights holidays.

Some civil rights leaders voiced opposition to the change after news about it began spreading over the weekend.

“The raw & rank racism here stinks to high heaven,” Harvard Kennedy School professor Cornell William Brooks, a former president of the NAACP, wrote on social media about the new policy.

Kristen Brengel, a spokesperson for the National Parks Conservation Association, said that while presidential administrations have tweaked the free days in the past, the elimination of Martin Luther King Jr. Day is particularly concerning. For one, the day has become a popular day of service for community groups that use the free day to perform volunteer projects at parks.

That will now be much more expensive, said Brengel, whose organization is a nonprofit that advocates for the park system.

“Not only does it recognize an American hero, it’s also a day when people go into parks to clean them up,” Brengel said. “Martin Luther King Jr. deserves a day of recognition … For some reason, Black history has repeatedly been targeted by this administration, and it shouldn’t be.”

Some Democratic lawmakers also weighed in to object to the new policy.

“The President didn’t just add his own birthday to the list, he removed both of these holidays that mark Black Americans’ struggle for civil rights and freedom,” said Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada. “Our country deserves better.”

A spokesperson for the National Park Service did not immediately respond to questions on Saturday seeking information about the reasons behind the changes.

Since taking office, Trump has sought to eliminate programs seen as promoting diversity across the federal government, actions that have erased or downplayed America’s history of racism as well as the civil rights victories of Black Americans.

Self-promotion is an old habit of the president’s and one he has continued in his second term. He unsuccessfully put himself forwardfor the Nobel Peace Prize, renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace after himself, sought to put his name on the planned NFL stadium in the nation’s capital and had a new children’s savings program named after him.

Some Republican lawmakers have suggested putting his visage on Mount Rushmore and the $100 bill.



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JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says Europe has a ‘real problem’

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JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon called out slow bureaucracy in Europe in a warning that a “weak” continent poses a major economic risk to the US.

“Europe has a real problem,” Dimon said Saturday at the Reagan National Defense Forum. “They do some wonderful things on their safety nets. But they’ve driven business out, they’ve driven investment out, they’ve driven innovation out. It’s kind of coming back.”

While he praised some European leaders who he said were aware of the issues, he cautioned politics is “really hard.” 

Dimon, leader of the biggest US bank, has long said that the risk of a fragmented Europe is among the major challenges facing the world. In his letter to shareholders released earlier this year, he said that Europe has “some serious issues to fix.”

On Saturday, he praised the creation of the euro and Europe’s push for peace. But he warned that a reduction in military efforts and challenges trying to reach agreement within the European Union are threatening the continent.

“If they fragment, then you can say that America first will not be around anymore,” Dimon said. “It will hurt us more than anybody else because they are a major ally in every single way, including common values, which are really important.”

He said the US should help.

“We need a long-term strategy to help them become strong,” Dimon said. “A weak Europe is bad for us.”

The administration of President Donald Trump issued a new national security strategy that directed US interests toward the Western Hemisphere and protection of the homeland while dismissing Europe as a continent headed toward “civilizational erasure.”

Read More: Trump’s National Security Strategy Veers Inward in Telling Shift

JPMorgan has been ramping up its push to spur more investments in the national defense sector. In October, the bank announced that it would funnel $1.5 trillion into industries that bolster US economic security and resiliency over the next 10 years — as much as $500 billion more than what it would’ve provided anyway. 

Dimon said in the statement that it’s “painfully clear that the United States has allowed itself to become too reliant on unreliable sources of critical minerals, products and manufacturing.”

Investment banker Jay Horine oversees the effort, which Dimon called “100% commercial.” It will focus on four areas: supply chain and advanced manufacturing; defense and aerospace; energy independence and resilience; and frontier and strategic technologies. 

The bank will also invest as much as $10 billion of its own capital to help certain companies expand, innovate or accelerate strategic manufacturing.

Separately on Saturday, Dimon praised Trump for finding ways to roll back bureaucracy in the government.

“There is no question that this administration is trying to bring an axe to some of the bureaucracy that held back America,” Dimon said. “That is a good thing and we can do it and still keep the world safe, for safe food and safe banks and all the stuff like that.”



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