Investing in Exciting Technology
Rejuvenation Biotech
Rejuvenation/longevity biotech is a new, emerging field of medicine. It aims to prevent and reverse the diseases of aging by addressing their common root cause, the aging process itself. Rejuvenation therapies aim to reverse or repair age-related cellular changes such as molecular waste, calcification, tissue stiffening, loss of stem cell function, genetic alterations, and impaired energy production.
Kizoo invests in never-done-before technologies that, if successful, would have an exceptional global impact on extending people’s healthy lifespans.
Being part of Mira Holding, our biotech activities complement the mission of our sister organization, Forever Healthy.
Reservoir Neuroscience develops a novel class of drug compounds designed to restore health to the brain’s blood vessels to rejuvenate the aging brain.
Reservoir’s unique approach to neurodegeneration was developed by co-founders Aaron Friedman and Vlad Senatorov, PhD neuroscientists from UC Berkeley who focus on understanding how aging blood vessels effects brain health. The company aims to develop the first drug that specifically targets vascular disease as a new way to restore brain health during natural aging and in age-related diseases.
Cyclarity develops easy-to-use drugs that prevent common age-related conditions such as atherosclerosis, heart-attack and stroke by addressing the root cause – a build-up of arterial plaque.
The company’s technology removes arterial plaque by clearing the non-degradable cholesterol that accumulates within cells in the arterial walls.
Cyclarity’s long-term goal is to deliver a simple and affordable preventive therapy for the world.
The basic technology was developed in the SENS lab, co-funded by the Forever Healthy Foundation.
Elastrin is developing therapeutics that render calcified tissue and organs supple again by removing pathological calcification, specifically from sites where elastin has been degraded.
Its underlying technology was developed by Dr. Naren Vyavahare and Dr. Charles Rice over the last 20 years at Clemson University. The Elastrin team has developed a platform that allows for substantial rejuvenation of the cardiovascular system and could restore organ function & skin elasticity to youthful levels. This is achieved by targeting nanoparticles loaded with therapeutic agents directly to the tissue site of interest with the company’s proprietary anti-elastin monoclonal antibody.
Revel opens up an entirely new field in the treatment of age-related molecular damage – breaking crosslinked collagen fibers.
Collagen is an essential part of the structural framework of the body. Unfortunately, it sometimes binds with glucose to form stiff, sofar unbreakable bonds that accumulate over time. Crosslinks cause hardening of tissues such as muscle, skin, and arteries leading to increased blood pressure, vascular damage, and wrinkling of the skin.
Revel will produce crosslink-breaking drugs.
The basic technology was developed at Yale University, funded by the SENS Research Foundation and the Forever Healthy Foundation.
MoglingBio is developing new pharmacological approaches to rejuvenate old stem cells of the hematopoietic (blood cell formation) system.
Aging causes stem cells to lose their normal structure by increased activity of the protein CDC42. This loss of structure leads to decreased production and quality of blood and immune cells. It can cause leukemia, various blood diseases, and severely weaken the immune system. Normalizing CDC42 activity can restore structure, order and functionality in those aged stem cells. Treated cells can perform their tasks again in a juvenile way, and thereby contribute to both, the rejuvenation of stem cells and the immune system.
Cellvie is a Harvard spin-off pioneering Therapeutic Mitochondria Transfer (TMT) leveraging the therapeutic potential of mitochondria.
The company was founded by Drs. McCully, Schueller, del Nido and Emani. Dr. McCully pioneered the approach of mitochondria augmentation and replacement at Harvard Medical School and the team has now set out to bring it about as a new treatment modality in ischemia-reperfusion injury and beyond to slow or reverse degenerative processes of aging linked to the mitochondria.
Internet & SaaS
With our deep roots in the internet space, we came to seed and mentor several of Germany’s unicorns. While not making any new investments in this area, we still remain among the largest shareholders of our heavyweights.
Staffbase solves modern employee communication challenges, and helps build a best-in-class employee experience.
Mambu – Composable banking. The cloud banking platform.
A new approach to banking technology that’s fast & more agile.
MOQO’s cloud-based platform enables everyone to offer shared mobility services with outstanding quality and exceptional economy of scale.
Babbel has made learning languages fun, easy and accessible to everyone. The market-leading app consists of high-quality courses in 14 learning languages.