19,000 JOIN WAITLIST AS AXO LONGEVITY RAISES $5M TO TAKE PREVENTIVE HEALTH ACROSS EUROPE
FROM BLOOD TESTS TO ‘BIOLOGICAL AGE’: AXO LONGEVITY LANDS $5M FOR EUROPEAN EXPANSION
Preventive health company Axo Longevity has closed an oversubscribed $5 million seed round after expanding into six countries and building a network of more than 1,400 laboratory locations, as it bets that consumers will pay to understand potential health risks before symptoms emerge.
Axo Longevity has raised $5 million in an oversubscribed seed funding round to accelerate the European expansion of its preventive health membership business, as growing consumer interest in biomarkers and longevity creates a new market around testing people before they become ill.
The company says more than 19,000 people have joined its waitlist and that it is already operating in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands and Peru.
Its funding round was backed by MS&AD Ventures, Izou Partners, LifeX Ventures, Everywhere Ventures, UNQ, 51 Ventures, Cistern Capital and NIAN Sports & Entertainment.
Angel investors included Dr Jorge Planas of Clinica Planas Barcelona and Daniel Kulle, former President of H&M and former CEO of Forever 21.
The capital will be used to extend Axo Longevity’s laboratory network, develop its AI health copilot and wearable integrations, and support planned expansion into the Nordics, Italy and Portugal.
A €490 BET ON PREVENTION
At the centre of Axo Longevity’s proposition is a simple question: what could a person discover about their health before obvious symptoms appear?
Its core Axo Longevity Care membership costs €490 a year and includes two blood panels, each analysing more than 100 biomarkers. Customers also receive an Axo Health Score, an assessment of biological age and personalised health plans.
Other membership options start from €190 a year.
Members book blood draws through partner laboratories before receiving results that Axo says are assessed against what it describes as optimal ranges rather than simply population averages. Testing is repeated six months later to monitor changes.
The company says it has access to more than 1,400 laboratory locations through certified partners including Randox, Sussex Pathology, Eurofins, MDI Limbach and Multilab.
For Co-Founder and CEO Andrew McCarthy, the business proposition emerged partly from his own experience.
“I looked healthy. I trained, I ate well, I had no symptoms. If I had graded my health from one to ten, I would have said nine. In reality I was closer to a six,” McCarthy said.
“A full biomarker panel showed cardiovascular risk indicators that would have gone undetected for years. We’re building a service for what happens after the test.”
BEYOND THE BLOOD TEST
That final point could prove important to Axo’s commercial model.
Consumer blood testing has made increasingly sophisticated health data available outside conventional clinical pathways, but information alone does not necessarily tell consumers what action to take.
Axo is attempting to position itself beyond the individual test by creating an ongoing membership incorporating repeat measurements and personalised plans.
Its clinical operation is led by Chief Medical Officer Dr Niko Mihic, who is Medical Supervisor at Real Madrid FC and previously served as Head of NBA Research in Europe and NFL Europe Medical Consultant.
Executive Longevity Advisor Andy Walshe, PhD, is former Head of High Performance at Red Bull and currently advises the US, UK and Australian Olympic teams, according to Axo.
Its advisors also include twelve-time Olympic and World Champion Michael Johnson; Oscar Health Co-Founder Mario Schlosser; former Google, YouTube, Spotify and Instagram Executive Eric Solomon; and Rosa Hamalainen, who helped scale Rupa Health.
FROM BUILD TO SIX COUNTRIES
Axo says it moved from building the platform to live operations in 12 weeks.
Jon Soberg, CEO and Managing Partner of investor MS&AD Ventures, argues that the company’s operational infrastructure was central to its appeal.
“Consumer health companies usually fail on operations, not on science,” Soberg said.
“Axo Longevity is live in six countries with Europe’s largest working laboratory network and members returning for repeat testing. That kind of infrastructure and engagement is much harder than launching a single market – and that’s exactly the kind of execution we look for.”
Claims about the scale of Axo’s laboratory network and customer engagement are company-supplied and will ultimately be tested as the business expands.
The company is nevertheless attempting something more complicated than operating a single testing centre: coordinating laboratories, health data and customer experiences across different markets.
AI, WEARABLES AND THE NEXT EUROPEAN MARKETS
The next stage is intended to add more technology to that infrastructure.
Axo plans to continue developing an AI health copilot and integrations with wearable devices, potentially allowing blood biomarker information to sit alongside other forms of personal health data.
Co-Founder and Chief Product and Growth Officer Sergio Tang believes Europe’s existing healthcare infrastructure creates an opportunity precisely because access remains fragmented.
“Europe has exceptional clinical infrastructure, but for consumers it is fragmented, and they might only be able to access it when they are sick,” Tang said.
“We are delivering a single membership experience that works seamlessly and equips people with a data-driven understanding of their health – and a clear action plan of exactly what to do next.
“This funding will allow us to grow our laboratory network, continue to develop our AI health copilot and wearable integrations, and expand our services into the Nordics, Italy and Portugal.”
The challenge for Axo will be demonstrating that consumers see enough continuing value in preventive testing to remain paying members — and that the information generated translates into useful, clinically responsible action rather than simply more health data.
But an oversubscribed $5 million seed round, operations across six countries and a claimed 19,000-person waitlist suggest investors are prepared to back the proposition.
Axo’s bigger bet is that consumers will increasingly want healthcare to tell them more than what is wrong today.
They will pay to understand what could be going wrong tomorrow.
