Joining me today is Marc Bernegger, a serial entrepreneur who has been successfully building companies in emerging industries for more than two decades, and his current focus is in the longevity space. Marc, welcome to the show.
Yes. Hi Rachel. Nice having me.
You have had multiple successful exits across internet and crypto ventures before pivoting fully into longevity around 2020. What did those earlier cycles teach you about spotting genuine value creation versus hype?
I started my first internet business back in 1999, right after high school. I was always interested in new and emerging technologies. Since then, I built and sold several tech companies. From the internet to the very early days of Bitcoin back in 2012, and now six years ago I started focusing on longevity. Originally out of my own personal interest — I was always fascinated by how medicine and medical breakthroughs have extended human health span throughout history. And I think it is a very exciting and rewarding topic.
For our audience who mainly think in terms of markets and portfolios, how do you translate longevity into an actual asset class?
We are still early. At the moment, most of the money is in early phases — start-ups and venture capital. But it is changing. If you see recent developments with GLP-1, where you now have listed companies taking advantage of longevity and extending the human health span in the field of preventive care, we see more and more traditional investors and bigger tickets going into this field. Similar to blockchain in banking and finance, which also started from zero and was regarded initially as a speculative venture capital investment field — I think longevity will play a similar role in the health industry and become a new emerging asset class.
What did the investor conversation around longevity look like in 2020 versus now?
Back then we literally built the first serious network and event platform to attract investors, fully focused on longevity. It was still in its infancy. Back then it was mainly private individuals. In recent years we saw many big corporates, big institutions, and even government funds moving into the field. Similar to other emerging industries, it starts with private money and then it also reaches very serious and big investors. And that is great, because ultimately the more money going into longevity, the more for start-ups and research to bring breakthroughs to humans.
Some analysts frame longevity as a $600 billion opportunity. Is the bigger unlock on the capital supply side or the shortage of investable science-backed companies?
I think we still need a little bit the GDP moment — where serious investors see the real use case and scalability of longevity related products and services. In the subsegment of longevity, we hardly have any listed companies yet, with a few exceptions. That is still a missing piece to attract bigger, more institutional kind of investors. There is definitely a big appetite and there will be much more allocation in the field. But we still miss this tipping point where it becomes a focus for traditional investors.
Why is the UAE the right market to bring your Future Investment Circle to right now?
The UAE is really very advanced and I would say ahead of the curve. One example is the Longevity Authority, which was recently announced. There is a big appetite and interest here to shape the future, not just follow these exciting developments — especially when it comes to health and longevity. That is why I think building the bridge between Switzerland and the UAE is something quite unique.
Thank you Marc. You were early for the internet, early for crypto, and early for longevity. Thank you so much for coming on today.
Thanks. Was a real pleasure.
