All you need to know about longevity research company NewLimit: $150 million in cash, co-founded by Coinbase CEO
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All you need to know about longevity research company NewLimit: $150 million in cash, co-founded by Coinbase CEO
In addition to extending people's healthy lifespan, we must also keep their minds plastic and open to new ideas and experiences—meaning that in an ideal future world, both our bodies and our minds will stay young.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy Startup Boy
Biotechnology has always been a crucial innovation area in Silicon Valley. In recent years, significant resources have been poured into extending human lifespan. I previously introduced a project backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, whose core mission is to extend human lifespan. Together with another project aiming to deliver infinite energy for Earth, Sam Altman has personally committed $375 million.
Now, Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong, along with Google Ventures partner Blake Byers and Greg Johnson, Jacob Kimmel, have jointly founded NewLimit—a company focused on extending human lifespan—recently securing $40 million in funding. Investors include Dimension Capital, Founders Fund, KP, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, renowned investor Elad Gil, YC CEO Garry Tan, and Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam.
Combined with Blake Byers’ prior commitment of $110 million, NewLimit effectively has access to $150 million in capital, though the $110 million represents a long-term support pledge. A brief note about Blake Byers: he was the longest-serving partner at Google Ventures, staying nearly 10 years and growing GV’s fund size from $50 million to $2.5 billion before leaving in 2021 to launch his own firm, Byers Capital.
During his time at GV, he led investments in numerous biotech companies such as Neuralink, Denali, and Grail, and was also an early investor in Robinhood. Since starting his own VC firm, his investment focus remains evenly split between biotechnology and general tech companies.
Founded in late 2021, NewLimit currently has 17 employees and plans to maintain a small team structure long-term, believing this enables each member to make substantial contributions. Despite having four co-founders, there is no CEO yet. As Blake Byers explains, NewLimit is still in very early stages, and the founding team works together seamlessly, so leadership structure hasn’t been a priority. Day-to-day operations are primarily managed by co-founders Greg Johnson and Jacob Kimmel—Greg also serves as Head of Machine Learning, while Jacob leads research.
In its latest blog post, NewLimit states that its mission is to cure aging and extend human healthspan:
We aim to achieve this by discovering combinations of transcription factors that can epigenetically reprogram cells. While our products are designed to treat aging itself, we believe they may also treat or prevent many age-related diseases, including fibrosis, infectious diseases, and neurodegenerative disorders.
When NewLimit launched in December 2021, it published its first blog outlining the company's mission and approach. The post explained that NewLimit would first deeply investigate epigenetic drivers of aging and develop regenerative therapies targeting specific patient populations. They plan to build machine learning models using primary human cells and reference species to identify chromatin features that change with age, determine which changes may cause aging, and ultimately develop therapies to slow, stop, or reverse the process.
Over the past decade, tools for exploring and understanding biology have grown exponentially. Beyond DNA sequencing, scientists can now sequence DNA, RNA, and epigenetic markers in individual cells across entire tissues, preserving spatial context. It’s now possible to track individual proteins in real time as they move through cells and perform their functions. This expanded toolkit increases the feature space by four orders of magnitude, enabling far deeper understanding of biological systems.
NewLimit explains its focus on epigenetics by pointing out that over 15 years ago, scientists discovered cells are far more plastic than previously thought—you can take a skin cell from your arm and reprogram it into a brain cell. For example, you could take a skin cell from an old mouse and use cloning techniques to generate a newborn mouse. This transformation requires only four proteins applied to the cell.
In a complex system like a mammalian organism—with billions of DNA base pairs and tens of thousands of proteins—adding just these four proteins over a few weeks can completely alter a cell’s “identity”. NewLimit aims to discover ways to restore the regenerative potential we had when young but somehow lose with age—specifically, reprogramming a cell’s “age” without changing its cell type. Currently, scientists lack satisfactory explanations for why older people have weaker immune systems, are more susceptible to infections, and respond poorly to vaccines.
I think NewLimit’s approach closely resembles that of Retro, the company backed by Sam Altman. Retro also believes that the deeper, root cause of age-related diseases lies in untreated aging mechanisms themselves. Therefore, its solutions involve interventions targeting aging mechanisms through cellular reprogramming, bioengineered plasma therapy, and autophagy enhancement.
NewLimit acknowledges that achieving their full vision may take decades. But every breakthrough product—such as smartphones or electric vehicles—began with fundamental scientific advances. Although such innovations were initially expensive, their costs decreased over time until they became accessible to everyone. NewLimit hopes to accelerate this trajectory.
On the topic of why study aging, NewLimit notes that some people react negatively to the idea of longevity, fearing prolonged suffering. However, the company emphasizes its goal is to extend human healthspan. The word "health" is critical here—it means extending life without the diseases and decline associated with aging, preserving both physical function and cognitive ability:
Aging is one of the greatest hidden sources of visible pain and suffering around us. We believe there is a moral imperative to end this affliction that affects every single person.
I believe achieving this would be truly remarkable. On its website, NewLimit has publicly shared its entire Operating Plan, detailing research methodology, team structure, financing, and roadmap—similar to Elon Musk’s three-part Master Plan for Tesla. If you’re interested in this field or conducting related research, I highly recommend reading it.
Additionally, its official blog updates monthly on progress. For instance, in April, NewLimit completed its first partial reprogramming screen on human T cells derived from healthy young and elderly donors.
TechCrunch recently interviewed Brian Armstrong and Blake Byers. One quote from Brian stood out to me. When asked whether billionaires are obsessed with life extension because they can’t take their wealth with them, he responded:
My view is that if you’ve made money in the software industry, the best thing to do is reinvest it into social causes that improve the human condition—and biotech research is one of the most important areas. Today’s small decisions have the power to create a better future for our children.
If you look at all the leading causes of death—heart disease, cancer, diabetes, dementia—they are highly correlated with aging. Generally, these aren’t diseases of the young. So I think we should strive to solve the world’s most ambitious problems. There’s actually a generation of tech billionaires—Sam Altman, Patrick Collison (Stripe founder), and others—who are putting real money toward solving some of the world’s toughest challenges. I think that deserves celebration.
Elon Musk holds a different perspective on anti-aging research. He worries it could lead to even greater population aging, further declining birth rates, and a rigid society where new ideas struggle to gain traction.
Brian Armstrong says what they truly aim to achieve is not just extending people’s healthspan, but also keeping their minds flexible and open to new ideas and experiences—so that in the ideal future world, both our bodies and our minds remain young.
I think this point is absolutely crucial!
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