Brian Armstrong’s NewLimit Raises $435M for Human Trials
NewLimit, a longevity biotech startup co-founded by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, has raised $435 million in Series C funding to move its first age-reprogramming medicine toward human trials.
Summary
- NewLimit raised $435M to move its first age-reprogramming drug toward human trials next year.
- Founders Fund led the round, while Thrive, Greenoaks, Quiet Capital and Eli Lilly joined.
- Brian Armstrong’s biotech bet links AI, cell reprogramming and longevity medicine beyond Coinbase’s crypto business.
NewLimit Secures $435M Series C
NewLimit announced the funding round on June 2, saying Founders Fund led the raise. New investors Thrive Capital, Greenoaks and Quiet Capital joined the round, while existing backers Kleiner Perkins, Abstract, Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, Valor Equity Partners, Eli Lilly Ventures and Human Capital also took part.
The company said it will use the funds to push its first aging reprogramming drug into human clinical trials next year. “Following breakthrough results, we’re bringing longevity medicine to human trials,” NewLimit said.
Startup Targets Cell Aging
NewLimit focuses on epigenetic reprogramming, a method that aims to restore youthful function in old cells. The company says its medicines are designed to treat diseases linked to aging by changing how cells behave, without changing the DNA code itself.
Its first program targets the liver. NewLimit said its liver therapy helped old human liver cells show signs of younger function in early research. The company plans to test how that approach works in people during its first human trial.
Armstrong’s Bet Moves Beyond Crypto
NewLimit was founded in 2021 by Armstrong, former GV partner and bioengineer Blake Byers, and computational biologist Jacob Kimmel, who serves as chief executive and president. The company has become one of Armstrong’s most visible projects outside Coinbase.
The raise also comes as crypto.news has tracked Armstrong’s wider push into AI and automation. Recent coverage said Coinbase used AI to cut account restriction resolution times by 90%, while Armstrong also listed AI tools, stablecoins and tokenization among key finance upgrades.
Longevity Funding Gains Momentum
The $435 million round places NewLimit among the better-funded private longevity startups. The Wall Street Journal reported that the raise lifted NewLimit’s valuation to $3.1 billion, more than triple its level from last year.
The company still has no approved product on the market. Its next test will come in human studies, where it must show that early cell-level results can translate into a safe and useful medicine.
NewLimit said it first believed that bringing an aging medicine into human trials would take more than a decade. The company now says recent scientific results helped it move faster than expected.
The raise gives NewLimit more capital to expand its research across liver, immune, metabolic and vascular programs. It also gives Armstrong’s biotech project a larger role in the growing market for longevity medicine.
