AgeTech is a massive investment opportunity in venture capital characterized by tech-based solutions that seek to transform aging. As the global population ages and consumers over 65 continue to work, travel, exercise, far longer than previous generations, significant market opportunities have emerged, and only a fraction of businesses have developed strategies to address them. Further, the dramatic shift in the global demographics, by 2030 20% of the U.S. will be over 65, is creating major social issues that must be addressed. A growing venture community, including 1843 Capital, and repeat entrepreneurs are among those focused on a new way of thinking about aging, making AgeTech today’s rich investment opportunity.

AgeTech: Aging…But Don’t Call Me Old
The Boomer generation, now 58-76 years old, has been significantly reshaping U.S. society since WWII. As they hit their silver years, Boomers are once again pioneering changes in the global workplace, healthcare services, and the consumer goods market. Their “don’t call me old” attitude begets new behaviors from their predecessor, the Silent Generation. With $30T in spending power by 2030, and a radical change in the way Boomers are spending their time, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists have awoken to the massive opportunity.

65’s the new 45…
New behavioral trends in today’s seniors require new products and services – enter the era of AgeTech. Today’s older adults are more educated and technologically savvy than previous generations. They’re living and working longer, staying more fit, and traveling more. Their 60s, formerly the beginning of the “retirement years,” now consists of pickleball and global travel, continuing education, and mentoring and caregiving for grandchildren and parents. This means there’s a huge opportunity and critical need to reimagine products and services for Boomers.

Boomers are Ignored
Despite the outsized demographic and related spending power, large advertisers are still mostly ignoring the 50+ demographic in their marketing. As recently as 2021, AARP found that while one-third of the US population is over 50, they show up in only 15% of media images. And, those 50+ make up one-third of the workforce but only 13% of advertising images of adults show them working. The Global Coalition on Aging found that only 15% of businesses have a strategy for aging consumers. This huge disconnect between legacy businesses focus and reality means there’s a fertile playing field for new companies thinking in new ways.

50+ will outnumber children by 2035 as Boomers age and the birth rate continues to fall putting significant pressure on already heavily strained healthcare systems.

HEALTH – INDEPENDENCE – SECURITY
AgeTech encompasses broad segments such as health and wellness, independence, and security.

Health: Health is highly valued to the over 50 demographic and, in turn, costly. In 2000, the Medicare-eligible population in the US numbered 35.1 million. By 2030, this number is expected to increase to 69.7 million. Medicare’s annual costs are projected to be $259.8 billion in 2030. As the Baby Boomer generation reaches retirement age, the need for Medicare and age-related healthcare services will continue to rise, taking healthcare expenses with them. Technology solutions that address cost savings in this sector will be the most successful.
Controlling the rising costs of healthcare is a major concern for the Baby Boomer generation, as anticipated expenses outstrip what many retirees have in their savings for these golden years. Healthcare providers will seek innovative ways to keep health care accessible and affordable both for Baby Boomers and those who follow them. This includes essential actions such as:

• Ensuring proper staffing is available for healthcare facilities.
• Creating senior-care facilities that affordably meet the needs of the aging population.
• Utilizing technology to its full capabilities for better efficiency and lower expenses.
• Implementing smart workflows that control costs in healthcare facilities.

Independence: On the flip side of all the working, traveling, and enjoying life, Boomers are quite often responsible for their parents. 92% of 80+ Seniorsrequire meaningful support for physical and mental health conditions as they age in-place in a desire to maintain their independence.

Unpaid caregiving is a $470B economy according to a study by Pivotal Ventures Report and lower birth rates and a burgeoning older population means that the ratio of caregivers to patients will drop to 4:1 from 7:1 by 2030. Senior mental health needs are also large in number and expensive. 8 million people in the US have Alzheimer’s today and that number will double by 2050. Furthermore, seniors with cognitive challenges are 3x more likely to end up in the ER and will cost nearly 3x as much as an average Medicare patient without such challenges. Two recent 1843 Capital investments, Kinto and Rippl, offer assistance to caregivers in a scalable fashion to provide better care with lower costs.

Security: One area we’re interested in is financial longevity and security given the retirement funding gap in the US is estimated at $3.68 trillion(2). Despite an awareness they should be saving more, Boomers surveyed in 2019 reported that 45% have no retirement savings and of the 55% who do, nearly one quarter have less than $100,000(3). When we use the term longevity and wellness, we mean both financial and physical wellness. There are a number of new players working toward this goal, better aging through establishing good financial habits, relationships, and safeguards, including Keen, which reimagines the Medicare enrollment process, and Fraudfindr, which quickly identifies and resolves instances of fraud against seniors, preventing repeat victimization.

Opportunities and experienced founders abound in this space, but because it’s still considered emerging, we believe there’s outsized potential for above-average investment returns.

Notes:
(1) https://www.investin.care/
(2) Jack VanDerhei, Ph.D., “Impact of various legislative proposals and industry innovations on retirement income adequacy,” ebri.org, January 20, 2021.
(3) Insured Retirement Institute, 2019,
https://www.irionline.org/research/article/boomer-expectations-for retirement-2019/

By now we all have a close elderly relative who once stuck to making short phone calls on landlines, watching their cable TV, reading paperback books and mailing letters by USPS – but is now tracking their walks, monitoring their sleep and Snapchatting or Whatsapping with their grandkids around the world.

The idea that seniors aren’t users of tech is outdated.

According to a consumer insight study of seniors conducted by Google and research house Known, in mid-2020, 86% of seniors indicated that they spend on average 6 hours online and own an average of 5 devices and view it as an imperative to be “online.” Imperative to be online? Five devices?!

And according to a recently completed study by AARP’s AgeTech Collaborative, older adults are motivated to use technology to stay connected, safe and independent. So to say that older adults aren’t techie is an antiquated viewpoint that seniors themselves have put to bed. They not only have the spending power, but with their sheer market size, companies that focus on AgeTech are ripe for growth in the coming decades.

53% of older Americans have given meaningful consideration to modifying their home so that they can stay in it longer, and the global smart home device market is expected to hit $165B by 2025.

The pipeline for AgeTech investments is robust and growing quickly, as is the ecosystem of accelerators, grants, venture capitalists and nonprofits focused on the aging space. AARP, National Institute of Aging/NIH, Next Age, and Techstars are among the quickly growing list of organizations that launched efforts to support AgeTech entrepreneurs in the last two years, a signal of both the imperativeness and the opportunity in AgeTech solutions.

Large tech players such as Amazon, Best Buy, and Google are focused on the space as is the senior housing industry. Google, Amazon, and Facebook all have smart play displays or virtual assistants for seniors which utilize voice recognition and easy touch screens to initiate phone calls, watch YouTube videos or TV among other things. Best Buy is very focused on the 77% of seniors that say they prefer to stay in their homes by investing in new products and services. In fact, Best Buy spent $800MM to acquire Great Call and another $125MM for Critical Signal Technologies, both remote senior monitoring emergency response services to establish a foothold in the home.

Seniors are ready for tech-enabled solutions and the pipeline of new companies with tech-enabled products and services is robust which is why we are invested in the space.

If you have a solution you’d like us to know about, please email [email protected].

Midi Health is a virtual care platform focused on female hormonal health. The holistic approach to care is designed by world-class experts in perimenopause, menopause, and more. Everything Midi does serves their mission—to help women feel strong and healthy through a critical chapter of their lives and careers. With 20% of the workforce in menopause at any given time, Midi is a mission critical tool for employers in their battle to recruit and retain women in the workforce. Especially women at the peak of their careers.

Midi: Created to Give Expert Care Midlife
Midi’s founders, Joanna Strober and Sharon Meer, believe that great care should be accessible and affordable to women everywhere and they’ve built the infrastructure required to deliver. Together with CMO Dr. Stephanie McClellan (formerly of Tia) and Jill Herzig (formerly of Glamour), the team brings a unique and fresh approach to a problem that has not been addressed. Currently 75% of women experience menopausal symptoms that are not resolved. On the provider side, 85% of OBGYN’s are untrained in menopause. Amazingly, they receive on average 2 hours of training in total.

Mid-Life Made Easy
Because life is hard enough, Midi is simple. Users visit their website to create an account, add insurance information, and choose a time for a virtual visit. At her virtual visit, she’ll have an in-depth conversation about her symptoms, health history, and lifestyle. If tests are needed, Midi sends her to a local lab that takes her insurance. She’s given a personalized care plan and is offered as many follow ups as needed to fine-tune her treatment and stay ahead of any new symptoms.

By taking a holistic approach to improve the symptoms of midlife hormone change, based on every woman’s health history, lifestyle, and genetics, Midi creates a whole-body customized care plan for middle-aged women including:

• prescription hormonal and non-hormonal medications (including HRT)
• lifestyle coaching and wellness therapies
• supplements and botanicals
• specialized care paths for cancer survivors and those at risk

Midi visits and prescriptions are covered by most PPO insurance plans and integrate with employers and the entire benefits ecosystem to offer a fully-reimbursed medical program, making it flexible, affordable, and responsive to each users’ unique needs.

Not a New Problem
Women’s health has always lacked attention. As recently as 1993, women were routinely excluded from early-stage clinical trials which resulted in a shortage of data on how drugs affect women. Between 1989 and 1992 it was the official NIH policy to include women in clinical research, yet there was little compliance or encouragement to review the data by gender. It ultimately took an Act of Congress in 1993 to ensure women were included in all clinical trials. Until then, nearly all studies were done on 175 lb men. The reason? Female hormones complicate studies. It was regretfully ignored that those very same hormones mean that a woman’s body absorbs drugs differently.

I also recently had the pleasure of meeting Michelle Williams, Dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She made a statement that was simple, yet profound. “Women’s health is not just about women’s health.” Women make up 70% of the healthcare workforce and are 70% of the unpaid caregivers and nearly 50% of the workforce. If women aren’t well, there’s a direct effect on our national healthcare system as well as our economy. Women’s health is good business.

On the policy side, Senator Tammy Duckworth and Congresswoman Haley Stevens have introduced similar resolutions in the Senate and the House that advocate for viewing women’s health as a critical issue for the economy and workforce of the U.S. They are calling for investing $300MM to support efforts to increase health research focused on women, particularly for diseases that differentially and disproportionately affect women, among other things.

In the meantime, there’s Midi.

Learn more about Midi Health and the other 1843 Capital portfolio companies.