A Californian healthtech startup cofounded by a 20-something expat Australian has raised US$30 million (A$47m) in a Series A to build a “health super-app”.
The raise for San Francisco-based Superpower, founded in 2023 by former Sydneysider Max Marchione, the COO, Jacob Peters, CEO and Kevin Unkrich, CTO, values the startup at US$200m as a long line of celebrity investors pile in.
The round was led by California VC Forerunner Ventures with support from fellow West Coasters Day One Ventures, Opal Ventures, Valia Ventures, Visible Ventures, and existing backers Susa Ventures, Long Journey Ventures, Family Fund, and Winklevoss Capital.
Also tipping in were Milwaukee Bucks NBA “Greek Freak” Giannis Antetokounmpo, influencer turned biff merchant Logan Paul, actress Vanessa Hudgens and DJ Steve Aoki.
It follows on from a US$4 million pre-Seed round last year led by Susa, when DoorDash cofounder Evan Charles Moore and the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler, first invested. Balaji Srinivasan, Scott and Cyan Banister, Atman VC, 24 Carrot VC, Focalpoint Partners, and Seaside Ventures also wired over cash.
At the time Superpower touted themselves as “an iconic community and brand, plus a seamless consumer experience like we’ve come to expect from companies such as Apple or Tesla”.
Hopefully not so much like Tesla.
Marchione said last year that: “We’re building the healthcare system we want for ourselves and our loved ones. One that is holistic, data-driven, and can support the problems that have classically been neglected by healthcare: nutrition, sleep, inflammation, gut health, hormones, toxins, and longevity, amongst others. Preventative medicine is just getting started.”
Superpower promises “the world’s most comprehensive and convenient longevity system on the planet – a thoughtfully designed, all-in-one platform for easily improving our personal health”.
Marchione said he wants to “rescue 100 million people from the limits of traditional reactive care.”
More than 150,000 people are reportedly on the Superpower waitlist, but then you have to sign up to it to find out more about what the fuss is about.
It’s currently a web app, with plans for iOS and Android apps down the track. The raise is the company’s public launch.
It plays to the obsessions of rich middle-aged US blokes facing mortality, but unlike the 47-year-old entrepreneur and investor Bryan Johnson, who’s spent more than US$10 million trying to not die, and thus far succeeded, Superpower if offering to tell you all about your body using biannual biomarker blood tests for US$499 (A$780) a year. Once you know what’s wrong, they also have things you can buy to fix it.
Superpower investor Sean Kelly a partner at Family fund is a convert to the early MVP where he got a trading card.
It sounds a little like the biometric testing in White Lotus Season 3, where health mentor Valentin flatters his female guests by telling them all they have the readings of much younger women.
Using a term favoured by Marxists, the Unabomber and Socialist Alliance election candidates, Superpower has a “Manifesto” walking the well-trodden founder path that “x is broken” – in this case healthcare.
The problems the manifesto identifies reads like a list of talking points for US Secretary of Health Robert Kennedy Jr, from “8000 chemicals exist in the US food supply” to “Americans put an average of 168 chemicals on their bodies each day” and “male testosterone and sperm count at record lows”.
From poor food quality, to inescapable environmental toxins and a modern lifestyle that is hijacking our biology, it has never been harder to be healthy. And it’s clear that existing institutions aren’t working,” the Manifesto says.
“Food and pharmaceutical companies monetize our sickness, and no one has our best interests in mind.”
But now, there’s help at hand.
“We deliver the most advanced diagnostics and vetted therapeutics to those who seek a longer, healthier and more vital life,” the manifesto says.
“We believe that health should not be gate-kept by doctors or health systems, and that everyone should have sovereignty over their own health.”
The manifesto ends on a high note that would have Bryan Johnson screaming shut up and take my money.
“In the next few decades, we believe that advances in regenerative medicine, biotechnology, and AI will converge to help us dramatically decrease the rate that our bodies age. Longevity begins now,” it says.
And now Superpower has $47 million, as the clock still ticks, to prove it.
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