Gero has raised $17 million in new financing, bringing its total equity funding to $34 million as it advances an artificial intelligence-driven approach to developing medicines for aging and age-related diseases. The Singapore and San Francisco-based company is building on its existing collaboration with Chugai Pharmaceutical, a member of the Roche Group, which includes an upfront payment and up to $250 million in potential milestones, plus royalties. The latest funding will support preclinical development, expansion of Gero’s internal pipeline, and additional pharmaceutical partnerships.
Gero Advances Physics-First Drug Discovery
Gero’s platform combines longitudinal human health data, AI models, molecular and genetic information, and physics-based modeling to identify therapeutic targets linked to aging. The company’s central thesis is that aging follows measurable physical laws that can be extracted from large-scale human data and translated into medicines. Unlike many longevity-focused biotech companies that focus on reversing aging or restoring youthful cellular function, Gero aims to slow the underlying aging process itself.
The company says its approach was inspired in part by mammals that appear to defy conventional aging patterns, including naked mole-rats. While human mortality risk roughly doubles every eight years after early adulthood, naked mole-rats can live far longer than expected for their size while showing little increase in mortality risk as they age. Gero uses this biological contrast as a foundation for studying why some organisms experience slower functional decline and how those principles could inform drug development.
AI Models Built From Human Health Data
Gero has trained AI world models of human health using around 10 million curated longitudinal medical records selected from a broader pool of more than 100 million records. These datasets are integrated with molecular, omics, and genetic data to help separate reversible disease processes from deeper, long-term mechanisms of aging. The company says this enables it to identify “hub” targets that may influence multiple chronic diseases and are often missed by conventional drug discovery methods.
Under its collaboration with Chugai, the Japanese pharmaceutical company is developing drug candidates against targets identified by Gero’s platform. Gero also previously entered into a research collaboration with Pfizer in 2023, adding further pharmaceutical validation to its discovery model. The company believes that combining partnership revenue with its internal research engine gives it flexibility to pursue both disease-modifying programs and broader aging-slowing therapies.
Funding Backers and Market Context
The financing round included participation from Melnichek Investments, an AI-focused investment firm linked to entrepreneurs and operators with experience building technology companies acquired by major global players. Other investors include an early backer of a company later acquired by Facebook, now Meta, the co-founder of NYSE-listed EPAM Systems, and senior figures from the pharmaceutical and technology sectors. Gero said the fresh capital comes at a time when pharmaceutical companies are increasingly interested in mechanisms that can act across multiple diseases rather than targeting one condition at a time.
That cross-disease potential is central to Gero’s commercial argument. The company points to the rise of GLP-1 medicines as an example of how therapies affecting multiple disease areas can create large and durable markets. By focusing on aging as a shared driver of chronic disease, Gero aims to develop interventions with broad clinical and economic relevance.
Scientific Foundation and Leadership
Gero’s scientific framework was originated by Co-Founder and CEO Peter Fedichev, PhD, and developed over more than a decade through work published in journals including Nature Communications. More recent work has involved Jan Gruber, PhD, of the National University of Singapore, and helped shape the field known as gerophysics, which applies physics-based methods to aging research. The area has also been recognized through a dedicated Nature Portfolio collection in npj Aging, co-edited by Fedichev, Brian K. Kennedy, and Gruber, among others.
Brian K. Kennedy, Distinguished Professor at the National University of Singapore, former President and CEO of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, and Independent Director of Gero, said target selection remains a major challenge in translating aging biology into medicine. He noted that Gero brings together published aging theory, longitudinal human data, and pharmaceutical partner validation in a single discovery engine. Investor Anita Cosgrove, former Senior Vice-President of Strategic Business Development at Human Longevity, also highlighted the company’s use of real human data and a physics-based framework as key reasons for backing the business.
Gero’s latest financing strengthens its position in the emerging market for AI-enabled longevity and age-related disease drug discovery. With $34 million in total equity funding, a major Chugai collaboration, and a platform built on large-scale human data, the company is seeking to turn aging biology into practical therapeutic programs. Its next challenge will be converting its physics-first discovery model into drug candidates that can demonstrate meaningful benefits across chronic diseases and, potentially, aging itself.