LONDON & MADRID--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 15, 2026--
Axo Longevity today announced the close of an oversubscribed $5M seed round to expand its preventive health membership across Europe.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260910642125/en/
The round was backed by MS&AD Ventures, Izou Partners, LifeX Ventures, Everywhere Ventures, UNQ, 51 Ventures, Cistern Capital and NIAN Sports & Entertainment, alongside angel investors including Dr. Jorge Planas of Clinica Planas Barcelona and Daniel Kulle, former President of H&M and former CEO of Forever 21.
Developed to help people understand what is happening inside their body before symptoms appear, Axo Longevity moved from build to live operations in just twelve weeks. The platform is expanding globally, now operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands, as well as in its first Latin American market, Peru. It is supported by more than 1,400 laboratory locations through certified partners including Randox, Sussex Pathology, Eurofins, MDI Limbach and Multilab. More than 19,000 people have joined the waitlist.
Its core membership, called Axo Longevity Care, costs 490 euros a year and includes two comprehensive blood panels analysing 100+ biomarkers each time, with an Axo Health Score and biological age, and personalised health plans. Membership starts from 190 euros a year. Members book a blood draw at a partner laboratory, receive results measured against optimal ranges rather than population averages, and retest six months later to track what has changed.
"I looked healthy. I trained, I ate well, I had no symptoms. If I had graded my health from one to ten, I would have said nine. In reality I was closer to a six," said Andrew McCarthy, Co-founder and CEO of Axo Longevity. "A full biomarker panel showed cardiovascular risk indicators that would have gone undetected for years. We’re building a service for what happens after the test."
Axo Longevity’s clinical team is led by Chief Medical Officer Dr. Niko Mihic, Medical Supervisor at Real Madrid FC, former Head of NBA Research in Europe and NFL Europe Medical Consultant, who was named by Forbes as one of Spain's 25 most influential healthcare providers. Andy Walshe, PhD, Executive Longevity Advisor, is the former Head of High Performance at Red Bull and currently advises the US, UK and Australian Olympic teams.
"Consumer health companies usually fail on operations, not on science," said Jon Soberg, CEO and Managing Partner of MS&AD Ventures. "Axo Longevity is live in six countries with Europe’s largest working laboratory network and members returning for repeat testing. That kind of infrastructure and engagement is much harder than launching a single market - and that’s exactly the kind of execution we look for."
Axo Longevity’s advisors include Michael Johnson, twelve time Olympic and World Champion; Mario Schlosser, co-founder of Oscar Health; Eric Solomon, former top exec at Google, YouTube, Spotify and Instagram; and Rosa Hamalainen, who helped scale Rupa Health.
"Europe has exceptional clinical infrastructure, but for consumers it is fragmented, and they might only be able to access it when they are sick," explains Sergio Tang, Co-founder and Chief Product and Growth Officer. "We are delivering a single membership experience that works seamlessly and equips people with a data-driven understanding of their health - and a clear action plan of exactly what to do next.
"This funding will allow us to grow our laboratory network, continue to develop our AI health copilot and wearable integrations, and expand our services into the Nordics, Italy and Portugal."
About Axo Longevity
Axo Longevity is a global preventive health membership, now operating in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands, as well as in its first Latin American market, Peru. Members receive comprehensive biomarker testing, a personalised health blueprint and ongoing tracking through Axo Longevity’s platform. Founded in 2025 by Andrew McCarthy, Sergio Tang and Octavia Seymour. Learn more at www.axolongevity.com
Imagery of the founders is available for download here.
Axo Longevity preventive health membership
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will deliver a major state of the European Union speech on Wednesday setting out her priorities for the next year and her vision for tackling the challenges faced by the world’s biggest trading bloc.
The content of von der Leyen ’s address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, has been kept under wraps. Political groups in the assembly have lobbied to get their priorities and pet projects included.
But the speech is likely to touch on AI, climate change and the fires that have swept Europe this summer, as well as protection for children online, Russia’s war on Ukraine, conflict across the Middle East and international trade tensions.
Last year, she warned that Europe must stake out its independence as the continued to impose tariffs on the world and members if the Trump administration criticized the bloc’s migration policies, warning of “civilizational erasure.”
“Europe is in a fight,” von der Leyen said. “A fight for our values and our democracies.”
“Battle lines for a New World order based on power are being drawn right now,” she said, adding that the EU “must fight for its place in a world in which many major powers are either ambivalent or openly hostile to Europe.”
The event has become an annual ritual modeled on the State of the Union addresses to Congress by U.S. presidents, but it won’t be broadcast widely and few of the European Union’s 450 million citizens across 27 member countries are likely to tune in.
It’s a carefully crafted communications exercise in front of often applauding lawmakers that is appreciated most by EU insiders. Von der Leyen tends to conclude with what has become her rallying cry: “Long Live Europe.”
Routinely, its themes are aspirational. They touch on von der Leyen’s hopes and plans for the commission — the EU’s increasingly powerful executive branch – over the coming year but often lack detail. Critics say the commission’s work is opaque.
Eric Maurice, an analyst at the European Policy Centre think-tank, warned against her using it “to placate political groups” or “to raise the Commission President’s profile and extend the Commission’s political and institutional domain.”
“The EU is facing the crumbling of all the premises on which it was built. The rules-based order with benevolent free-trade and U.S. friendship and support is disappearing,” Maurice said.
The commission proposes laws used across the 27 countries and watches to ensure that those already in place are not being broken. It negotiates trade on behalf of all its members and is Europe’s top antitrust investigator.
At its helm stands the 67-year-old former German defense minister, who has become a prominent figure at summits with leaders around the world, despite being a political appointee who hasn’t been elected to Europe’s top post.
Von der Leyen is hard to ignore. She has accumulated influence over 7 years in office by securing vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic, managing the energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion and support to Ukraine through the war.
She also seems to have the begrudging respect of Trump. She, her chief of cabinet, and her trade commissioners have labored to limit the damage caused by Trump’s tariff war to the European economy.
But the Trump administration has also been riled by the commission’s crackdown on Big Tech companies, many of them in the United States, over their perceived flouting of Europe’s data regulations.
Ahead of the speech, the commission has set up a website dedicated to its leader and the event and has been distributing brochures laying out their achievements over the last 12 months.
The list is considerable, and includes sealing new trade agreements, boosting economic competitiveness, cutting energy costs, spurring defense investment, providing billions of euros in support to Ukraine and slapping sanctions on hundreds of Russian officials and organizations.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrives at the International Space Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, Pool)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrives to attend the International Space Summit in Paris Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (Abdul Saboor/Pool Photo via AP)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivers a speech at the International Space Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, Pool)
French president Emmanuel Macron, left, greets European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at the International Space Summit at the Grand Palais in Paris, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard, Pool)
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen arrives to attend the International Space Summit in Paris Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (Abdul Saboor/Pool Photo via AP)
