Vishal Harnal on consumer health trends, innovations in healthspan and the evaluation of early-stage startups.
The Founders Longevity Forum Singapore is poised to convene global leaders, clinicians, academics and investors to advance knowledge and drive growth in the longevity sector. With a significant focus on longevity investment, the conference aims to explore innovative strategies to promote healthy aging – Singapore, recognized for its dynamic startup ecosystem, serves as an ideal backdrop for these discussions.
Vishal Harnal, Global Managing Partner at 500 Global, will be a distinguished speaker at the event. Under his leadership, 500 Global – a venture capital firm managing over $2.5 billion in assets – has backed over 5,000 founders representing more than 2,900 companies operating in 80+ countries, and including notable successes like Grab and Bukalapak.
Longevity.Technology: Harnal’s extensive experience in fostering innovation, capitalizing on emerging markets and navigating regulation positions him to offer valuable insights into the convergence of technology and longevity, highlighting investment opportunities that can drive advancements in healthy aging. Ahead of February’s event, we sat down with Vishal Harnal to discuss growth of longevity investment in the APAC region and opportunities for startups in the longevity space. We also cover how his legal background influences his investment strategies and the importance of government involvement in healthcare.
Vishal Harnal on…
Focus on APAC
I was always interested in the space of longevity and healthspan, originally more as an amateur and a terrible biohacker! But now I am looking at the space in a much more institutional capacity, and while it took a while to get there, I think that is true for other parts of the world and it’s definitely true for APAC. I’ve seen it develop and there’s a renewed interest in the spaces of healthspan and longevity; there is an understanding from the ground up – consumers who care a lot more about their health and prioritize it.
From top down, I think there’s been an increased conversation at the government level for the most developed economies in APAC about the healthcare of their population. Thinking about countries like Singapore, the largest drag on GDP is always going to be healthcare and maintaining an increasingly aging population. The largest populations of aging individuals are in Asia, and if you think about that from a numbers perspective and from a percentage perspective, the top places like Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, which are wealthy countries, have a huge and increasing number of their percentage of their population moving into that category. So it becomes part of the conversation, and the word aging is beginning to appear as part of government level conversations and those with health authorities and health regulators. So I think that’s been a fundamental shift in APAC in the space of longevity and healthcare.
A matter of perspective
Longevity it is an imperative from a public health perspective and not just from a public health perspective, also from an economic resilience perspective. As citizenry gets older, their healthcare needs and the healthcare costs keep ballooning. Focusing on healthpan ensures a longer period of economic productivity and a happier population as well – and it is means smaller cost from a national perspective.
People are starting to prioritize health, and the needs of each individual population in all of these markets are quite unified, but we still divide the world into regions and countries. At a city and socioeconomic level, when you draw parallels between people from different parts of the world, they end up being a lot more similar than we think, especially in their needs and the health outcomes that they want.
Combining local with sovereign
An interesting opportunity in APAC is that there’s a very large cadre of postdocs turned entrepreneurs in markets like the US, especially in Boston, and in some European countries, but that’s very nascent over here. So you’ve got first grade research institutes, first class universities, like the National University of Singapore or Tokyo, but the percentage of postdocs that are willing to take a risk and spin out or commercialize the research and turn it into a therapy that’s focused on healthspan or lifespan is low. It is slowly increasing, reducing the number that would otherwise remain locked up in the vaults of the university or licensed out to other entrepreneurs in other markets, and this is an opportunity for Asia.
Regardless of whatever is available nationally, there are opportunities in healthcare and longevity that governments will want under sovereign control. We will still need local players and local champions, especially when it touches on healthcare, but there is an increased focus on the nation state, and an increased underscoring on sovereignty. Healthcare, citizenry and sovereignty creates opportunities for entrepreneurs to build – you don’t need to optimize for the global maxima, you don’t need the best in class worldwide to provide those clinical services. You can have a local maxima, a local champion or many local or regional champions also building similar businesses, products, services within those markets.
AI x longevity
My biggest interests are in the intersections of spaces, of intersections of technologies, and intersections of discipline. AI x longevity and healthspan is probably one of the category-defining areas that is of great interest to me, such as in drug discovery, like Insilico, and generative AI powered medicine.
There’s a lot of focus on healthspan and lifespan as it concerns our physicality, but I also care a lot about cognitive decline. There’s no point having a long life with an extremely healthy body if your mind can’t keep up with the rest of it. Traditionally, there’s been a lot of investment into spaces like Alzheimer’s and mental illness, but what’s happening now with new technologies like AI and with new funding is an increased focus on looking at cognitive health over the course of our lives.
Understanding regulation
From a regulatory perspective, my experience has given me is a deeper understanding in how conservative you need to be on how regulation changes. One of the things I noticed in the startup ecosystem in general is that, is a belief that you can build first, let things sink in and perhaps regulation will change over time. We’ve seen this ride hailing, e-scooter sharing, &c. It doesn’t necessarily happen because regulators usually work on their own time horizons, especially in more conservative markets in Asia. So if you want to change something, you can’t take a passive role in it, nor can you take an antagonistic role in it – you’ve got to work with the regulators early from day one, understand how to navigate that ecosystem, and then change it that way.
I think that’s very apropos for things like healthspan and lifespan, which are things that you want to put on the national health agenda. Working with regulators, understanding the vernacular and process that they use towards getting something across the line, and really helping them be winners in the space is one of my takeaways from my experience.
Register your interest to participate at Founders Longevity Forum Singapore.
