Why this longevity startup raised in Japan, not Silicon Valley | TWiST Tokyo | E2315

Ekei Labs generates high-resolution, low-cost epigenetic data by reading DNA methylation signals through proprietary methods. The company serves two primary markets: drug discovery focused on aging, and manufacturing quality control for cell therapy batches, where it assesses whether a given batch is potent, correctly identified, and consistent across production runs. Its core strategic bet is that the defensible moat in AI applied to biology lies in proprietary data generation rather than model sophistication, because public datasets are not built around specific phenotypes or indications. The company uses relatively simple AI models such as elastic regression after generating its own data and does not consider itself an AI-first company.

Founder Bilal Karoni chose Japan over Silicon Valley because of Japan's super-aged society, its progressive Regenerative Medicine Law Act enacted in 2013 following Shinya Yamanaka's 2012 Nobel Prize for iPS cell discovery, and the availability of quality scientists. All R&D is conducted at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, which operates under the Prime Minister's office, conducts research in English, and draws from a PhD cohort that is 50 percent Japanese and 50 percent foreign, serving as a direct talent pipeline into Ekei Labs. Business development and fundraising are handled from Tokyo. Clients include one of Japan's largest life science conglomerates alongside early-stage biotech and cell therapy manufacturers.

Ekei Labs raised approximately one million dollars in seed funding combined with grants, drawing from Japanese VCs, Japanese angels, and European angels with Japan experience. Japanese regional banks, backed by government funds, offer low-interest startup loans structured so that roughly every dollar raised in equity unlocks a comparable dollar in debt, with potential grant funding on top. Startup costs in Japan are substantially lower than in San Francisco, and US biotech VCs visiting Japan have expressed surprise at how much Japanese startups accomplish on small raises, such as generating meaningful data on only two hundred thousand dollars raised. The company is incorporated in Japan but is in discussions with US VCs and considering flipping to a Delaware or equivalent US corporate structure.

The founder terminated the company's epigenetic services business serving longevity clinics despite that segment showing growth and active prospects, concluding that clinic services were a distraction from the core R&D and IP development mission. The angel investors on the cap table are all experienced in biotech and understand the long-game investment model, which the founder said reduces tension when making decisions that sacrifice short-term revenue for strategic focus. Internal company consensus across the full team is required before seeking board approval for major strategic decisions.

The first clinical trial for a drug potentially reversing aging is expected in 2026, with Life Biosciences from David Sinclair and Newmit, funded by Brian Armstrong of Coinbase, cited as leading candidates. There is currently no scientific consensus on which longevity treatments work for patients, and off-label treatments conducted without clinical oversight have produced documented adverse outcomes. Japan provides access to cell and gene therapies not yet available in the United States, and the FDA is described as moving toward fast-tracking such therapies, though this remains early stage.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange halted early-stage IPOs after too many low-revenue zombie companies accumulated on the market, and Japan is now encouraging major acquisitions as the primary exit path, a shift expected to restructure how Japanese VCs and LPs operate. The limited pool of founders who have exited for significant cash constrains angel capital recycling in Japan. US M&A activity was effectively blocked for four years under FTC chair Lina Khan during the Biden administration, causing founders to deprioritize acquisition as an exit strategy during that period. The Ekei Labs founder said the company has envisioned three potential acquisition moments and evaluates each by asking whether continued IP generation outweighs selling current assets.

Jason Calacanis noted that US startup valuations have again become disconnected from fundamentals, resembling the 2019 to 2020 SaaS period, making international bets at lower valuations strategically attractive for the Launch Fund, which is on its fourth fund and has backed Uber, Robinhood, Thumbtack, Athena, Zipline, Vast Space, Abacus, and Micro One. He described a typical 200 million dollar fund as investing in 30 companies, expecting 25 to go to zero, three to return two to three times, and needing one or two outliers, illustrating that a 10 percent stake in a company reaching 10 billion dollars with 50 percent dilution returns 500 million dollars, a 2.5 times return on the fund.