There are nearly as many people in the US over 65 years old as there are under 18, and we’re not getting any younger.
The age wave crashing into the US, and much of rest of the world, will upend more than just government spending and healthcare. The workplace, the built environment, transportation, financial services and more will all be reordered, for better or worse.
To try to tilt those changes toward better, Next50 has made $70 million in grants to support healthy aging since the foundation was established in 2016 with the proceeds from the sale of InnovAge, a Denver-based senior care operator. Last year, the foundation announced it will align 100% of its approximately $265 million endowment to value and support aging.
“It’s genuinely a mega trend that’s going to impact every aspect of our economy,” Next50’s Peter Kaldes tells ImpactAlpha on the latest Agents of Impact podcast. “We would be missing out on a profound investment and impact opportunity if we don’t build this framework.”
ImpactAlpha and Next50 are partnering to expand coverage of investment opportunities in healthy aging, and to chronicle the foundation’s efforts to align its endowment investments, across asset classes, with its programmatic mission to value and support aging.
Kaldes joined Next50 in 2023 and quickly moved to expand the foundation’s toolkit to include impact investments across four areas: creating economic opportunity, supporting the built environment, ensuring health and expanding social inclusion.
Historically, Kaldes says, aging has been considered the responsibility on individuals and families, on the one hand, and the government on the other. Investments than can help lower the costs associates with aging can improve the financial security of older adults.
“It’s expensive to get old,” Kaldes says. “We haven’t done enough to focus on the capital markets and the opportunities there.”
Organizations like the Age Friendly Institute certify the best places to work for people over 50, but such data has only rarely been used to guide investment decisions as well.
Investments to support healthy aging will be especially important with looming federal budget cuts. Programs such as Meals on Wheels, senior centers, adult daycare and initiatives to help more older adults live independently are on the chopping block.
“As a private foundation, we care about the most vulnerable, and about a third of today’s older adults in the US are economically insecure, living off of $30,000 a year,” Kaldes says. The cuts, “are going to force everyone’s hand to try and figure out how we can collaborate more and find funding opportunities to support these communities that we care about.”
Model portfolio
The foundation this year selected JPMorgan Chase & Co. to construct a portfolio not only for the foundation’s own assets but for other investors as well. Members of the affinity group Grantmakers in Aging, for example, have a combined $45 billion in endowment assets.
The foundation is about six months into its journey and expects to have about 60% of the endowment aligned by the end of this year. The goal is to be, within a few years, fully aligned, with the caveat that a number of legacy funds still have to mature before those assets can be redeployed.
“We’re convinced, given the diversity of a robust aging portfolio, we’re going to get market rate returns when investing in our future,” Kaldes says. “And yes, there’s going to be some, perhaps concessionary returns.”
“To be so hyper focused with our endowment on what’s going to make us all age well, we think, particularly in partnership with JPMorgan, could be really catalytic. It’ll really force, maybe, their existing clients to see opportunities in aging.”
Longevity tech
Even before engaging JPMorgan, Next50 had dipped its toe into private equity, as a limited partner in funds such as San Francisco-based Age1 and 1843 Capital, with offices in New York and Washington DC.
Age1, which raised $35 million in 2023, was co-founded by Laura Deming, who had earlier run the Longevity Fund, one of the first longevity-focused VC funds, and Alex Colville, an aging-focused biotech investor. The firm invests in new therapeutics for aging-related diseases and machine-learning platforms that advance drug discovery related to aging.
“We are on the brink of revolutionizing global healthcare systems by no longer treating individual age-related diseases as they happen but rather extending healthy lifespan and preventing the onset of age-related disease,” the firm says on its website.
Similarly, Tracy Chadwell’s 1843 Capital is focused on age and longevity tech, all the changes needed in social infrastructure to “solve for the 100+ lifespan,” as the firm puts it.
The key, Kaldes says, is to mitigate the chronic conditions that come with aging, rather than trying to “cure” aging itself.
“A lot of these billionaires think aging, in and of itself, is a disease, and we don’t take that point of view,” Kaldes says. “We definitely want to help people live longer, healthier lives. But we aren’t investing in the fountain of youth.”
