Retro Biosciences

Retro Biosciences is a Cellular Reprogramming & Rejuvenation company founded in 2021 and based in San Francisco, United States. It is valued at $1.8B.

Founded in 2021 and emerging from stealth in 2022, Retro Biosciences is a San Francisco Bay Area longevity company co-founded by CEO Joe Betts-LaCroix with a stated mission of adding ten healthy years to human lifespan. It was seeded with a $180 million investment from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, reported as its sole early backer. Retro runs three parallel programs — cellular reprogramming, autophagy (cellular waste-clearance) enhancement, and plasma-derived therapeutics. In August 2025 it announced, with OpenAI, that AI models had made reprogramming roughly 50 times more efficient. The company dosed the first participant in its first-in-human trial in late 2025 (RTR242, an autophagy-focused small molecule, in Adelaide, Australia), and a May 2026 fundraise valued it at $1.8 billion.

Sam Altman's flagship longevity bet, it links frontier AI to reprogramming science and reached the clinic in 2025.

retro.bio Cellular Reprogramming & Rejuvenation

United Statesprivate

At a glance

Total raised

Undisclosed

no public funding on record

Headcount

—

no public estimate on record

Headquarters

San Francisco

United States

Founded

2021

5 years active

Status

Private

Cellular Reprogramming & Rejuvenation

Latest valuation

Funding history

Total raised

—

Rounds tracked

Latest stage

Undisclosed

Latest valuation

$1.8B

Date	Stage	Amount	Valuation	Lead investors
May 22, 2026	Growth	—	$1.8B	—
Mar 8, 2023	Seed	$180M	—

Retro Biosciences

At a glance

Funding history

In the news

Retro Bio’s $1.8b moment: Hopes up as Alzheimer’s trial advances

Retro Biosciences valued at $1.8b to accelerate longevity research

Leadership

Products

RTR242

Cellular Reprogramming Platform

Open roles

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