GlycanAge Secures €7.4 Million To Integrate Glycan-Based Ageing Diagnostics Into Mainstream Healthcare

The round was led by Fifth Quarter Ventures, with participation from Guinness Ventures, BrightCap Ventures, South Central Ventures, Impetus Capital, Vesna Deep Tech VC, and Lightfield Equity. Existing backers, including LaunchHub Ventures and Kadmos Capital, also joined on a pro-rata basis.

“Our goal is to make glycan testing part of standard preventive diagnostics, where everyone over the age of 30 can access it through their healthcare provider,” said Prof Gordan Lauc, co-founder and chief scientific officer of GlycanAge.

In 2024, GlycanAge secured €3.9 million in a seed funding round, led by LAUNCHub Ventures and UK-based deep-tech fund Kadmos Capital.

Founded in 2020 by Prof Lauc and his daughter Nikolina Lauc, GlycanAge is a UK-based company committed to bringing personalised, preventative healthcare to life. The company’s research focuses on glycans, complex sugars that, along with proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids, are essential to all living organisms. Glycans are found on every cell surface and are attached to more than half of all human proteins, playing a crucial role in immunity, cell signalling, and development.

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GlycanAge specialises in interpreting glycan signals, particularly those related to chronic inflammation, a key driver of ageing. Its analysis offers a detailed assessment of an individual's biological age, providing insights into how lifestyle choices, inflammation and environmental factors impact ageing. The company’s flagship biomarker is an "inflammaging" clock based on IgG glycosylation.

With the new funding, GlycanAge plans to accelerate the development of its clinical applications, including tools for stress and resilience, cardiometabolic health, weight management, and hormone regulation. The company aims to package these into specialised products tailored for practitioners.

“In parallel, the company plans to validate selected diagnostic indications and develop its first lab-developed tests (LDTs) for use in hospital and reference laboratory settings. This roadmap is underpinned by research collaborations with leading institutes worldwide, among which Northwestern University Hospital and Mayo Clinic,” the company mentioned in the press release.

St Catherine Specialty Hospital in Zagreb has become GlycanAge's first pilot partner marking a significant step in the adoption of glycan testing within hospital settings. The company plans to expand its technology into over 10 hospitals across Europe and the Middle East within the next year.

Additionally, GlycanAge has formed a partnership with King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), which will host the company’s first laboratory in Saudi Arabia. This facility will serve as a central hub for glycan testing and the transfer of testing methods across hospital and laboratory networks in the Kingdom.

About GlycanAge

GlycanAge offers a test that measures your biological age, providing insights into your true health and predicting future well-being. Backed by over 350 research studies, it uses glycan signals to assess the impact of lifestyle, inflammation and environmental factors on ageing, offering a personalised approach to health.