Thanks to an injection of seed round cash, a new company, Bold, joins the growing pool of organizations that are focused on wellness and disease prevention.
The rising interest in wellness and healthy aging
It’s no secret that the interest in digital health and wellness has risen in recent years along with the popularity of concepts such as healthy aging. This $7 million seed round, which included funds from Andreessen Horowitz, Khosla Ventures, Primetime Partners, and GingerBread Capital, will help to get the company set up and primed for growth in what is a rapidly expanding market for digital wellness and healthy aging services.
The company claims to be using a research-based digital health platform to help its customers get fitter and healthier. As part of this, the company is offering customers a personalized exercise program that is tailored to their individual needs. The idea here is to help customers get fitter and healthier so that they are more likely to remain independent for longer as they get older. Staying active may also help to delay the onset of some age-related diseases.
Bold claims that its initial program has reduced the risk of falls, which often cause fatal complications in older people, for its clients due to improvements in strength, balance, and mobility as a result of its tailored exercise regimens.
The company launched at a fortuitous time, as this was just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit and gyms, senior centers, and other fitness venues were closed. This created a vacuum, and it was one that Bold was well placed to fill. As people were limited in exercise options and places in which to do it due to lockdowns, they started to seek ways to keep fit at home but in a way that kept them engaged and feeling part of something. For many of them, Bold addressed that need.
The company is expected to announce partnerships with health insurance plans that will make its fitness programs available to many more older people.
Healthy aging is an oxymoron
The demand for such wellness and healthy aging services is rising quickly. Of course, as the aging processes are the foundation of age-related disease, there is no such thing as healthy aging; it is an oxymoron. Indeed, our field is busy developing technologies that will hopefully far surpass what is currently possible with just exercise, offering true rejuvenation of aged tissues and organs.
However, for now, exercise is one of the best ways we have to slow down aging, and Bold joins the growing pool of companies focusing on wellness, disease prevention, and the idea of healthy aging. While the latter is a meaningless mantra to us, the former has some merit, and there are plenty of studies showing that exercise and keeping fit can help slow down the age-related loss of muscle mass, balance, and stability, thus delaying the loss of independence that such deterioration ultimately brings.
Conclusion
This trend of healthy aging and wellness is likely to continue for some time, and it is no doubt a positive thing to encourage people to be more healthy and active, especially as they get older; however, if our field is successful, such things will pale in comparison to what true rejuvenation could achieve.
