Retro Biosciences Co-Founder Joe Betts-Lacroix, and the company's board member, Sandro Salsano from the Salsano Group talk to CNBC's Squawk Box Asia about the startup's bold bet to extend healthy human lifespan by another 10 years.

San Francisco

Retro Biosciences, a biotechnology startup backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, is focusing on developing a drug to address Alzheimer's disease, a major age-related health issue. The company reports that its lead molecule has shown promising efficacy and safety in experimental models, with no observed toxicity.

Investors, including those leading the current capital raise, cite the founder's track record and the company's passionate, disciplined approach as key strengths. Retro Biosciences is raising a substantial Series A round, reflecting confidence in the growing intersection of artificial intelligence and biology, and the increasing interest from institutional investors in longevity and biotech innovation.

Altman-backed Retro Biosciences makes bold bet on longevity

Even something small will be incredibly huge and of course you know there are a lot of us working at the company to create something huge. The first drug that we're bringing to market and the first age-related disease that we'll bring it out for is Alzheimer's disease which is obviously a huge huge problem for humanity. So talk to us about the progress that you've made so far and what needs to be done from here. Yes so we have so far established that there's a signal that this molecule the first one first drug we're bringing to out into the clinic works and that it produces you know the signs of efficacy that we look for in experimental animals and cells and it shows a remarkable safety like the property of being non-toxic. So Sandro as an investor here leading this investing round capital raising round as well why did you decide to back this company? What caught your attention? And you also managed to bring in OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in this round as well as an early backer. What was the conversation like? Well you know as an investor we look for three main things and I always felt the jaw at them all. So first is the obsession and if you meet Joe you'll have the first impression on the first meeting. He had two exits one was to Google I think Bill Gates had the smallest PC in the world on stage and said you know this is the coolest thing I've seen and then the second was to Recursion Pharma. So this is his third baby and we met in Switzerland and I just you know fell in love with him I said how can I help you. Second is love and passion and the third is frugality. So I think Joe has got those three components as a founder and and obviously you know we are just so privileged we can be part of this journey. Sam seeded it four years ago with the 180 million dollars but it's really incredible team many PhDs in Redwood in California and yeah and so there is as an investor I think it's one of those very very unique businesses you see really one in a billion. I mean you're raising one billion dollars in Series A. It's a big number for Series A to begin with and of course when we're talking about this AI enhanced a startup especially when it comes to biotech I have to ask you a valuation question. Sandro are you comfortable with the valuation that you're going in for and what kind of valuation trajectory are you hoping for down the road? Yes we are very comfortable you know those days if you look at you know the biotech I guess the Zenit was probably February 2021 so there was no lots of COVID liquidity there was a vaccine euphoria you know some record record IPOs and SPACs and then you had you know the crash in 2022-2023 so you had rates rising sharply the IPO window slammed shut and valuation collapsed so I think we had kind of a rebuilding process phase 2022-2023 where all those big pharma now they're cash rich you know after the pandemic windfall and you have AI plus biology convergence so those company are attracting capital there is you know a more disciplined approach I think from the venture capital world and I believe that we might view we might see the 2025-2026 as a the next sustained up cycle you know we see only in the public markets for example you look at the XBI which is the biotech ETF I think in February 21 it was roughly $174 those days is around $110 is up 50% from 2022 loss but still far from the 2021 peak and on the private markets I think we see solid momentum in AI driven discovery in cell and gene therapy new generation longevity of course and obesity metabolic space so we really see the on the fundraising side the more structural rounds you know more strategic investors and and by that I mean you know really the smart money are joining so it's large family offices but really institutional capital so the sovereign wealth funds you know pension universities endowments NBC's

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