Prince Khaled Outlines Healthspan As The Future Of Investing

The conversation around healthcare is changing, and specialists say that it is healthspan – the number of years we spend in good health – rather than longevity – our lifespan – that we should be focused on.  

And that is exactly what Saudi Arabia’s Hevolution Foundation — which has an annual budget of up to US$1 billion to promote healthy aging through funding, science, and investment — is working to do.  

In line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 and its National Biotechnology Strategy, which aims to position the country as a leading biotech hub that can compete globally, biotech has become a key area of growth, with a focus on vaccines, biomanufacturing, and genomics.  

One of Hevolution Foundation’s initiatives is its biannual Global Healthspan Summit, which took place from February 4-5, 2025, in Riyadh, saw more than 2,500 researchers, policymakers, business leaders, big pharma, entrepreneurs, biotech companies, and thought leaders converge in the Saudi capital to discuss the challenges of aging.

Given the Kingdom’s strong emphasis on the sector and Hevolution’s mandate to invest in healthspan science, this year’s edition featured the Saudi Biotech Pitchfest, an entrepreneurship competition that invited 12 biotech startups from the Kingdom to present their solutions to a panel of judges made up of biotech experts and investors.  

The panel, which included HRH Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud, founder and CEO of KBW Ventures, Abdulrahman AlOlayan, CEO of BetaLab, Dr. William Greene, the chief investment officer of Hevolution Foundation, and Dr. Christoph Westphal, co-founder of Longwood Fund, declared two startups as winners, both of whom received funding and mentorship to scale their companies.  

The first place was awarded to Protienea, a startup specializing in drug development using biotechnology, which received SAR100,000 ($27,000), while in second place was Twinn Health, a startup that utilizes patented artificial intelligence (AI) for early disease detection in MRIs, which received SAR50,000 ($13,300).  

Pictured on image: Panel judges and winners of the Biotech Pitch Fest at the Global Healthspan Summit. Image courtesy Hevolution Foundation.

In an interview with Inc. Arabia, Prince Khaled, whose venture capital fund, KBW Ventures, has invested heavily in biotech, noted how the emergence of longevity and healthspan science into the mainstream is changing the conversation around healthcare . “Globally, the current healthcare system isn’t designed to extend life — it’s designed to manage disease,” Prince Khaled said. “Entrepreneurs have to break out of that outdated model, and focus on building the future of longevity.” 

“KBW Ventures has long been committed to backing companies that look to better the status quo, and biotechnology is key to this,” he continued. “Making returns while making a positive impact is what we would refer to as responsible investing.” Here, Prince Khaled pointed to a record $200 billion Series C round raised by one of KBW Ventures’ portfolio companies, Colossal Biosciences, which is focused on rewilding and de-extinction. The investment, he noted, is a strong indication of the interest that investors are “willing to back big ideas in science and research and development.” He also added that he expects the nascent field of healthspan science to emerge as “the single largest industry to emerge over the next decade,” with the biggest financial returns expected to come from AI-driven biotech, personalized longevity treatments, and regenerative medicine.

With the healthcare industry thus primed for a paradigm shift, Prince Khaled noted that the sector in Saudi Arabia is already in the process of changing its thinking from reactive to preventive healthcare. “The industry thinking is that a pivot from ‘treat once sick’ to ‘predict and prevent’ needs to happen,” he said. “Saudi Arabia has made this meaningful shift, [and] that is indicated by the existence of Hevolution and other entities in the Kingdom working across the sector, such as BetaLab.” He further pointed to the Kingdom’s willingness to invest, to “try and fail, and try again,” and its efforts to bring talent on board to support its scientists and institutions as evidence that it is “poised to lead” in biotechnology and genomics.  

Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed during the 2025 Global Healthspan Summit panel discussion with investors from the biotechnology innovation landscape. Image courtesy Hevolution Foundation.

According to Prince Khaled, the biggest challenge, and in many ways, Hevolution Foundation’s raison d’etre, is commercializing, scaling, and localizing these novel solutions. While foundations or government organizations can and are investing patient capital to create a runway for venture capital and private equity to follow, he pointed out that the absence of an exit infrastructure leaves major gaps in the work being done by entrepreneurs on the ground, as well as their results.  

“We collectively need to establish a task force to address the perceived limitation,” Prince Khaled said. “KBW Ventures is already working towards the goal of participating in Saudi Arabia as a financial hub, and building on-ground implementation. We would welcome an opportunity to be the strategic partner towards the mission and helping support Vision 2030’s goals in the biotechnology innovation landscape.” 

But for innovation to truly thrive in this sector, he stressed on the importance of creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem that can achieve economic growth while also helping build healthier societies at the same time. “Promoting startups and entrepreneurship, promoting research and development, promoting an attractive environment for investment – all of this leads to economic growth, speaking at a broad and somewhat generic level,” he said. “These measures will actually lead to [a] healthier society overall, because there is more infrastructure, more public and private sector funding, and an ability for focus to shift from a bandage approach to a preventative approach.”  

One of the biggest catalysts for biotech, Prince Khaled noted, is artificial intelligence (AI), which he believes is transforming the conversation around healthspan. “AI is like the discovery of fire; we are bearing witness to the biggest leap in human history,” he said. “AI will change every part of the healthspan and basic healthcare paradigm, and Saudi Arabia can be the first to enter into this with the aims of a populace that lives better, longer, and can be empowered to predict and prevent.”

Prince Khaled also noted that industries like longevity, wellness, and healthspan science are closely tied to sustainability, with biotechnology being the thread that ties them all together. As investment begins to pour into these sectors, a mindshift is happening here as well, as investors find that they can invest responsibly and create an impact while making returns. And in many ways, Prince Khaled noted, responsible and meaningful investing is key to constant innovation and creating a lasting impact.  

“From an investment lens, funding is what drives innovation,” he said. “Without funding for moonshot ideas, we cannot make these big leaps – will we fail? Yes, the first clinical trial, or the second, or the third, but we will keep the funding going until there is a significant breakthrough. Investment drives meaningful change in science, in drug discovery, in preventative medicine; all part of healthspan in some way or another.”  

Pictured on image: HRH Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud at the Global Healthspan Summit in Riyadh. Courtesy Hevolution Foundation