2025 - A Defining Year for Health, Longevity, and Pave
Wellness is no longer optional. Up more than 35% since 2019, the global wellness economy now sits around $6.8 trillion, rivaling entire sectors like tourism, sports, and tech. It accounts for a meaningful share of global healthcare spend and continues to expand into nearly every corner of daily life. But 2025 wasn’t just another growth year. It was the year wellness became infrastructure.
From GLP-1s and wearables to fitness, food, diagnostics, mental health, and care delivery, wellness stopped being something people aspired to and started becoming something they relied on.
That shift triggered much of what we did at Pave this year.
Health Didn’t Just Grow. It Grew Up.
Across the ecosystem, 2025 felt like a collective maturation.
Everyone keeps asking us for a Peptide dealer. This seemingly gray-area market is clearly taking off. Consumers are now navigating not only how to commit to $500–$1,000 monthly peptide regimens, but which brands, providers, or delivery models offer enough guidance to feel confident in that investment. All the while, regulatory uncertainty and a lack of clear oversight continue to create friction and keep institutional capital at bay. Being on the ground, we hear a lot of personal success stories around injury repair, gut health, skin health, and more. With time and clearer regulation, this segment could meaningfully carve into the massive supplement category.
The Gym Looks Different. The gym is undergoing a massive overhaul. The transition happening at both an aesthetic and experiential level is substantial. More importantly, the number of brands attempting to move beyond cardio, weights, and class programming into full-stack health and longevity centers is staggering. The same question keeps surfacing, both externally and internally: do these organizations have the infrastructure and operational or medical know-how required to evolve longstanding fitness institutions into credible longevity clinics? And beyond that, does their clientele have the appetite and trust required to place both their longevity care and their bench press under one roof? We believe early movers will continue to emerge in the luxury segment, and we’re excited to see which concepts can ultimately scale.
Food culture shifted - again. Protein over fiber. Fiber over protein. Ingredient fixation replaced diet culture. Ultra-processed foods were called out for what they are: a metabolic liability. Better-for-you CPG continued to attract capital, acquisitions accelerated, and brands were forced to rethink protein, satiety, and nutrition density for a GLP-1 generation. CPG and food and beverage have already proven their ability to drive meaningful returns for investors, and we see no reason that momentum will slow.
Women’s health is starting to get the attention it deserves. Perimenopause, menopause, fertility, pelvic health, and sex-specific protocols moved from the margins to the foundation of modern care. This isn’t a trend. It’s a long-overdue correction, and we’re here for it. There’s meaningful momentum building into 2026 and beyond, and we’re actively making investments in the category.
Longevity Became Practical. Longevity stopped feeling theatrical in 2025. It became pragmatic, and for many, it moved toward the top of their priority list. That said, the term “longevity” is still being defined and has room to evolve. For most people, it has never been about living forever, nor will it be. Instead, it’s about preserving capability across lifespan and healthspan. This movement centers on reducing the morbidity gap that leaves many people spending a decade or more in declining health. This isn’t a rebellion against medicine. It’s demand responding to systemic failures. Day by day, brands are showing consumers that integrated experiences, not fragmented tools, are within reach. One truth kept surfacing everywhere we looked: integration will separate the winners. AI will do much of the heavy lifting in making that possible.
Companies are bypassing the traditional Healthcare red tape. Years of friction and fragmentation have pushed consumers to reclaim agency, accelerating the rise of decentralized, consumer-led care. Function Health’s recent raise, a $298M Series B at a whopping $2.5B valuation, validated a powerful truth: consumers want a centralized, intelligible operating system for their health. People are clearly displaying an interest to move beyond rushed annual checkups toward longevity clinics, direct-to-consumer diagnostics, preventative imaging, AI-guided insights, and personalized, n-of-1 health strategies. It’s why nearly every founder now talks about becoming “the Function of ___.” The next wave of winners will build trusted, integrated platforms that translate complexity into clarity and turn health data into durable outcomes.
Consumer trust will dictate the next batch of winners. People don’t just need products. They need guidance. Recurring touch points. A roadmap that keeps them engaged when results unfold slowly. Longevity is emotional and nonlinear. The strongest brands will be the ones that actually stay with people through the messiness… the overwhelm, the doubt, the slow parts. Customers are implicitly saying “I can’t do this alone” - so what brands can become the steady hand that keeps them moving.
The Government (CMS) is reacting to Consumer Demand. In 2025, CMS and the federal government began making tangible moves that reflect growing consumer demand for better health, not just more healthcare. Through programs like ACCESS and ELEVATE, CMS is signaling a shift toward outcomes-driven chronic care and whole-person interventions that address lifestyle, prevention, and root causes alongside traditional medicine. While the dollars and implementation details still matter, the direction is clear. The government is testing new models, not just talking about them. If participation is made simple and incentives stay aligned, this momentum could meaningfully expand opportunities for founders building impactful health solutions both inside and alongside the healthcare system.
Our Portfolio as a Signal
Our portfolio reflects how we see the future of health taking shape. Not as siloed solutions, but as integrated, human-centered systems.
Kairon is the only practice performance operating system that drives whole practice health.
BeSound is life-saving, revolutionary technology for women's breast health and cancer detection.
Movido offers a comprehensive approach to enhance patient experience, optimize healthcare outcomes.
Aldea is redefining how we access human wisdom - bringing the world’s greatest thinkers directly into everyday life.
Kinspire is redefining pediatric neurodivergent care via concierge-style support.
Humanaut is building the next generation of functional health clinics, grounded in integration, not trends.
Each company tackles a different life stage or health challenge, but the connective tissue is the same: integrated care, operational rigor, and respect for the human on the other side of the product. Together, they offer a preview of where health is going, and we’re proud to support founders making meaningful waves across the health landscape.
Looking Ahead
As we head into next year, we’re excited to lean further into:
Integrated longevity infrastructure, not longevity theater
Women’s health treated as core infrastructure, not a niche category
Deepening understanding of the microbiome and the gut/brain connection
Unlocking nervous system and stress regulation
Founders who understand that operational excellence matters as much as vision
Systems that prioritize outcomes, not just engagement
Addiction and recovery as long-term care systems
Platforms that translate opaque healthcare systems into clear, actionable understanding for consumers
As former founder-operators with deep roots across consumer, healthcare, and wellness, we’ve built relationships throughout the ecosystem, from clinicians and health systems to payors, employers, regulators, and cultural leaders. That proximity gives us real-time diligence and an early view of where behavior, culture, and capital are actually heading.
In a world defined by uncertainty, the groundswell of activity across both traditional healthcare and the wellness arena offers something relatively rare: agency. That belief carried us through 2025. It’s what we’re building toward next.
While this past year reinforced our thesis in meaningful ways, we’re equally excited to expand and refine our focus in 2026 and beyond. We’re investing in better internal infrastructure, adding resources to support our portfolio companies, and continuing to build relationships with the next wave of founders shaping the future of health.
The infrastructure for modern health is still being written and we’re excited about what’s ahead. If you’re building systems that translate complexity into outcomes and put real humans at the center, we’d love to connect. You can reach us directly or learn more about how we think and invest at pavehealthventures.com.