The UK and Europe are not yet building the products, services and businesses focused on older people that are wanted and needed.
The UK has an ageing population and a very narrow set of technology solutions built for them. That's not a demographic challenge — it's a market failure.
The companies that identify and solve real problems for people over 50 will define the next wave of growth in consumer health, financial services, and beyond.
I'm here to help build this. I want to extend healthy and fulfilled living to all 50+ adults to enable them to contribute fully to Society for all of their lives.
Why do I say this?
"The US has agetech. The UK has frailtytech."
Look at the UK's top ten agetech companies and a pattern jumps out. Cera, Elder and KareHero deliver care. Howz, MySense, Alteracall and Circadacare monitor for falls and crises. Neu Health and Relish manage neurodegeneration. Breezie and Easology compensate for diminished capability. Every one of them is built around managing decline. The buyer is almost always the NHS, a care provider or a carer — someone managing someone else's deterioration.
When you look at the US top ten, the pattern is different. Devoted Health sells Medicare Advantage to older people. PointClickCare runs billing and living operations for the elderly. Human Interest is retirement fintech. Papa connects older adults with companions. Honor and IntelyCare are caregiver marketplaces. Guideline provides a platform for 401(k) plans. AARP describes the 50+ population as a $8.3 trillion longevity market, and the fastest-growing consumer segment globally with higher per-capita spend than any other age group on housing, travel, financial services and home goods.
The UK has no startups of note serving the 50–70 year-old who is healthy, has thirty years ahead, has more disposable income than at any earlier life stage, and is actively trying to design a great second half of life. That's the gap. There are white spaces in: fintech and pensions; second-act careers and lifelong learning; travel and experiences beyond Saga; dating and community for the grey-divorce generation; housing transitions; fitness performance, not pathology; and consumer brands that don't pretend the demographic is invisible.
Why does the gap exist? The NHS pulls almost all UK ageing-startup energy into its orbit. UK venture capital over-indexes on B2B SaaS and fintech-for-the-young. British culture medicalises ageing in a way American culture is starting to refuse. Founders come from health and care backgrounds, not consumer, fintech or lifestyle. VCs back what they recognise, and there is no UK 50+ consumer success story to recognise yet.
This does not mean that we shouldn't celebrate UK frailtytech. Cera is a unicorn, the NHS does need digital tools, and falls do need preventing. But treating ageing as exclusively a healthcare and social care problem leaves some valuable parts of the longevity economy untouched. The opportunity in the UK is to stop building only for the moment people lose capability and start building for the thirty years before that. The 50+ population is not a cohort to be cared for. It is the wealthiest, most underserved consumer segment in the country.
And even in the US the 50-70 yr old consumer market is still surprisingly untapped.
"Agetech, properly understood, is not about dying well. It is about living well, for much longer than anyone planned for."
It's complicated with lots of hype and excitement as I sometimes write about