Rosita Longevity: Healthy Aging for Seniors

Within the startup world, achieving significant longevity often involves ambitious endeavors, particularly in fields like biotechnology and artificial intelligence – essentially a contemporary pursuit akin to alchemy, with the ultimate goal of manipulating biological processes to dramatically increase human lifespan, and potentially even overcome mortality.

However, Spanish company Hearts Radiant operates within the “longevity tech” sector with a considerably more realistic and pragmatic strategy for tackling the challenges of aging. They assert they have developed an effective method for assisting individuals in reaching an advanced age.

Crucially, their focus is on promoting healthy aging.

Therefore, their primary objective isn’t to enable people to live to exceptionally long ages like 150 or 120. Instead, they aim to empower older adults to enjoy a fulfilling life, potentially reaching around 95 years, while maintaining their autonomy and energy levels. This is achieved through the use of technology designed to establish a consistent and stimulating daily routine, which helps to mitigate age-related issues like weakness and loneliness.

A Gentle Approach to Wellbeing

The company is officially launching today, announcing its initial pre-seed funding and sharing its vision with TechCrunch: to empower older adults to enjoy more active, fulfilling, and independent lives.

A €450k pre-seed investment, spearheaded by JME.vc with contributions from Kfund, Seedcamp, and NextVentures, will be allocated to research and the ongoing development of their Rosita Longevity digital coach. The application has been undergoing beta testing in a limited capacity since January—currently available only for Android devices, recognizing that many seniors utilize older smartphones passed down from family members (though an iOS version is planned). It provides both livestreamed and on-demand video classes, such as cardio flamenco and yoga designed for individuals aged 60 and above.

Rosita was founded by a husband-and-wife team, Juan Cartagena (CEO) and Clara Fernández (CCO), alongside CTO David Gil. They believe that as people age, they require support and encouragement to remain as active as possible for as long as possible—and that a digital platform is the most effective way to deliver personalized therapy focused on building healthy habits to a broad audience of seniors.

“Our core function is to drive habit formation,” explains Cartagena, also describing their work as focused on “health longevity.”

Fernández brings extensive experience from her role as CEO of Balneario de Cofrentes, a family-owned business in Valencia. She characterizes it as a “longevity school” or retreat for seniors—a facility that combines spa/hotel amenities with physical therapy/rehabilitation and educational programs. There, she has overseen the creation of activity and education programs specifically designed for older adults, providing guided exercise and guidance on topics like disease prevention and healthy eating.

“Over the past decade, we’ve established a robust strategy for educating and fostering habits within the senior community, enabling them to extend their healthy lifespan,” she states. “We employ a distinct methodology, beginning with helping seniors understand their current health status and then progressively educating them on lifestyle choices, disease prevention, and the latest scientific advancements.”

“I came to the conclusion that expanding our reach required moving the program online,” she adds, explaining the decision to develop a digital coaching application— “to benefit a larger segment of the senior population.”

Lifestyle enhancement is a central aspect of their offering, but they identify most strongly with the term ‘longevity tech.’

“We intentionally avoid focusing solely on fitness,” adds Cartagena. “It’s a limited perspective. Our goal is to go further—fitness is simply a starting point for addressing frailty and related issues, ultimately aiming to prevent dependence.”

The Rosita app is based on the well-established health benefits of regular, moderate exercise in combating age-related conditions—such as loss of muscle mass and decreased bone density, which can lead to frailty (and subsequently, falls, hip fractures, and a reliance on personal care). It also serves as a general support for mental and cognitive wellbeing. The foundation of their approach rests on proven scientific principles.

However, they still need to demonstrate that digitally delivered, personalized lifestyle programs—incorporating technologies like AI and chatbots—can effectively reverse frailty (initially) in seniors participating remotely, without the direct support of human physiotherapists.

Therefore, a portion of the funding will be used to investigate how their in-person ‘longevity school’ program can be adapted for a digital platform. Specifically, they will assess whether personalized digital coaching for individuals aged 60 and over can achieve measurable reductions in frailty (and thus, increases in active years) in the same way that in-person group exercises have already been shown to. (An important area for investigation is the impact of social interaction from a purely digital experience compared to in-person group therapy on treatment results.)

While a smartphone cannot replicate a luxury spa experience, many elements of the Balneario’s program can be digitized and structured to deliver comparable benefits, according to the team.

The digital activity programs they are developing for the app are designed to be both enjoyable and beneficial for seniors, while also being appropriate for their individual frailty levels. Current class offerings include dance for those with limited mobility, ‘cross fit’ without burpees, and karate adapted for individuals with osteoarthritis.

The onboarding process includes an assessment to determine a senior’s frailty level, ensuring that users are provided with content suited to their physical condition.

The Long Journey to Wellness

Cartagena explains that their team is collaborating with Dr. José Viña, a professor at the University of Valencia and a leading expert in the field of longevity. “He has demonstrated the ability to reverse frailty in its initial phases through a specific approach applied to certain muscles, combining exercise with lifestyle adjustments. However, it remains to be seen if this method is effective in a remote setting, where individuals practice it independently,” he states. “Our current pre-seed funding round is dedicated to addressing this uncertainty by introducing this approach to several thousand app users, analyzing the research, and determining if we can improve their frailty levels within the next 12 months.”

The physical Balneario facility is temporarily closed due to the ongoing health crisis surrounding the novel coronavirus, but the intention is to reopen in March 2021—and subsequently introduce the annual cohort to Rosita—continuously gathering feedback on its effectiveness in promoting health-conscious behaviors.

“A deep understanding of our customer base is paramount, and this is where the company’s core competitive strength lies,” Cartagena asserts. “With 15,000 seniors visiting the school annually, we gain invaluable insights into their habits, routines, and preferences. Because they return each year, we can inquire about their experiences and progress.”

“This will serve as a continuous, large-scale focus group—a dynamic window of feedback allowing us to observe users interacting with the product for ten days and iterate rapidly based on their direct experiences, not just through analytics. Having access to 100 or 500 people daily at our resort will be crucial in developing a solution that genuinely meets their needs and resonates with them.”

The app’s current iteration does not yet incorporate AI-driven personalized coaching. However, the pre-seed funding is intended to facilitate this development. “The initial educational coach and frailty-focused itineraries are scheduled for completion within three weeks, coinciding with the launch of our iOS app,” Cartagena says. “This directly addresses a significant need expressed by our users.”

“The implementation of a fully personalized coach—considering pathologies, follow-ups, contextual factors, and exercise breakdown—requires extensive logic and testing. We will roll out this intelligence gradually and anticipate achieving a satisfying result by the end of the year. This will become our Habits Engine, working in conjunction with our geroscience research plan to address the key uncertainties with our current funding.”

Addressing chronic pain is another primary objective for the app, although the founders acknowledge that certain types of pain may fall outside its scope. They emphasize that the app is designed to complement, not replace, traditional healthcare—focusing on proactive prevention of age-related issues as a strategy for extended, healthier living.

“Telehealth primarily focuses on disease management—we prioritize prevention,” Fernández adds. “Our aim is to help seniors understand the indicators and tools that empower them to monitor their bodies, anticipate changes over the next decade, and gradually adopt habits that minimize the natural aging process.”

Cartagena also notes that they are collaborating with researchers to develop sensor technology that can be integrated with the app to improve frailty prediction—potentially allowing them to define a broader and more detailed range of user profiles (the initial app version features three categories, with a goal of expanding to nine).

The combination of smartphone technology, sensor hardware, and AI has spurred a new wave of guided physical therapy apps offering alternatives to pharmaceutical approaches for chronic pain—examples include Kaia Health and Hinge Health. Furthermore, mindfulness and guided meditation apps have become a substantial market. The broader concept of ‘digital health’ has seen CBT-based therapy programs readily accessible through mobile devices. Therefore, the idea of a longevity coach for seniors is not unprecedented.

However, achieving a positive user experience presents a significant challenge. Cartagena stresses the importance of the app’s tone—avoiding a patronizing approach or making seniors feel as though Rosita is assigning “homework”—to foster engagement and a strong connection with the virtual coach.

Fernández also highlights the importance of sustaining positive habits, emphasizing that this is a long-term commitment, not a quick fix.

If they can create a secure and engaging experience that seniors find appealing, rather than frustrating or confusing, the potential to broaden access to therapies, activities, and information that enhance quality of life is substantial. Frailty is just the team’s initial focus; as the product evolves and user base grows, they aim to support healthy habits that could help delay neurodegenerative conditions like dementia, and address issues like loneliness and social isolation. They envision a comprehensive range of health plans delivered through Rosita.

“Our current efforts are centered on frailty—developing the personalized AI coach—and our next step is to integrate layers of various health plans based on the longevity coach,” Fernández explains. “This will include nutrition, cognitive stimulation, relaxation and breathing exercises, and preventative strategies—along with the classes we are preparing for longevity.”

“A key element we’ve tested in the clinic is user education. It’s not just about telling users what to do today—but about explaining the aging process, metabolism, and musculoskeletal system. Understanding how and why your body ages is fundamental to making informed decisions. By empowering users with knowledge, they can understand the long-term benefits of specific recommendations.”

“We’ve developed a comprehensive course on longevity that explains what’s happening within the body—the current scientific understanding of the field—and how to mitigate those effects. We are translating this information directly into the app,” she adds.

Cartagena also points to the potential for a COVID-19 ‘fourth wave’ of deaths resulting from increased frailty among seniors due to prolonged inactivity during lockdowns and concerns about virus exposure.

In other words, staying home to avoid the virus may inadvertently compromise vitality, potentially shortening a healthy lifespan. Therefore, tools to help older adults remain active are more critical than ever. To that end, the app will remain free throughout the pandemic—potentially extending into 2022.

The business model is planned as b2c, likely centered on selling premium content—such as direct access to therapists for progress discussions. Currently, they are relying on venture capital to bring their digital “motivation engine” to market.

They currently have 5,000 “pre-registrations” for the app and 1,000 seniors actively testing the product (all aged 60 to 80, in Spain). They have also recently moved the software out of the ‘early access’ phase—as they progress toward launching their “personalized AI coach for longevity.”

While Rosita’s coaching is presently available only in Spanish—with the team having recorded “hundreds” of videos for different levels and chronic conditions—the goal is to expand throughout Europe (and potentially beyond), beginning with the U.K. market. This makes English the logical next language for content development.