Manulife Announces New Global Longevity Innovation Challenge, in Partnership with the World Economic Forum's UpLink

Multi-year partnership will source global start-ups working to shape the future of longevity innovation and build an enabling ecosystem to accelerate their growth

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ - Manulife today announced a new multi-year partnership with UpLink, the World Economic Forum's (WEF) open innovation platform, designed to help shape the future of, and investment in, longevity innovation. The three-year partnership will include annual Manulife powered Global Longevity Innovation challenges, run by UpLink. Manulife will also support WEF's broader efforts to address the demographic and financial challenges of global ageing to help more people live longer, healthier, and better lives.

"Around the world, people are living longer, but not necessarily healthier," said Roy Gori, President and CEO of Manulife. "One-fifth of an individual's life, on average, is now expected to be lived with morbidity or in a state of illness. Solving this longevity crisis will require a comprehensive approach to promoting healthier lifestyles, addressing socio-economic inequalities, and investing in new research and technologies. By working across sectors and with partners like the World Economic Forum, we can focus on driving the longevity economy for the future of society's health and well-being." 

The Manulife powered UpLink challenges will support an ecosystem of innovators who can help accelerate solutions in longevity focused on finance, health, and well-being. Importantly, the program will be activated across Manulife's global headquarters in Canada, the U.S., and Asia, as the company works to drive global change through place-based solutions.

"This collaboration will drive innovation in the retirement ecosystem, offering financial solutions and policy recommendations for a resilient, equitable, and sustainable extended life," said Olivier Schwab, Managing Director, World Economic Forum. "By combining Manulife's expertise, UpLink's commitment to elevating early-stage impact entrepreneurs, and the work of the Forum's Centre for Financial and Monetary Systems, this initiative will play a pivotal role in promoting healthy aging and enhanced living standards throughout the world."

This multi-year investment builds upon Manulife's 2023 partnership with WEF's UpLink to run innovation challenges to spur nature-based solutions to climate change across two key areas. The first focused on sourcing innovative solutions across the entire sustainable forestry value chain, while the second surfaced innovations aimed at improving the connection between planetary and human health. In total, 21 ecopreneurial start-ups providing innovative and scalable models for sustainable forest management and more were selected as challenge winners. More information about the program can be found here.

Manulife Financial Corporation is a leading international financial services provider, helping people make their decisions easier and lives better. With our global headquarters in Toronto, Canada, we provide financial advice and insurance, operating as Manulife across Canada, Asia, and Europe, and primarily as John Hancock in the United States. Through Manulife Investment Management, the global brand for our Global Wealth and Asset Management segment, we serve individuals, institutions, and retirement plan members worldwide. At the end of 2022, we had more than 40,000 employees, over 116,000 agents, and thousands of distribution partners, serving over 34 million customers. We trade as 'MFC' on the Toronto, New York, and the Philippine stock exchanges and under '945' in Hong Kong.

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UpLink is the open innovation platform of the World Economic Forum, designed to unlock an 'entrepreneur revolution' for people and planet by supporting start-ups with innovative solutions for the world's most pressing issues, as outlined by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Launched at the World Economic Forum's 2020 Annual Meeting in Davos in partnership with Deloitte and Salesforce, UpLink builds bridges between entrepreneurs and the investors, experts and partners who can help scale their ventures. UpLink crowdsources new innovations through a competition framework known as innovation challenges. UpLink has now run more than 43 challenges and identified over 350 entrepreneurs with innovative solutions across critical SDG areas including health, food, freshwater, ocean, plastics, education, climate and more. For more information, visit https://uplink.weforum.org.

SOURCE Manulife