This week, I checked in with leading wellness industry investors, including Kelly Chen from XRC Ventures, Po Bronson from SOSV, Rachel Hirsch from Wellness Growth Ventures and Jenny Liu from newly-formed Crush It Ventures, to learn what’s in and out when it comes to 2026 wellness investments. Additionally, Peloton cuts 11% of its staff, AG1 lands a celebrity ambassador, and an exec shuffle at Life Time upscale gyms.
Which wellness categories will land funding in 2026 — and which will struggle for investments?
When Jenny Liu, the former longtime CEO of celebrity-favorite gym Dogpound, launched a wellness-focused, early-stage investment fund in late 2024, she knew she’d be inundated with investment submissions from eager brands.
“[One of the most exciting things since launching Crush It Ventures] is being able to have early access to some of these ideas that people are building,” Liu told Glossy. The team has received more than 300 unsolicited submissions from brands seeking funding. Liu told Glossy that the lion’s share of these submissions include mental health-focused solutions, physician-founded companies hoping to bridge healthcare gaps, protein and fiber supplements with global flavors, and better-for-you functional food, the latter making up about a quarter of submissions.
In 2025, she deployed several investments, including a new physical therapy concept out of Los Angeles called HQLA, an MD-founded topical pain brand called Leniva, and a brainwave-reading sleep wearable called Elemind. Overall, she hopes to invest between $100,000 and $250,000 in around 25 early-stage companies.
With more capital to deploy in 2026, Liu is focused on a few main category buckets. “Right now, we’re looking a lot more into women’s health, [including] beauty-from-within and internal beauty, from skin health to wellbeing, and [K-beauty brands with] clean, pure ingredients,” she said.
A top focus for her is “wearable technology that actually delivers results and solutions,” she said. “People are tired of having five different wearables that just tell them they’re deprived of things, without really giving them the ‘what’s next’.” Liu is also carefully monitoring the influx of fiber-focused supplement brands, especially those positioned as aiding athletic performance thanks to gut-strengthening abilities.
Fiber, which could become the new “it” ingredient after protein’s inevitable slowdown, is on the minds of many top investors.
Po Bronson, general partner at SOSV, a global, multi-stage venture capital firm with investments in brands like OneSkin peptide skin care and Antarka, a soon-to-be-released skin-care line focused on UV damage, is also thinking deeply about fiber’s role in the wellness marketplace. SOSV invests in around 70 brands per year.
“There is more and more work being done to understand the bioactivity of certain lipids and certain fibers,” Bronson said. “There are soluble and insoluble fibers, and they’re both good for you, right? But there are also highly specific fibers that are insanely good, so [the question is], ‘How do we get just those [in our diets]?’”
However, despite its rapid growth, Bronson also thinks there is white space in the protein market for age-specific solutions. “Things that are really good for us when we’re young can be bad for us at a certain age — the very diets, the very practices,” he said. “This [newer] kind of science, rather than a linear concept of aging, [is more focused on what happens] as your body shifts [as you age].” And it’s reshaping how nutrition is studied and supplements are developed, he said.
Speaking of nutrition, Bronson is also hyper-focused on products to support one’s GLP-1 journey in 2026, specifically products to aid in nutrition while on the drugs or during the tapering-off process. He anticipates that up to 30% of the world’s population will one day have tried GLP-1s, with many using them for only 18 months due to side effects like G.I. issues or nausea. These people, as well as those who stay on them for life, will need personalized support that deeply considers biological age, he said.
This was a theme in Glossy’s conversations this week: Competing with GLP-1s is not good business in 2026, but supporting users could be a goldmine.
“We’ve seen [consumer products] that have tried to mimic GLP-1, like natural alternatives and things like that, but we have found that consumers don’t want that,” said Kelly Chen, brand capital fund investor at XRC Ventures, an early-stage VC fund with current investments in Solawave, Billie and Thesis nootropics. “Consumers, if they’ve decided to make this journey, want the name brand like Ozempic.”
Instead, XRC Ventures is targeting white space for GLP-1 support — specifically, shelf-stable supplements, rather than functional beverages and frozen food, due to competition and shipping costs, respectively. So far, the company has invested in Get So Well, an MD-founded line that offers supplements for GLP-1 users, and it’s looking for other solutions, as well.
On the nutrition front, Chen told Glossy that areas like mushrooms, nootropics and adaptogens — wellness categories known for minimal science-backed proof — are cooling off. Meanwhile, longevity is the concept driving the industry forward.
“What made us more bullish on [the longevity] space is [how it is being] reframed to feel much more accessible,” she said. “Back in the day, longevity was all about immortality, or the fountain of youth.”
She pointed to the 12 hallmarks of aging to describe how longevity is being reframed today. The hallmarks include terms that, while not very consumer-friendly, will guide the industry. They include mitochondrial dysfunction, stem cell exhaustion and chronic inflammation.
A survey of VC firms conducted by XRC found that 100% of investors plan to invest in longevity in 2026. “Every single VC we talked to is either going to invest the same or more in longevity [this year],” compared to last year, she said. “[This percentage] has also been very high in past years, but it’s never been 100%.”
Women’s health was also a theme in our investor conversations, with all firms hoping to make investments this year.
“Pretty much anything menopause- or perimenopause-related is super intriguing,” said Rachel Hirsch, founder and managing partner at Wellness Growth Ventures, a seed fund dedicated to advancing the wellness sector with investments in Tia, Liquid Death and Cure Hydration. “We’ve seen the V1 of it, which included anything that even touched the category, although maybe without the efficacy or innovation that we were hoping for. So hopefully this year, we’ll call it a V2, with a touch more data, a touch more innovation and really more solution-focused [products], rather than just data-focused.”
Alongside this is a burgeoning opportunity to better serve mature women, including products and services based around muscle mass or bone density. Hirsch said she also hopes to see innovation in brick-and-mortar gyms and fitness centers. “Fitness [investments] are struggling [because] we haven’t seen real innovation,” she said. “There is an opportunity now for innovation within fitness, whether that is science-backed or longevity-backed.”
Of all the conversations had for this briefing, there was one topic noticeably absent: sleep. Investors Glossy spoke to said they have little interest in investments in the category.
“The sleep category is sleepy [because] there really is no IP [with things like mouth tape or magnesium],” said Hirsch. “First to market, in a lot of ways, did so well, but it’s hard to have any sort of barrier to entry within sleep, because you can’t unless there’s a new innovation in this space.”
Executive moves:
- Jeff Zwiefel, the longtime president and COO of upscale gym chain Life Time, has stepped down after 27 years with the fitness company. His replacement has not yet been named.
- Walmart CEO Doug McMillon, who led the retailer for 12 years, is retiring on January 31. He has been with Walmart for four decades. John Furner, former head of Walmart U.S., will take on the role of CEO on February 1.
News to know:
- Is respiratory health the next wellness frontier? Investors in wellness startup Climatic are betting on it. The company emerged from stealth last week with $10 million in seed investment led by capital firm Lerer Hippeau, investors in brands like Axios, Glossier and Casper. Climatic plans to scale a new, non-prescription inhaler system that is said to eliminate contaminants in the lungs from pollution, wildfire smoke and smoking while improving breathing and athletic performance. The company hopes to launch its first products in the spring.
- Stationary bike company Peloton has laid off around 11% of its staff, primarily engineers, according to a Friday report from Bloomberg. Peloton is publicly traded, and its shares are down over 9% so far this month, according to Reuters, after falling nearly 30% last year.
- American financier Kevin Warsh, the likely new head of the Federal Reserve pending Senate approval, has a unique connection to the beauty and wellness industries. Warsh and Jane Lauder have been married since 2002. Lauder is the former president of Clinique and heir to Estée Lauder Companies.
- Dame Products, the sexual wellness brand that launched in 2014, participated in Friday’s ICE-focused one-day strike on Friday by donating 100% of its proceeds to the ACLU of Minnesota. The brand shared its plan in an Instagram post.
- Marks & Spencer, the U.K. retailer with more than 1,400 locations globally, is investing in the sleep category. M&S has launched an in-house line called &Sleep that offers pillow spray, body oil and cream, candles, diffusers, and more. The launch comes on the heels of an internal study by the retailer that found 53% of women surveyed named better sleep their top wellness goal.
- Australian actor Hugh Jackman is the new face of AG1 supplement company. As global ambassador, Jackman will star in marketing content to promote its functional drink mixes. “This is not a traditional endorsement, it is a longstanding daily health ritual that turned into an incredible partnership,” AG1 CMO Paulie Dery told Cosmetics Business.
Stat of the week:
New data from the Global Wellness Group, a wellness industry trade group, found that U.S. consumers make up around a third of all global wellness spending. In its new country rankings report, it found that the U.S. spent $2.1 trillion in 2024, while China spent $950 billion, Germany spent $281 billion, Japan came in fourth with $262 billion, and the United Kingdom rounded out the top five with $261 billion in wellness spending.
In the headlines:
Inside The Now Massage’s framework for scaling to 100 locations this year [Beauty Independent]. Why everyone is taking a shot of olive oil and lemon before bed [Vogue]. Here’s what happens when you stop taking Ozempic and Wegovy [WSJ].
Listen in:
Joey Shamah, E.l.f. Beauty founder and former CEO, joined the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss his decision to close CoverFX and Mally Beauty from his new role as CEO and founder of AS Beauty. Shamah also shared insights into the challenges of running an underperforming brand, the warning signs that a brand is in distress, and the way an operator comes to the decision to sell, shutter or file bankruptcy.
Need a Glossy recap?
The new wave of protein is for the girls. ‘The fragrance consumer is experimental as ever’: Why Snif is going ‘even weirder’ with its latest Ulta launch. How Tree Hut used AI to turn customer feedback into product insights and quadruple social engagement. MAC and Depop are teaming up to convert Gen Z to buy lipstick. As TikTok embraces ‘Chinese Baddie’ culture, TCM brands see a breakthrough moment. As AI catches on across luxury, brands double down on emotional value.
