Venture Capital discovering anti-aging is more than wrinkle creams

In today's Wall Steet Journal, reporter Rhonda Rundle (Beauty Attracts Some Venture-Capital Beholders) points out something we've long known at RealSelf.  The anti-aging mega-trend has given rise to a new kind of medical patient, the consumer patient.  With credit card in hand and high expectations, they are visiting both traditional medical practices as well as medi-spas to undergo entirely discretionary aesthetic treatments for getting rid of wrinkles, age spots, and body fat.

The coveted all-cash patient is attracting investment in everything from medical spas (e.g. Calidora, backed by Howard Schultz) to  technologies designed to replace the need for liposuction plastic surgery.  In the fat loss arena, there's a range of top tier technology and life-sciences venture capitalists:

LipoSonix: Accuitive Medical Ventures, The Carlyle Group, Delphi Ventures, Essex Woodlands Health Ventures, Pinnacle Ventures, Three Arch Partners, SV Life Sciences, and Versant Ventures

Ultrashape: Polaris Venture Partners

fig Advanced Lipodissolve: Bessemer Venture Partners

Kythera (ATX-101): Prospect Venture Partners,  ARCH Venture Partners, Versant Ventures, Altitude Life Science Ventures, the UCLA Venture Fund, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati Investment Company.

Investor activity is also picking up in the at-home aesthetics market.  The promise: small device makers look poised to take a piece of the action from professional skin care providers (i.e. dermatologists and day spas).  As described in Time (The Newest Wrinkle)

...soon, thanks to a group of medical-device makers, you'll be able to remove age spots, zits, even wrinkles, without a dermatologist, without leaving your house. And if all goes according to plan, you won't even have to worry about singeing your eyebrow in the process.

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