This challenge is the second of three in a multiyear partnership to help shape the future of longevity innovation
Singapore – Manulife launched the ‘Innovating for Asia’s Demographic Future Challenge’ through UpLink, the World Economic Forum’s early-stage innovation initiative to tackle the world’s biggest challenges. Together, Manulife, UpLink and the Forum’s Centre for Financial and Monetary Systems, invite start-ups, innovators, and changemakers with solutions for enabling long-term financial resilience, well-being, and fulfillment across multi-stage lives in Asia to participate.
“To help people live better for longer, we must fundamentally rethink traditional approaches to investments, insurance, health care, and workforce participation,” said Sarah Chapman, Global Chief Sustainability Officer for Manulife. “This challenge is an opportunity to drive investment in innovations that are truly going to move the needle to address demographic trends shaping the future of Asia in an effort to improve health, wealth, and quality of living outcomes for generations to come.”
By 2050, one in four people in Asia will be over the age of 60[1]. This profound demographic shift is driven by longer life expectancies and declining fertility rates. As countries in Asia adapt to these changes, people may no longer follow the traditional ‘school, work, retirement’ paradigm[2]. Instead, they transition more frequently between learning, working, caring, and recreation[3]. In addition, recent data from Manulife’s Asia Care Survey showed physical well-being is central to both financial and mental well-being for people across Asia, and that rising health-care costs are a major concern, fueling anxiety about insufficient savings.
To promote long-term financial resilience, well-being, and fulfillment across populations in Asia, the challenge seeks startups who are working to drive progress in three focus areas:
- Multigenerational financial resilience: Solutions that promote better financial planning over the course of longer lives.
- Equitable healthy ageing: Solutions that expand access to preventative and holistic health care, helping people maintain their physical and mental well-being as they age.
- Lifelong fulfillment: Solutions that maximise personal and professional potential for people at all stages of life through skill building and community engagement.
[1] ADP: Adapting to Aging Asia and the Pacific
[2] Stanford Center on Longevity
[3] The New Long Life: A Framework for Flourishing in a Changing World
Challenge winners will benefit from access to exclusive networking events and partnerships as well as increased visibility and funding opportunities. Manulife will give $200,000 CAD in prize money split among three of the top ten winners.
“Early-stage innovation is key to transforming the challenges of Asia’s profound demographic shifts into opportunities for people across the region,” said John Dutton, Head of UpLink, World Economic Forum. “UpLink, in collaboration with the Forum’s Centre for Financial and Monetary Systems, is proud to advance its longevity-focused work with Manulife through the launch of the ‘Innovating for Asia’s Demographic Future Challenge,’ and – via its unique engagement programme – empower purpose-driven start-ups promoting multigenerational financial resilience, equitable healthy ageing, and lifelong fulfilment to scale their ventures.”
As part of a multiyear partnership between Manulife and UpLink announced last year, this is the second of three innovation challenges designed to help shape the future of, and investment in, longevity innovation. The ten winners of Manulife’s 2024 ‘Prospering in Longevity Challenge’ were announced in October. New thematic focus areas will be picked for the third challenge in 2026.
Full project details for the‘Innovating for Asia’s Demographic Future Challenge’, including eligibility criteria, can be found on the challenge page here. The deadline to apply is April 28, 2025.
This challenge is aligned to Manulife’s Impact Agenda, which focuses on three interconnected pillars grounded in the principles of longevity that outline the social and environmental areas where we have the greatest ability to affect change. To learn more about Manulife’s Impact Agenda, visit manulife.com/impact.
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