Samumed's Series A success sends eyebrows soaring

Samumed, a US biopharmaceutical startup, has concluded its Series A fundraising campaign having raised $438 million based on a valuation of $12 billion.

Despite the scale of its success — hitting the $10 billion mark sees Samumed join the rarified club of "decacorns," alongside AirBNB, Dropbox, Uber and Snapchat — Samumed remains coy about the identities of its investors this time round. Its angel investors included IKEA and a host of anonymous, high-wealth individuals.

This raises the question of what could prompt such a hurried exchange of cash — simply put, founder Osman Kibar appears to believe he has discovered the cure for aging.