The company was set up with $3 billion fully committed from renowned company builders and investors, reportedly including billionaires such as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Yuri Milner, a Russian-Israeli physicist who became a billionaire with his stake in Facebook and Twitter.

Altos' mission is to restore cell health and resilience to reverse disease, injury, and the disabilities that can occur throughout life. The company launches with a community of leading scientists, clinicians, and leaders from both academia and industry working together towards this common mission. Altos will be initially based in the USA in the San Francisco Bay Area and San Diego, and in the UK in Cambridge.

The Altos executive team will be led by Hal Barron, the outgoing president of R&D and chief scientific officer at UK pharma major GlaxoSmithKline.