Ankiti Bose's Terra Invest targets longevity, beauty with Shookra Clinics deal

The global healthcare industry has long chased the same paradox: longer life, shorter vitality. Over the past century, humanity has doubled its average lifespan—from 31 years in 1900 to more than 73 today—yet most people spend their final decades battling chronic illness.

For Ankiti Bose, founder of Terra Invest, the numbers represent both a human tragedy and a business opportunity. “We’ve extended the years but not the quality of those years,” she says. “That imbalance defines the next frontier for investment.”

Her Dubai-based firm has now placed a high-profile bet on Shookra Aesthetics, a fast-growing network of AI-driven longevity and medical-aesthetic clinics. The deal marks Terra Invest’s formal entry into what it calls the “human-optimization economy” — a sector at the intersection of biotechnology, beauty, and advanced diagnostics.

“Our mission is to fuse aesthetics and longevity into one seamless field,” Bose says. “Skin, hair, and body composition aren’t about vanity. They’re readouts of biology.”

Inside Shookra’s flagship clinic in Business Bay, nurses draw blood for biological-age tests while AI cameras map skin texture and inflammation patterns. The process looks clinical but feels almost cinematic — a luxury setting where data replaces guesswork.

Each client receives a personalized program built from a library of medically validated protocols: stem-cell and exosome infusions to rejuvenate tissue, NAD+ IV drips to restore mitochondrial energy, AI-guided facial treatments to regenerate collagen, and nutritional recommendations linked to cellular biomarkers.

“The experience has to feel indulgent but be grounded in science,” Bose explains. “That’s how you make health aspirational again.”

Behind the elegance lies rigorous technology. Shookra’s proprietary platform correlates external appearance with internal health data—linking skin brightness to oxidative stress levels, or hair density to hormonal balance. “We’re quantifying what beauty has always hinted at,” she says.

The numbers behind Terra Invest’s decision are compelling. Analysts project the global longevity economy — a mix of diagnostics, regenerative medicine, and preventive health — to surpass $600 billion by 2030. The medical-aesthetics segment alone is forecast to double from $70 billion today to $150 billion within the decade.

“Two formerly separate industries are converging,” Bose says. “Hospitals extended life. Spas enhanced looks. We’re creating systems that do both.”

Terra Invest plans to scale Shookra across Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Singapore, and London, with each site operating under a shared digital backbone that aggregates anonymized biomarker data. The company’s AI models learn from every client interaction, continuously improving diagnostics and treatment design.

“Every procedure adds to our collective intelligence,” says Vincent Ng, Terra’s chief AI advisor. “It’s precision medicine that learns at the speed of retail.”

The UAE’s mix of affluence, policy ambition, and openness to medical innovation makes it an ideal starting point. The country’s healthcare market surpassed US $23 billion last year, and medical tourism alone contributed $4 billion. Regulatory agencies have introduced frameworks for stem-cell and gene therapies, positioning Dubai as a hub for regenerative medicine.

“Dubai offers infrastructure, consumer readiness, and regulatory courage,” Bose says. “It’s a city that moves as fast as science.”

The government’s “We the UAE 2031” strategy includes expanding life expectancy by three years through innovation in prevention and wellness. Shookra’s focus aligns neatly with that goal, promising both local credibility and global visibility.

Terra Invest’s stake in Shookra is structured more like a platform acquisition than a venture-capital bet. The firm is consolidating high-performing clinics under a unified brand, standardizing operations, technology, and training while retaining medical leadership in each region. The playbook resembles private-equity roll-ups in retail or hospitality—but applied to health.

“It’s vertical integration for vitality,” Bose says. “From data capture to diagnosis to delivery.”

The economics are attractive: recurring treatments generate predictable cash flow, while anonymized data supports secondary revenue streams in diagnostics and AI licensing. Terra’s model, Bose says, combines “the durability of healthcare with the margins of luxury.”

Investors are taking note. Regional family offices and sovereign-wealth advisers confirm growing interest in longevity assets. “This is where healthcare meets aspiration,” says Khaled Nassar, a Dubai-based private-equity partner not affiliated with Terra. “It’s medicine as a lifestyle brand.”

For all the excitement, longevity remains a field that straddles research and regulation. Shookra’s approach emphasizes medical oversight: every protocol is physician-approved, and every claim anchored in peer-reviewed evidence.

“People assume beauty clinics sell hope,” Bose says. “We sell measurable outcomes.” The company tracks improvements in inflammatory markers, collagen density, and mitochondrial efficiency across cohorts, using that data to refine protocols.

The firm’s scientific board includes specialists from Switzerland, Singapore, and the U.S., ensuring compliance across jurisdictions. “We operate with the rigor of biotech but the accessibility of wellness,” Bose says.

Traditional healthcare systems spend nearly 90 percent of their budgets treating disease after onset. Terra Invest’s strategy aims to shift that spending curve forward—toward prevention and performance.

“We invest in staying young, not fixing old age,” Bose says. “The return isn’t just longer life; it’s more productive years.”

Oxford University researchers estimate that delaying aging by seven years could halve deaths from age-related illnesses. The London School of Economics values an additional year of healthy life at US $38 trillion in global welfare. “Those aren’t wellness statistics,” Bose notes. “They’re macro-economic.”

By translating that potential into tangible services—AI diagnostics, stem-cell treatments, personalized protocols—Terra Invest hopes to create both measurable impact and sustainable profit.

Skeptics warn of hype cycles. Bose is unflinching. “Skepticism is healthy,” she says. “It keeps us scientific.” She draws parallels to the fintech revolution: “Ten years ago, people doubted digital banking. Today, no one carries cash. Longevity will follow the same adoption curve.”

Still, scaling across borders brings regulatory complexity. Terra Invest is developing compliance templates that adapt to each jurisdiction’s medical laws, data-privacy rules, and import standards for biologics. “Governance is the invisible backbone,” Bose says.

Shookra is only the first pillar of Terra Invest’s human-optimization portfolio, which also includes ventures in performance training, personalized supplementation, and AI health analytics. Together they form what Bose calls “an ecosystem for healthspan.”

“We’re not building clinics,” she says. “We’re building infrastructure for human potential.”

Her long-term goal is to export the model globally, using Dubai as proof of concept. “If we can make longevity commercially viable here, we can make it universal,” she adds.

As evening patients flow through Shookra’s glass doors—executives, athletes, retirees—the clinic feels less like a spa and more like a prototype for the future of medicine. Screens display real-time analytics of inflammation markers. Therapists calibrate IV infusions while AI software predicts optimal recovery intervals.

Bose watches quietly. “A century ago,” she says, “people built fortunes on steel and oil. In this century, they’ll build them on health.”

For now, her firm’s wager is simple: if the 20th century industrialized wealth, the 21st century will industrialize vitality—and Terra Invest intends to own the blueprint.