Founders: Linda Avery, Paul Cusenza, Anne Wojcicki (CEO)
Launched: 2006
Funding: $240.68 million
Valuation: $1.1 billion (PitchBook)
Disrupting: Genetic testing
Rival: Ancestry.com, Color Genomics, Counsyl, Pathway Genomics
George Kavallines
It looks like the personal genetics company, 23andMe, is getting a second chance to do what it always set out to. In April the company received its first authorization from the FDA to market genetic reports on an individual's risk for certain diseases, including late-stage Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. In 2013 the FDA put the company's direct-to-consumer genetic-testing business on hold until it made its information much easier for consumers to understand. The company continued on with its ancestry-related DNA information in the years since, but it wasn't until recently that the company finally was granted the official green light to restart its original mission. The new FDA approval allows 23andMe to tell consumers about their risk for 10 conditions — not whether they have it, just whether they are at risk for getting it.
Read More FULL LIST: 2017 DISRUPTOR 50
The company claims that it has more than 1 million customers worldwide, with over 80 percent of them willing to share the results of their data to help further research for cures and treatments. There are two types of information consumers can purchase. For $99 they can receive information about their ancestry and where relatives once lived around the world. For $199 customers can receive that information, as well as dozens of reports on their genetic health risks and wellness measures. For both the process is the same: Folks provide a sample of their saliva in a vial provided by the company and then send it back in the prepaid envelope.
Since its start in 2006, 23andMe (the name refers to the fact that human DNA is organized into 23 pairs of chromosomes) has raised more than $240 million from Johnson & Johnson Development, the National Institutes of Health and Google, to name a few of its investors. CEO Anne Wojcicki has been mum on whether the company will go public anytime soon, but with a valuation of more than $1 billion, according to PitchBook, and the recent spate of good news from the FDA, that could soon change.
