23andMe (ME)-Lost-99.8-of-Its-Value.png?w=970″ alt=”Anne Wojcicki, co-founder of 23andMe, smiling and pointing to a trophy while standing in front of stylized pink DNA strands on a surreal background.” width=”970″ height=”647″ data-caption=’Anne Wojcicki, once the face of biotech’s consumer revolution, holding a Breakthrough Prize. Years later, 23andMe has filed for bankruptcy—taking 99.8 percent of its value and the genetic data of 15 million customers into court. <span class=”lazyload media-credit”>Getty Images & Unsplash+</span>’>
Once worth $6 billion, with shares trading north of $300 a piece, California-based genetic testing company 23andMe declared bankruptcy on Monday (March 23) after losing 99.8 percent of its market value. 23andMe analyzed at-home saliva tests to provide ancestral history for a customer—more specifically, it did this for 15 million customers. It also sold anonymized data about those customers to companies like the pharmaceutical giant GSK. There are now 15 million customers whose data is at risk as 23andMe heads to bankruptcy court.
Founded by Anne Wojcicki, Linda Avey and Paul Cusenza in 2006, 23andMe company received $3.9 million a year later from Google (GOOGL), which was co-founded by Wojcicki’s then-husband, Sergey Brin. A graduate of Yale, Wojcicki worked as a healthcare analyst on Wall Street for four years before moving into healthcare research. Her older sister was Susan Wojcicki, who passed away in 2024 after a little over a decade as CEO of YouTube.
In 2017, 23andMe raised $250 million at a $1.75 billion valuation. In 2018, the company won Time Magazine’s “Invention of the Year” award for its direct-to-customer business model. Another major success came later that year, when 23andMe partnered with GlaxoSmithKline, granting the pharmaceutical giant access to genetic data from 5 million customers for drug development. GlaxoSmithKline initially invested $300 million, extending the collaboration in January 2022 with an additional $50 million. The company went public via a SPAC in 2021, which allows companies to circumvent some financial disclosures and file a traditional prospectus, soon reaching its peak valuation of $6 billion. Wojcicki owned around 49 percent of the company’s voting stock.
23andMe remained popular after going public, but the company struggled to find recurring customers. By design, the at-home test was a product that no consumer should need to purchase more than once. Ancestry testing is a one-and-done experience. The limited revenue model and rising customer acquisition costs challenged the company’s long-term profitability prospects, and 23andMe never returned to its 2021 valuation of $6 billion. In October 2023, the company was hacked, exposing around 7 million people’s information and data. Last September, all independent members of the board of directors resigned after Wojcicki made numerous unsuccessful attempts to take the company private. Soon after, in November 2024, 23andMe laid off 40 percent of its staff—around 200 people—to reduce costs by $35 million. In the first nine months of the company’s current fiscal year, revenue declined 7 percent and posted losses of $174 million.
A month before 23andMe’s bankruptcy, Wojcicki continued to make numerous fully-financed offers to take the company private, though the board rejected all. Some reports show Wojcicki’s bid was as high as $42 million, almost triple the company’s current market cap of ~$14 million (as of March 26).
After the bankruptcy announcement, Wojcicki said she would persist in privately owning the company. “I have resigned as C.E.O. of the company so I can be in the best position to pursue the company as an independent bidder,” Wojcicki posted. Now, 23andMe awaits court approval to sell its assets under Chapter 11 and will seek qualified buyers over 45 days. The company’s bankruptcy filing suggests it has between $100 million and $500 million in assets and liabilities each.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta urged customers to remove their genetic data from 23andMe, as it will likely be sold to the highest bidder. 23andMe stated its data protection policies will remain unchanged during the sale, and Wojcicki emphasized her commitment to protecting customers’ private data
