The DNA testing firm 23andMe—as soon as one of many hottest startups in Silicon Valley—declared chapter on Monday. Anne Wojcicki, the cofounder and CEO who popularized consumer-focused genomic testing, has additionally resigned.
“We have had many successes but I equally take accountability for the challenges we have today,” Wojcicki wrote in a press release shared on social media. “There is no doubt that the challenges faced by 23andMe through an evolving business model have been real, but my belief in the company and its future is unwavering.”
23andMe’s chapter wasn’t solely a shock given the current board and share worth turmoil on the cash-strapped agency. Nonetheless, the flip has raised considerations for the corporate’s 15 million clients whose DNA now seems to be in limbo. (23andMe has stated there might be no adjustments to the way it shops or protects buyer information.)
Wojcicki’s resolution to step down follows months of stress on the cofounder, whose total board resigned on the identical day final fall. For a few years, Wojcicki was seen as a number one thinker, champion of shopper well being rights, and one of some girls main an influential biotech agency. By her connections in tech, politics, and Hollywood, she helped push 23andMe and the chances of genetic testing into mainstream tradition. However occasions of the previous few years have raised questions on her legacy.
This is a timeline of occasions that formed 23andMe trajectory:
2006: Linda Avey, a genetics professional, Paul Cusenza, an engineer and govt, and Anne Wojcicki, a former healthcare investments analyst, launch 23andMe. Avey had beforehand conceived of the concept and pitched it to traders, together with Google’s cofounders. In response to Avey, Sergey Brin steered Wojcicki grow to be a cofounder. (Brin and Wojcicki had been married on the time.)
2007: 23andMe begins providing DNA exams for $1,000 per order, asking clients to ship their spit to the corporate in a vial in trade for details about their ancestry and a few well being dangers. The corporate’s check permits customers to decide in to share their information with researchers and reply questions on their way of life, making a probably helpful database for future mining. New York Occasions journalist Amy Harmon writes an in-depth private account of testing her DNA with 23andMe, bringing widespread consciousness of the corporate and its potential. The corporate additionally turns into identified for celebrity-attended “spit parties.”
2009: Wojcicki and the board announce Linda Avey is leaving the corporate. (Cusenza had left in 2008.) Years later, Avey tells the podcast She Leads: “It’s not something I chose.” She additionally calls the ouster “devastating.”
March 12, 2015: Wojcicki launches a drug discovery enterprise, seeking to capitalize on the info it has collected from customers. This leads the corporate right into a expensive enterprise, with Wojcicki later recounting how she was warned towards doing drug analysis, which may price lots of of tens of millions of {dollars}, require a number of years, and would not assure success. Wojcicki recruits prime scientific researchers and 23andMe finally develops two most cancers drug targets that may attain medical section trials.
November 22, 2015: The FDA sends Wojcicki a warning letter over its spit package exams that supply clients well being and illness threat data. The corporate takes its well being outcomes merchandise off the market and hires specialists to navigate regulatory affairs. Two years later, the FDA approves 23andMe’s consumer-focused genomic well being exams, making a first-of-its-kind FDA-approved product.
July 25, 2018: GSK indicators a take care of 23andMe that provides the drug firm unique entry to 23andMe’s database—together with DNA information for it is then-5 million clients—for 4 years. “The goal of the collaboration is to gather insights and discover novel drug targets driving disease progression and develop therapies for serious unmet medical needs based on those discoveries,” GSK says in a press launch. This partnership will later be prolonged till 2025 and GSK will announce that it led to probably viable drug targets.
June 16, 2021: 23andMe goes public by way of a Richard Branson and Virgin Group—backed SPAC deal. The itemizing briefly values the corporate at $6 billion, however it is going to be price $3 billion by the tip of the yr.
November 1, 2021: 23andMe buys telehealth firm Lemonaid Well being for $400 million. It was all the time Wojcicki’s purpose for 23andMe to supply retail DNA testing, run drug analysis, and combine genomic testing and medical drugs.
October 6, 2023: A significant information breach exposes the DNA of 6.9 million folks focused by hackers. The corporate later confirms that the hackers focused clients of Ashkenazi Jewish and Chinese language ancestry. The breach additionally results in a class-action lawsuit that may pressure the corporate to pay a $30 million settlement in 2024.
January 31, 2024: The Wall Avenue Journal publishes an explosive story trying on the causes 23andMe’s was buying and selling as a penny inventory and has by no means turned a revenue. As a public firm, main flaws in its enterprise mannequin grow to be apparent. Sources within the story query whether or not Wojcicki is paying sufficient consideration to the corporate’s fundamentals or if she’s constructing a private model. Extra broadly, the biotech market can also be affected by a downturn that started in 2022.
April 18, 2024: With 23andMe financials nonetheless deteriorating, Wojcicki expresses curiosity in taking the corporate personal. Because the controlling shareholder, she additionally says she won’t be open to exterior bids. (She alters her stance a couple of instances months later.) The 23andMe board kinds a particular committee to arrange to evaluate a deal.
August 2, 2024: The board responds to Wojcicki’s first bid to take the corporate personal for 40 cents per share. It doesn’t consider the share worth is suitable and it’s sad with the dearth of particulars about financing the sale. “Our expectation after months of work was that you would submit a fully-financed, fully-diligenced, actionable proposal that is in the best interests of the non-affiliated shareholders,” the board writes. It additionally affords the chance to resubmit the proposal at a later date. The corporate extends this deadline once more when Wojcicki’s sister, Susan Wojcicki, the CEO of YouTube, dies of lung most cancers.
September 18, 2024: In a stunning flip, all the board of 23andMe resigns on the identical day, explaining in a public letter that its members felt they’d few different choices. Wojcicki, because the controlling shareholder, had stated she wouldn’t entertain different affords and the board had not obtained an improved bid whereas the corporate was going through dire straits. The group—which included luminaries reminiscent of Neal Mohan, CEO of YouTube, and Roelof Botha, head of Sequoia Capital—wrote that whereas they “wholeheartedly” believed within the firm’s mission to personalize well being care with genetic information, they disagreed with Wojcicki’s strategic path.
October 16, 2024: 23andMe completes a reverse inventory cut up to keep away from being delisted from NASDAQ. The share worth had beforehand fallen under $1.
October 17, 2024: Wojcicki tells Fortune in her first public interview for the reason that board’s resignation that she nonetheless believes she “can land this plane” and that she was as shocked as anybody in regards to the board’s resignation. She additionally responds to former staff’ ideas that her overly-controlling management type helped to sink the corporate. “I’ve always said ever since the very beginning, I don’t need to be in charge,” she instructed Fortune. “There’s no ego for me. I care about the vision and the mission.”
February 20, 2025: After closing the drug discovery enterprise, shedding almost half of 23andMe’s workers, and including three CFOs to her new board, Wojcicki hyperlinks up with New Mountain Capital and submits a brand new proposal to purchase 23andMe that values the corporate at $75 million. Nervous retail traders inform Fortune they hope the board won’t settle for her first provide.
March 2, 2025: Wojcicki explains in a brand new public submitting that New Mountain Capital is “no longer interested” in partnering together with her on the proposal. Wojcicki features a new bid, this time valuing the corporate at $42 million. The board rejects that proposal later the identical day.
March 24, 2025: 23andMe pronounces it is getting into chapter, prompting information privateness considerations. Anne Wojcicki steps down as CEO however says she is going to nonetheless make yet one more bid to purchase the corporate. “Consumers are rising up and asking for more control over their health and want greater knowledge about how to be healthy and why they may have health issues,” she writes on X.com. “We fought for consumers to have direct access to their information and for them to have choice and transparency with respect to their personal data. As I think about the future, I will continue to tirelessly advocate for customers to have choice and transparency with respect to their personal data, regardless of platform.”
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
