🧬 23andMe Has Been Bankrupt Since 2018 – Big Egos, Bigger Lies, and DNA Delusions

💔 What was supposed to be one the greatest scientific enterprise, turned out to be another Theranos.

Source: https://www.404media.co/dna-of-15-million-people-for-sale-in-23andme-bankruptcy/

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On Monday, March 24, 2025, 23andMe finally filed for bankruptcy. This outcome was anticipated for at least the past 7 years, but relentless lies and the continuous tricking of VCs into believing there was a financially viable future kept 23andMe on desperate life support.

What was supposed to be one the greatest scientific enterprise, turned out to be another Theranos. This isn’t hyperbole – it’s the bitter lesson from the rise and fall of 23andMe, the personal genomics pioneer that promised to revolutionize health and ended up drowning in its own hype. I would know: I paid $69.99 to find out I am “96% Eastern European.” 🙄 It was a party trick at best – a one-time novelty. Needless to say, I used the product once in my lifetime. And I wasn’t alone. Millions spat in tubes for 23andMe’s DNA tests, only to realize there was little reason to do it again (DNA testing firm 23andMe files for bankruptcy as demand dries up | Reuters). The company’s grand vision—empowering people with genetic insights to prevent disease—never got close to profitability and instead lost $2.4B! (It’s OK not to make money, but don’t bullshit your investors for 19 years pretending you eventually would.) In the end, 23andMe’s story is yet another disastrous tale of scientific promise, corporate greed, and the perverse incentives of Silicon Valley that reward hype over honesty.

In this exposé, I chronicle how 23andMe went from visionary startup to effectively bankrupt by 2018, even as it kept raising money and going public. We’ll see how CEO Anne Wojcicki continued to charm investors and customers even after openly admitting in a Bloomberg interview there’s no monetization in prevention or diagnosis, how a massive data breach affecting 6.9 million users was blamed on customers, and how the company’s value plummeted from $5.8B in November 2021 to $0. I explore the role of the FTC and other regulators, the dubious pivots to the weight-loss hype (GLP-1) by 23andMe and its peers, and the fine print that allowed 23andMe to sell your data behind your back. Finally, we’ll follow the money – who invested, who profited, who got wiped out – and end with three structural fixes to prevent the next Theranos-like debacle. Buckle up.

This article represents the culmination of 5 years of meticulous research on 23andMe, which began as part of a competitive landscape analysis in digital health for my then-new startup, WellAI.

Here is TL;DR:

1. From Hype to One-Trick Pony

2. Admitting the Unprofitable Truth (and Ignoring It)

3. Changing the Terms: Your DNA for Sale

4. Another Theranos? The Cracks Show

5. The SPAC Scheme: $5.8B Hype

6. Desperate Pivots: Diets, Drugs, GLP-1, and a Digital Coach

7. A Lucky Break for Lemonaid, a Sh*tty Deal for 23andMe

8. The Data Breach: Blame the Victims

9. Panicking and Throwing Things at the Wall: Contemplating a Return to Private Ownership

10. 23andMe Board Abandons Ship — CEO “Has No Idea Why”

11. House of Cards Collapses

12. Follow the Money: Funding Rounds, Valuations, and a Trail of Losses (Because There Were No Winners 😢)

13. Conclusion: Structural Lessons From the 23andMe Debacle