23andMe, the US-based genetics services provider backed by corporate investors including internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet, secured $250m yesterday in a round led by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital.
Financial services group Fidelity Management & Research (FMR) also took part in the round, as did family office Euclidean Capital, investment firms Altimeter Capital and Casdin Capital, and research support organisation Wallenberg Foundation.
The funding was raised at a $1.5bn pre-money valuation, according to a TechCrunch report last week, and 23andMe said it has now raised a total of $491m since it was founded in 2006.
23andMe operates a consumer genetics service where users can send a DNA sample for analysis, in order to find out if they are more susceptible to certain health conditions, or simply to discover information about their ancestry.
The company will invest the new capital in growing its therapeutics research activities and building its interactive genetic research platform, which uses crowdsourced data. It has been responsible for the publishing of more than 80 peer-reviewed genetic studies for disease and wellness.
FMR led 23andMe’s last funding round, a $115m series E closed in late 2015 at a $1.1bn valuation which included GV and WuXi Healthcare Ventures, respective subsidiaries of Alphabet and pharmaceutical research firm WuXi PharmaTech, as well as genomics technology provider Illumina.
Casdin Capital, Xfund, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and MPM Capital also took part in the series E round, the latter two having contributed to the company’s $57.9m series D in 2012, which also featured GV.
GV had originally invested in 23andMe as part of its $9m series A round in 2007, which also featured biotech company Genentech, MDV-Mohr Davidow Ventures and NEA, before adding $2.6m in equity financing two years later.
Pharmaceutical group Johnson & Johnson is also an investor in the company, having participated in its $31m series C round in 2011, through its Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation subsidiary, alongside MPM and NEA.
Sequoia Capital partner Roelof Botha will join 23andMe’s board of directors in conjunction with the latest round, two months after Neal Mohan, a senior vice-president at Alphabet subsidiary Google. Allen & Company advised 23andMe for the round.
Anne Wojcicki, co-founder and CEO of 23andMe, said: “We have only begun to scratch the surface in direct-to-consumer genetics. We will continue to blaze the trail for our customers and lead the industry we have built.”