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23andMe sells home DNA test kits and uses the genetic data it collects to try to discover new medicines.
23andMe is a consumer genetics company. You spit in a tube, mail it in, and a few weeks later you get a report about your ancestry, your health risks, and your traits — things like whether your earwax is wet or dry. The company built its name on selling that simple curiosity to millions of people, mostly by charging roughly $100 to $200 for a kit.
The business has always had two very different halves. The consumer half sells the test kits and subscriptions that give you new reports as science advances. The other half is the real ambition: 23andMe has spent years trying to turn its giant pile of volunteer DNA data into new drugs. That research arm is where the company bet its future, and it is also the part that burns cash.
The trouble is that the money story is brutal. Selling one-time test kits is a tough business — you sell to a customer once and then you need a new customer, and growth stalled as the novelty faded. 23andMe went public in 2021 by merging with a blank-check company, and the stock collapsed afterward. The company never turned a reliable profit, and by 2024 it was fighting for survival: the entire board resigned in September 2024, and the firm filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March 2025. In July 2025, its assets were bought by a nonprofit founded by former CEO Anne Wojcicki, keeping the service alive under a different owner. The grand plan of turning spit into medicine never produced a blockbuster drug to pay for the spending, and that gap between a beloved consumer product and a cash-hungry lab is the whole story of the company.
Saved answer · last researched 26 Oct 2026