23andMe.com Gets Investment from Google
June 18, 2009 by Stephen Kersey
Filed under Business
23andMe.com received more than $2.5 million in a recent investment from Google. Considering that 23andMe.com is co-founded by Anne Wojcicki and she’s married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin — this can’t really be shocking news.
A startup based in Mountain View (just like Google), 23andMe.com is a very interesting biotechnology company. It’s slogan is “genetics just got personal”.
For $399, you will receive personalized genetic information. Once you order the $399 kit, you’ll soon receive it in the mail. Then you spit into the provided tube and send it back. At the lab, they’ll analyze your idea. Four-to-six weeks later, you go back to 23andMe.com and you can explore your genome.
By exploring your genome, you can view traits that may affect your health. You can also get information on your ancestry. There are also a lot of Web 2.0 features that allow you to interact with 23andMe.com and the rest of the community.
Overall, this is an online startup to definitely keep an eye on. With Google behind it, a very interesting (yet simple) business model and the latest social technology, 23andMe.com could quickly become a popular service.
23andMe.com (Image: 23andMe.com Screen Cap)
Cool news. More than the google connection the business model is quiet interesting. And since there is no market, no competitors for such a thing, it would be interesting to see how people fancy understanding their own ancestary. In case if there are cool revelations that they make and similarities that the find out, this business can create great disruption in the market.