23andMe confirms $250 million round led by Sequoia

Genetics testing company 23andMe has formally announced that Sequoia Capital is leading an investment round in the company. This confirms the news we broke last week. 

The press release says that the final amount was $250 million and that Sequoia’s Roelof Botha will be taking a board seat. Others participating in the round include new investors Euclidean Capital, Altimeter Capital and the Wallenberg Foundation. Existing investors also joined, including Fidelity Management and Casdin Capital. 23andMe has raised $491 million to date.

The company did not confirm valuation, but we’ve reported that it was $1.5 billion pre-money, meaning before the funding gets added in. The confirmed $250 million should bring the total valuation to about $1.75 billion.

The announcement says the capital will be used to “accelerate customer growth, continue funding its expanding therapeutics group, and invest in its crowdsourced genetic research platform.”

23andMe was founded in 2006 and has since convinced “millions of customers” to pay for its genetics testing. Users send in a saliva kit and then the company sends back information related to ancestry and health.

There are others in the space doing ancestry and health testing including Ancestry.com and Color Genomics.

23andMe has also developed a robust research business. Customers can opt-in to participate in various studies, where they look for a DNA link for everything ranging from melanoma to schizophrenia.

“We have only begun to scratch the surface in direct-to-consumer genetics,” said Anne Wojcicki, 23andMe CEO and co-founder, in a statement. “We will continue to blaze the trail for our customers and lead the industry we’ve built.”