54gene launched to address the underrepresentation of African genetic material in pharmaceutical research and built services including genome sequencing and a clinical diagnostics/COVID testing arm. The company expanded rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic but has since seen revenues dwindle and has shut down its clinical diagnostic arm. It conducted two rounds of major fundraising in 2020–2021 (a $15M Series A and a $25M Series B) but arranged an in-house bridge round in 2022 when its valuation was reduced from about $170M to roughly $50M. That bridge round reportedly closed with a 3x–4x liquidation preference and was funded by existing investors led by board members. The company has cut nearly 200 employees in two layoff rounds and its founder and CEO stepped down, replaced on an interim basis by the general counsel; the founder will continue in an advisory and fundraising role. 54gene is YC-backed and says the fresh capital was injected to support the company through the challenging period and position it for future paths such as additional fundraising or strategic partnerships. 54gene conducts genomics research and builds sequencing and biobanking infrastructure to advance drug discovery and precision medicine for African populations. Since launching in 2019 the company recruits voluntary participants for genetic samples via swab or blood tests and processes them in its own sequencing and microarray lab in Lagos, opened last September in partnership with Illumina. The Lagos lab offers genotyping, whole-genome sequencing (WGS) and whole-exome sequencing (WES), expanding the company’s ability to generate comprehensive genomic data. 54gene has scaled its biobank capacity from 60,000 at its last raise to about 300,000 samples and aims to manage up to 500,000. The company plans to use new funding to recruit and train technical staff, expand sequencing, target identification and validation, run precision-medicine clinical trials, and expand across East and West Africa through partnerships. Financially, 54gene has raised $25M in Series B and has raised more than $45M in total since inception. 54gene collects African genetic code and provides a proprietary platform to catalog and analyze that data for health research and drug development. Founded in 2019 by CEO Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong, the company is headquartered in Washington, D.C., with a biobank facility and research lab in Lagos. It maintains an engineering team and a network of more than 300 researchers, clinicians, and geneticists across Africa. The Lagos biobank currently holds capacity for 60,000 samples; with the new funding the company plans to expand capacity to 200,000 samples and pursue a longer-term goal of 500,000. 54gene will use proceeds to boost lab processing capabilities to handle tens or hundreds of thousands of genetic samples and to hire across the organization, including a VP of finance and additional scientists. Its primary path to revenue is paid co-development of drugs and medicines with pharmaceutical companies, sharing revenues once a drug is approved and on the market. The company has also re-positioned to support COVID-19 testing in Nigeria's public health facilities and aims to offer screening in its Lagos lab with capacity for more than 3,000 tests per day once approved. 54gene is building the first and largest biobank of African DNA to bring African genetic material into global medical research. The company is collecting data from 10 of Nigeria’s largest research and public hospitals and expects to hold 40,000 participant samples. Current sampling focuses on cancer, cardiovascular diseases and metabolic conditions such as diabetes and sickle cell anemia. Sample collection at each hospital has been vetted by institutional review boards and uses informed consent from participants. 54gene operates from San Francisco and Lagos and intends to generate revenue through paid partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. The company has strengthened its team with commercial and operations hires, including Jessica Rich as chief commercial officer and Delali Attipoe as chief operating officer.

Total raised

$45M

Funding rounds

4

Latest round

Series B

Latest activity

Sep 2021