On August 18th, Viome Life Sciences successfully completed an oversubscribed Series C funding round of $85 million. The purpose of this investment is to further advance its personalized health testing product line and support its sales operations in the CVS
We know that although Series C funding rounds are typically for preparing for an IPO, such a large amount of funding is still quite rare in the industry. Just to put it into perspective, not long ago, Mirex raised $50 million in its Series D round, which was already impressive enough to catch everyone’s attention. Later, they even proceeded to submit their IPO application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Digging deeper, it turns out that this funding round is an additional investment to the Series C round from last year. On October 18, 2022, the company had already raised $67 million in the first part of the Series C round, of which $54 million had been invested as convertible funding even before that, in November 2021. The purpose of this fundraising is to expand its research into invasive cancers and chronic diseases, as well as clinical validation of early diagnosis and treatment methods. This round of funding has pushed the total amount to an impressive $85 million.
Seeing all of this, one can’t help but wonder: Who is Viome, and how has this startup managed to impress investors to the point where they keep increasing their investment?
In the spirit of seeking knowledge, delving further into this company, Viome Life Sciences was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Los Altos, California, USA. In simple terms, Viome utilizes microbiome and mRNA testing to provide unique health data for each individual. Subsequently, their advanced AI engine analyzes this data and recommends the most suitable foods and supplements for their bodies.
Based on its business scope, Viome strategically divides into two divisions: Viome Consumer Services, which focuses on developing its mature consumer products, including health tests, nutrition plans, and supplements; and Viome Health Sciences, dedicated to advancing its precision diagnostic and treatment platform.
Viome’s flagship product is called Intelligence™, a health test. Initially, Intelligence™ focused on the analysis of gut microbiome and mRNA to assess intestinal health. However, in August 2022, Intelligence™ introduced a significant component called CancerDetect™. It’s the first test to detect early oral and throat cancer biomarkers to receive FDA breakthrough medical device certification.
Viome’s CEO, Naveen Jain, has expressed the hope that in the future, Intelligence™ will be able to detect a range of cancers in their early stages, including pancreatic cancer, bile duct cancer, breast cancer, head and neck cancer, and more. It has been revealed that Viome has successfully developed predictive models for over 30 common chronic diseases, and these products in the research pipeline may be incorporated as components into the Intelligence™ health test in the future. The funds from this Series C financing round are intended to further advance the development of these products.
At the same time, Viome, with substantial financial support, announced its launch of gut intelligence tests in 200 CVS stores across the United States. Leveraging AI algorithms to analyze mRNA data from over 600,000 samples, the company has developed at-home testing and personalized health products aimed at ‘providing precise nutrition tailored to each individual’s needs.’
We have also found pricing information for some of the products currently being sold by the company:
From our understanding, the company’s current business model operates in the form of Laboratory Developed Tests (LDT), where they sell their test kits in CVS stores. These kits are used to collect samples, which are then sent to their own laboratory for analysis, resulting in a health score that is used to tailor customized nutrition plans. Additionally, they sell corresponding nutritional supplements directly to customers. It’s an all-in-one service. Compared to the common practice of sending products to hospitals or third-party testing facilities, selling directly to customers through a retailer is relatively uncommon.
However, it’s worth noting that due to this direct-to-customer business model, while the company is a leader in the field of microbiome gut testing, it hasn’t received uniformly positive online reviews.
Currently, the company sells nutritional supplements, which do not require approval and can be sold directly to customers. But their business landscape aims to include cancer diagnosis and treatment in the future. Whether they will expand to this extent and how they will handle the sale of medications, if required, remains to be seen. Viome is certainly one to watch.
