23andMe Brand Check-up: When Trust Is the Product
23andMe made genetic testing a consumer product. It listed on Nasdaq in June 2021 at a $3.5 billion valuation. On March 23, 2025, it filed for Chapter 11 and its co-founder stepped down as CEO. As of April 29, 2025, its shares trade over the counter and customer data sits at the centre of a court-supervised sale. We look at how the brand got here.
Key takeaways
- 23andMe’s shares closed at $13.32 on their first Nasdaq day in June 2021 and at $0.61 at their last Nasdaq close on March 28, 2025, a fall of more than 99% after adjusting for a 1-for-20 reverse split.
- The breach disclosed in October 2023 started with about 14,000 accounts and reached 6.9 million people through the DNA Relatives feature.
- Consumer services revenue fell 8% in the quarter to December 31, 2024, and the move into drug discovery ended when therapeutics operations closed in November 2024.
- In Chapter 11, the brand’s value depends on whether customers will trust a new owner with their genetic data.
Download the full 23andMe Brand Check-up (PDF): vital signs, timeline, diagnosis, treatment and sources.
The symptoms
23andMe went public by merging with VG Acquisition Corp., a SPAC founded by Richard Branson, in a deal that valued it at $3.5 billion. The shares closed at $13.32 on June 17, 2021, their first day on Nasdaq. In April 2024, Anne Wojcicki disclosed that she wanted to take the company private. By September, its value had fallen from a high of $6 billion to around $170 million.
On September 17, 2024, all seven independent directors resigned, telling Wojcicki they had yet to receive “a fully financed, fully diligenced, actionable proposal.” Two days later the shares closed at 33 cents. A 1-for-20 reverse split followed in October. On March 23, 2025, the company filed for Chapter 11 in the Eastern District of Missouri, Wojcicki resigned as CEO, and chief financial officer Joe Selsavage became interim CEO. The last Nasdaq close was $0.61 on March 28, 2025, more than 99% below the split-adjusted debut close. The shares now trade over the counter as MEHCQ.
Diagnosis: a product most people need once
A DNA test answers its questions in one report. Once the report arrives, the customer’s job is done (see our guide to jobs to be done), and the brand needs a steady flow of new buyers. In the quarter to December 31, 2024, consumer services revenue fell 8% to $39.6 million. Total revenue rose to $60.3 million, mainly because of $19.3 million in non-recurring research revenue from GSK. Nine-month revenue was $144.7 million, down from $155.6 million a year earlier.
Management looked for a second act in drug discovery. At the listing, with more than 40 drug programs underway, Wojcicki said, “I want to be a therapeutics company that people love.” 23andMe later reported a net loss of $667 million for its last full fiscal year, more than double the year before. In November 2024 it closed substantially all therapeutics operations and reported a 40% workforce reduction.
Diagnosis: the breach broke the core promise
For a genetics brand, privacy is the product. In October 2023, 23andMe disclosed that hackers had accessed customer data. They got into about 14,000 accounts directly, using passwords that customers had reused on other sites, according to the company. Through the DNA Relatives feature they then reached personal information on 5.5 million people and Family Tree profile information on 1.4 million more: 6.9 million in all, about half the 14 million customers the company reported at the time. The feature that made the product social made the breach large. In September 2024 the company agreed to pay $30 million to settle a class action.
When the promise is trust, a breach damages the brand’s positioning itself, not only one quarter’s results.
Diagnosis: a fight over control in public view
Wojcicki held 49% of the voting power. In a proposal submitted in late July 2024 she offered 40 cents a share for the stock she did not own; the board’s special committee said the offer carried no premium to the July 31 closing price. The independent directors left a month later, and the committee rejected her final proposal, dated March 10, 2025, before the filing. Each round played out in public, in front of customers who had trusted the company with their DNA.
Where the customer data stands
The bankruptcy put customer data at the centre of the sale. On March 21, 2025, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said customers in the state can request deletion of their genetic data and biological samples. On April 18, the company said bidders must guarantee compliance with its privacy policies and the law, and that it would not accept bids from entities based in, or with controlling investments from, countries of concern such as China and Russia. It has also asked the court to appoint an independent Customer Data Representative.
What growing companies can learn
Plan the second purchase before you scale the first. A product people buy once needs a reason to return, and its pricing strategy should reflect that. Test every sharing feature against the worst case before you promote it. When your product rests on trust, treat governance as part of the brand.
This check-up uses public information available on April 29, 2025. It is brand and marketing analysis, not investment advice.
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