Genomic testing startup Viome closes $86.5M round, partners with CVS to sell at-home kits

GeekWire - August 18, 2023 - Seattle-area health tech startup Viome Life Sciences closed a $86.5 million Series C round and announced a deal with CVS to sell its gut microbiome test in 200 CVS locations across the U.S.

Viome’s “Full Body Intelligence” kit analyzes stool, saliva, and blood samples. (Viome Photo)

Founded seven years ago by serial entrepreneur Naveen Jain, Viome sells at-home kits that analyze the microbial composition of stool samples and provides food recommendations, as well as supplements and probiotics.

Viome says it is the first company to sell gut tests at CVS, both online and in-store. The tests will sell for $179.

“The future of medicine will be delivered at home, not at the hospital,” Jain told GeekWire. “And the medicines of the future are going to come from a farm, not a pharmacy.”

Viome is the latest ambitious endeavor from Jain. He’s currently chairman of commercial spaceflight venture Moon Express, and previously founded dot-com era tech company InfoSpace and background information firm Intelius, which sold for more than $100 million in 2014.

Viome is one of several venture-backed startups selling at-home test kits that analyze the gut microbiome, the collection of microbes in the gut and other parts of the body. Investors poured in nearly $1.4 billion into related U.S.-based companies in 2021, nearly four times the amount in 2016, according to PitchBook.

Investors in Viome include Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Silicon Valley heavyweight Khosla Ventures, which was an early backer and co-led the Series C round with Bold Capital.

But some scientists and researchers remain wary of microbiome kit companies, even as nutrition is increasingly linked to various health conditions.

“The kit will detect things, but we still don’t know as doctors what to do with this information for clinical practice,” said Dr. Elena Verdu, MD, PhD, and scientific advisory board member for the American Gastrological Association Center for Gut Microbiome Research & Education.

Verdu said there needs to be standardization of protocols and better understanding of microbiome function in health and disease.

“Recommendations for such commercial kits would have to be based on evidence-based guidelines, which currently do not exist,” she said.

Viome has a handful of peer-reviewed studies, though some researchers have questioned the company’s methodology and one called Viome the “Theranos of Microbiome Studies.”

Asked about the criticism from medical experts, Jain said “they don’t understand our technology.”

Viome analyzes the microbiome via sequencing of RNA, nucleic acids present in living organisms. The approach picks up not only bacteria, but other components of the gut such as yeast and viruses, all funneled into its AI-powered algorithms for personalized pills and diet guidance.

“We are the only company that looks at the gene expression and what these microbes are doing,” Jain said.

Viome, which built its platform in partnership with Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, has collected more than 600,000 test samples to date.

“The medical community is always 20 years behind,” Jain said.

David Suskind, a gastroenterologist at Seattle Children’s Hospital and professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington, said microbiome research continues to advance but requires much more rigorous testing and results.

“The best thing anybody can do for their microbiome is to eat a healthy diet,” he said. “That’s the best way of manipulating your microbiome.”

Verdu also recommended consulting a physician for suspected food sensitivities or intolerances. “It is not advisable that they begin restrictive diets on their own,” she said.

Medically-reviewed write-ups from Healthline and Mindbodygreen cite limited scientific evidence and research.

Recent reviews for Viome’s kit on Amazon show mixed results. One person said they lost weight and sleep better, but many criticized the lack of information provided.

Viome recently expanded beyond the gut, launching a $299 “Full Body Intelligence Test” last year that analyzes saliva and blood samples. It is also sells a $599 diagnostic test for oral and throat cancer that received FDA designation as a breakthrough device, which helps expedite the development and review of drugs. The test is not FDA-approved.

Jain said the company is planning to launch personalized toothpaste later this year.

Viome also offers a $199/month “full body health solutions” service for made-to-order supplements and probiotics.

Viome is unprofitable, Jain said. He declined to provide details on revenue metrics or valuation, though he said the the Series C was raised at a higher valuation compared to the previous round, avoiding a “down round” situation facing many startups following the tech downturn and venture capital pullback.

Viome in 2021 split into two divisions, with one arm selling consumer products and another that develops diagnostics and therapeutics for cancer and other conditions.

The company has a majority of its 135-person workforce in the Seattle region, with a corporate office in Bellevue and a lab in Bothell.

Other executives at the company include founding CTO Guruduth Banavar, who previously helped lead the Watson AI group at IBM; Momo Vuyisich, a former scientist and team leader at the Los Alamos National Laboratory; and John Blanchard, chief operating officer who spent time in leadership roles at Groupon and Amazon.

Viome originally spun out of BlueDot, an “innovation factory” Jain founded in 2015. Other backers in Viome include WestRiver Group; Ocgrow Ventures; Physician Partners of America; Grupo Nutresa; and WR Hambrecht + Co.

Celebrity and model Paris Hilton is also an investor and ambassador for the company.

Jain’s career has not been without controversy: Infospace was hit hard when the dot-com bubble burst in the early 2000s, leading to a years-long flurry of lawsuits that entangled Jain, other executives and shareholders. Millions of dollars changed hands in a series of legal settlements to resolve the disputes.

Viome announced in October that it had raised $67 million of the Series C round. Total funding is now $175 million.

This article was written by GeekWire Managing Editor Taylor Soper, and can be viewed here.