In 2012, 23andMe sold a saliva kit for $99. In July 2025, after filing for Chapter 11, the company was sold for $305 million. In between it listed on the Nasdaq, reached a market value near $6 billion, and collected genetic data from more than 14 million people.

The database did not shrink in that time. It was the same asset on the day it sold as on the day it peaked. What changed was how much anyone would pay for it.

What was the data worth at each step?

Different buyers put different prices on 23andMe. We lined up the ones that were public.

Source: Company and press reports compiled on Wikipedia; Regeneron press release; Bloomberg Law. Market value and transaction prices are different kinds of number. They are shown together to show the spread, not to compare like with like.

View data

event	value
Peak market value (2021)	6000000000
SPAC merger valuation (Feb 2021)	3500000000
Sale to TTAM (2025)	305000000
GSK investment (2018)	300000000
Regeneron auction bid (2025)	256000000

Three kinds of price are mixed in that chart, and they say different things.

A story price. The February 2021 merger valued the company at $3.5 billion, and the shares later peaked near $6 billion. Those numbers reflect what investors hoped the data would become: a source of new drugs.

A partner price. In July 2018, GlaxoSmithKline invested $300 million in a partnership to use the data for drug target discovery. In January 2022 it paid a further $50 million to extend it. This is a price for access to the data for one purpose, drug discovery, not a price for the whole company.

A distress price. The company filed for Chapter 11 on March 23, 2025. Regeneron won the first auction at $256 million. After bidding reopened, TTAM Research Institute, a nonprofit led by 23andMe's co-founder and former CEO Anne Wojcicki, offered $305 million. The court approved the sale, and it closed on July 14, 2025.

How much is that per person?

By February 2024, more than 14 million people had been genotyped by the company. Dividing the $305 million sale price by 14 million gives about $22 per person. The kit that produced each record sold for $99.

That figure is arithmetic, not a valuation. The sale included the whole business, including the Lemonaid telehealth service, not just the genetic data. The customer count is approximate, and the buyer agreed to privacy commitments that may limit how the data can be used. But the order of magnitude is the point: a record that cost the customer $99 changed hands at roughly a fifth of that.

Why did the data not carry the company?

We cannot see inside the company's books, so we will stay with what the filings and press reports show.

The kit is sold once. A customer who has been genotyped has no reason to buy another. The recurring revenue had to come from somewhere else, and the public record points to research partnerships such as the GSK deal. The company also made job cuts in November 2024, about four months before it filed for bankruptcy.

None of this says genetic data is worthless. It says that data alone, without a recurring buyer, was not enough to support a public company.

Sources

1. Wikipedia, 23andMe: merger valuation, peak market value, GSK deal, customer count, bankruptcy and sale dates, kit prices. Compiled from press reports.
2. Regeneron, Asset purchase agreement to acquire 23andMe for $256 million.
3. Bloomberg Law, 23andMe wins approval of $305 million genetic data asset sale.
4. OPB, Judge OKs sale of 23andMe to a nonprofit led by its founder.
5. HIPAA Journal, Bankruptcy court approves sale of 23andMe: privacy commitments attached to the sale.