Viome redirected a $54M round from its diagnostics kit toward mRNA cancer therapeutics

Viome sells an at-home blood-and-stool testing kit that gives customers personalized diet and supplement recommendations, and is expanding into mRNA-based diagnostics and therapeutics for cancer and chronic disease with biopharma partner GSK

That shifting funding from its diagnostics kit toward mRNA diagnostics and therapeutics with GSK could catch cancers and chronic disease early enough to matter

$125M raised in total to date, including this $54M pre-Series C round

Viome, based in Bellevue, Washington, was known for a consumer-facing testing kit — customers mail in blood and stool samples and get back individualized diet and supplement recommendations. CEO and founder Naveen Jain, who said he lost his father to cancer, wanted the company to also target diseases 'where we can have a significant impact on humanity,' starting with early cancer detection.

Viome raised $54M in pre-Series C convertible funding from returning investors including Khosla Ventures, WestRiver Group, Glico, Physician Partners and Bold Capital Group, plus new investor Ocgrow Ventures. The round was aimed less at the consumer kit and more at advancing Viome's mRNA technology and AI platform and its partnership with biopharma company GSK, which had already produced FDA breakthrough device designation for a platform to screen for early-stage oral and throat cancer, plus a new clinical validation trial targeting other cancers and autoimmune diseases. Jain said the platform's long-term goal was detecting cancers including pancreatic, bile, breast, head, neck and shoulder cancers at their earliest stages. Viome also relocated its lab to a 25,000-square-foot facility in Bothell, Washington, expanded consumer test availability to 15 new countries, and could return results within two weeks; the company said consumer kit sales had grown during the pandemic as more people focused on individual health.

Jain's personal loss of his father to cancer shaped Viome's push toward early cancer detection rather than staying a purely consumer wellness kit company.

The FDA breakthrough device designation Viome and GSK had already won for oral and throat cancer screening gave the mRNA and AI platform credibility to raise capital specifically for that direction.

Consumer kit sales growing through the pandemic gave Viome a funded base business it could lean on while redirecting new capital toward the higher-risk, higher-reward biopharma bet.

A consumer testing kit can be the revenue engine that funds a company's real ambition — here, a biopharma partnership aimed at diseases the founder had a personal stake in fighting.

As of 2021-11-10, Viome had closed its $54M pre-Series C round and relocated to a larger Bothell, Washington lab, with its GSK partnership advancing toward clinical trials for early cancer and chronic-disease detection while its consumer kit business continued expanding into new countries.