African genomics startup 54gene lays off 95 as COVID testing business struggles

African genomics startup 54gene lays off 95 as COVID testing business struggles

2 years ago
Anonymous $Dcz6_RW03I

https://techcrunch.com/2022/08/29/african-genomics-startup-54gene-lays-off-95-as-covid-testing-business-struggles/

African genomics startup 54gene has laid off 95 employees, or about 30% of its LinkedIn-sourced 290+ employees. A company’s spokesperson confirmed the news after several sources informed TechCrunch of the layoffs last week.

Founded in 2019 by Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong, the three-year-old startup seeks to address the gap in the global genomics market where less than 3% of genetic material used in pharmaceutical research is African. This is despite reports saying Africans and people of African ancestry are more genetically diverse than all other world populations combined.