After pivoting during the coronavirus pandemic from providing whole-genome sequencing and genetic counseling to developing COVID-19 tests and coordinating vaccine delivery, Color has now set its sights on building a population health infrastructure that makes screening, diagnostics and early treatment more accessible to all patients.
To do so, the San Francisco-based company has turned to a group of venture capital investors—led by Kindred Ventures and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates—who contributed a collective $100 million to Color’s coffers. Other participants in the series E include General Catalyst, Viking Global Investors and Emerson Collective.
The financing brings Color’s valuation to a respectable $4.6 billion, the company said, more than triple the $1.5 billion price tag it was given at the beginning of this year. That initial unicorn-level valuation came in early January, when Color closed its series D mega-round with $167 million from a handful of investors led by General Catalyst.
The new funding brings Color’s total lifetime financing to $378 million since it was founded in 2015. It’ll be used to help Color expand beyond its current COVID and genetic testing offerings into primary healthcare services.
That expansion will build on the public health infrastructure established throughout the COVID pandemic that has allowed patients to access testing and vaccine services from the comfort of their own homes, supported by tech tools available via smartphone and online portal.
It’ll also build on Color’s own experience in reaching vast swaths of patients. For its first half-decade, the company’s primary focus was on providing whole-genome sequencing and genetic screening to patients either directly or through their employers then connecting them with genetic counselors to better understand and begin taking action on their test results.
In 2019, for example, Color was tapped by the National Institutes of Health to provide counseling services for the All of Us research program, which aims to sequence the genomes of at least 1 million Americans. That and other broad-scale efforts made Color well-positioned to begin offering COVID-related services to hundreds of millions of people via their employers, schools and public health departments, and will, in turn, help the company expand even further into general healthcare delivery.
“What we have built will serve as a critical piece of public health infrastructure to deliver access to healthcare services to those who need them most,” Color CEO Othman Laraki said in a statement. “We have learned that there is an exponential uptick in people’s ability to use these services as they become simpler and more convenient. Public health should happen where public life happens.”
Those efforts will begin with the introduction of screening and treatment for sexually transmitted infections and a slate of basic primary care services. In the latter category, Color’s clinical specialists will analyze test results and reported symptoms to identify high-risk health conditions, then connect patients with licensed clinicians within 48 hours of testing to begin treating any diagnosed conditions.
“Color is poised to further transform how we deliver public health in this country with speed and at scale,” said Steve Jang, founder and managing partner of Kindred Ventures. “Just as we’ve seen digital transformations in other parts of our lives, the distributed network approach Color has built will improve the way we experience healthcare in the future.”
Jang continued, “The hosted software and data infrastructure that Color provides has created a new normal: All essential care should be accessible, decentralized and delivered within companies, schools and communities instantly.”