Billy Evans, partner of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, is working on a new startup that seeks to deliver “human health optimization” through blood testing, according to The New York Times.
The Times reportedly spoke to two investors pitched on the startup, called Haemanthus, and also viewed some of Haemanthus’ marketing materials.
In those materials, the company says it has developed a machine that uses lasers to analyze blood, saliva, and urine samples to detect cancer and infections. It reportedly plans to start with pet health before expanding to humans, and it seeks to raise more than $50 million.
The pitch echoes that for Theranos, which promised to conduct a variety of tests on tiny amounts of blood drawn from pricked fingers. In 2022, Holmes (with whom Evans has two children) was sentenced to 11 years in prison for defrauding investors, though she said in a recent interview that she remains “completely committed to my dream of making affordable healthcare solutions available to everyone.”
Early Facebook investor Jim Breyer told The Times that his team had been asked to invest but declined “for many of the same reasons we passed twice on Theranos.”
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