NewCo Spotlight

Genome Testing Is Now Affordable: Ancestry Is Bringing It To The Masses

Octavio Raygoza
NewCo Shift
Published in
2 min readJan 9, 2017

--

As the largest genealogy company in the world, Ancestry has gone through several iterations throughout its 34-year history. The company began its life as a newsletter in 1983, graduating to magazine format in 1994, then launching its .com two years later. Today Ancestry offers ancestryDNA kits, a simple test that analyzes an individual’s DNA in order to provide insight on origin, their ethnic mix, discover distant relatives, and find new details about their unique family history via their large DNA database and many historical records.

Source: https://www.genome.gov/sequencingcosts/

As a global leader in family history and consumer genomics, Ancestry has experienced intense growth, partially due to a rapid decrease in costs for genome sequencing. Just 10 years ago, sequencing a genome could cost $10 million, but today that price has dropped to hundreds of dollars. This has allowed Ancestry to offer kits to genotype a customer’s DNA that otherwise would have been cost prohibited just a few years back. Although genotyping a customers DNA isn’t full genome sequencing, the test still offers unprecedent insignts to an individual’s background.

Although privacy concerns remain regarding DNA databases, Ancestry.com is positioned to continue its growth. The wealth of new DNA data will prove valuable to individuals, researchers, the health industry and more. Big part of their success is the increasing interest from the fact that people have a curiosity to know how and where they fit into the world, what makes them who they are, and what makes them unique. Today, unlucking those secrets it’s easier than ever, just from a simple saliva test. Next month, find out what makes Ancestry tick at our fifth annual NewCo Bay Area — where you can visit Ancestry’s offices and learn firsthand from the company’s leadership.

Experience first-hand how companies like ancestry.com drive purposeful transformation in their industries at the NewCo Bay Area festival. Choose from 130+ innovative companies like ancestry.com who will offer tours, presentations and open discussions in their home offices, hosted by founders and executive leaders. Buy your tickets now!

--

--