Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes‘ partner Billy Evans has launched a startup in the same field — blood testing — where Holmes failed and ended up in prison.
The company is called Haemanthus, the name of a plant called a blood lily, and on Sunday, it denied that Holmes was involved.
“Yes, our CEO, Billy Evans, is Elizabeth Holmes’ partner,” Haemanthus said on social media platform X. “Skepticism is rational. Elizabeth Holmes has zero involvement in Haemanthus.
“This is not Theranos 2.0.”
Haemanthus said would use a technology called Raman spectroscopy, using lasers and other light beams, and artificial intelligence, to analyze samples.
“We’re starting with veterinary medicine,” the company said on X. “It’s practical and meaningful. It validates our technology, helps animals who can’t describe symptoms, and builds the foundation for human applications.
Holmes, 37, has two children with Evans, a hotel heir with a bachelor’s degree in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Evans was a fixture at the federal courthouse in San Jose during Holmes’ four-month trial for felony fraud.
Holmes is serving a federal prison sentence for bilking investors in her now-defunct, Palo Alto-based Theranos out of hundreds of millions of dollars. Jurors in her trial heard she made false claims about the company’s blood-testing machines, which were touted to conduct a full range of tests using just a few drops of blood from a fingerprick, but in reality could perform only a handful.
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Haemanthus claimed its technology — using lasers and other light beams to analyze samples, according to a patent — follows a “different paradigm” from that of Holmes’ failed startup.
“Theranos attempted to miniaturize existing tests,” the company said. “Our approach is fundamentally different. We use light to read the complete molecular story in biological fluids, seeing patterns current tests can’t detect.”
The New York Times reported Saturday that it had seen investor-related materials from Haemanthus — incorporated in Delaware with offices in Austin — saying the startup had raised $3.5 million from family and friends, and that backers in the Bay Area and Texas had kicked in another $15 million. The startup intends to “scan blood, saliva or urine from pets and analyze the samples on a molecular level,” the paper reported.
Holmes will have no role at Haemanthus even in the future, the startup asserted, but said it has “learned from her company’s mistakes.”
The fallen Theranos founder said in a 2023 court filing that she “continues to work on ideas for patents.”
Evans, asked Monday what involvement, if any, Holmes has with Haemanthus or its technology, referred this news organization to the company’s X posts.