Color

Color, legally Color Health, Inc. and founded as Color Genomics, is an American healthcare company that now focuses on cancer care delivery. It was co-founded in 2015 in Burlingame, California by Othman Laraki, who serves as CEO, Elad Gil, Nish Bhat and Taylor Sittler. Its first product was a low-cost hereditary cancer genetic test covering BRCA1, BRCA2 and other cancer-risk genes, ordered through a physician. In 2020 it redirected its lab and logistics operations to COVID-19 testing for programs such as San Francisco's CityTestSF, and in 2023 it refocused on its Virtual Cancer Clinic, sold as a benefit to employers, unions, health plans and public-sector buyers.

General Catalyst has backed the company since 2015, and Color received an initial $15 million in funding that year. In September 2016 it raised $45 million in a round led by General Catalyst, bringing total funding to $60 million, with Hemant Taneja of General Catalyst and BlackRock co-founder Susan Wagner joining the board. A Series C followed in August 2017; an amended Form D filed in November 2017 reported $89.4 million sold of a $101.6 million equity offering. A Form D filed in January 2021 reported a $167.2 million offering with a first sale in December 2020 and $127.2 million sold at filing. In November 2021 Color raised $100 million in a Series E led by General Catalyst at a reported $4.6 billion valuation; a Form D for that round listed a first sale on 26 October 2021. Other investors named in reference material include Khosla Ventures, Emerson Collective, CRV and Initialized Capital.

Color remains private, with no IPO or acquisition announced. The company runs a CLIA-certified, CAP-accredited laboratory and since 2018 has been a genome center for the NIH All of Us Research Program, where it is also the program's sole genetic counseling provider. Its cancer programs partner with the American Cancer Society, Memorial Sloan Kettering's MSK Direct, Carrum Health and Collective Health, and it has worked with UCSF and OpenAI on an AI tool for guideline-based cancer workups.

For venture investors, Color shows a company repositioning several times on one lab and logistics base: consumer-priced genetics, then pandemic testing, then employer-paid cancer care. Its seed-stage lead, General Catalyst, stayed in through the Series E, and the 2021 valuation was set at the peak of pandemic testing revenue. Holders have not yet had a liquidity event after more than a decade.