Theranos, a blood-testing startup once valued at 9 billion dollars on claims its technology could run hundreds of tests from a single finger-prick of blood, collapsed after investigative reporting and regulatory inspections revealed the technology did not work as claimed and the company had used conventional lab equipment while misleading investors, regulators and patients. Founder Elizabeth Holmes was convicted of investor fraud in 2022 and sentenced to more than 11 years in prison, and the company dissolved in September 2018, becoming one of the most prominent Silicon Valley fraud cases. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Event TypeCorporate fraud scandal 1 Connections
Associated With
The Theranos collapse, after its blood-testing technology was found not to work as claimed and its founder was convicted of fraud, is a canonical entrepreneurship case study in venture overclaiming and investor due diligence failure.
Source Wikipedia, Theranos
Companies Involved
Source Wikipedia, Theranos
Sources
1. Wikipedia, Theranos
WikipediaLead section, turning point paragraph
A turning point came in 2015, when medical research professor John Ioannidis, and later professor of clinical biochemistry Eleftherios Diamandis, along with investigative journalist John Carreyrou of The Wall Street Journal, questioned the validity of Theranos' technology.
- Associated With: Entrepreneurship
Companies Involved: Theranos, Lead section, closing paragraph
Theranos, Holmes and former company president Sunny Balwani were charged with fraud by the SEC in 2018.
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