In a twist that feels straight out of Silicon Valley déjà vu, Billy Evans—the husband of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes—is leading a new health tech startup called Haemanthus.
The company, still operating in stealth mode, is raising both capital and concerns, drawing immediate comparisons to the now-infamous Theranos scandal.
Despite being under the radar, Haemanthus has reportedly raised over $18 million from investors, with plans to secure more. The startup promises a “radically new approach” to health diagnostics by combining Raman spectroscopy—a light-based molecular detection technique—with artificial intelligence. The idea is to analyze tiny samples of blood, sweat, or urine for early signs of disease.
Echoes of Theranos—With a Twist?
Haemanthus markets itself as “the future of diagnostics,” a tagline that’s hard to ignore given the Theranos fallout. Adding to the comparisons, early prototypes of the company’s device are said to resemble Theranos’ defunct Edison machine. But the team is eager to draw a line in the sand.
“This is not Theranos 2.0,” Haemanthus recently posted on social platform X. The company says it’s not trying to shrink down existing lab tests into a box, as Theranos did, but is instead building a fundamentally different diagnostic system from the ground up.
The name “Haemanthus”—a flower also known as the blood lily—is a symbolic nod to the company’s mission. Still, the startup’s low profile, lack of public contact information, and closed-door communication style have raised red flags among industry watchers.
The Holmes Connection
Though Holmes is currently serving an 11-year sentence in a Texas prison for defrauding investors, she’s reportedly still involved behind the scenes, informally advising Evans as he builds the company. While she’s banned from leading any public company for a decade, there’s no law preventing her from contributing to a private one.
That involvement is enough to make many in the biotech world uneasy. Tyler Shultz, a former Theranos employee and whistleblower, recently wrote, “She seems to be trying again,” in a cautionary op-ed.
Innovation or Illusion?
Haemanthus says it’s focused on “human health optimization” and even plans to test its tech on pets before moving to human diagnostics. The use of Raman spectroscopy and AI is scientifically legitimate and intriguing, but experts are urging caution.
“There’s a reason people are skeptical,” said Dr. Geoffrey Baird, chair of laboratory medicine at the University of Washington. “I wish there were a way to short a stock before a company even exists.”
Why it’s intriguing:
- Innovation potential: Haemanthus leverages Raman spectroscopy and AI, which are legitimate and promising diagnostic technologies.
- New approach: Unlike Theranos, which miniaturized existing tests, Haemanthus claims to be building a fundamentally different system.
Why it’s concerning:
- Theranos’ legacy: The connection to Holmes, who is currently serving time for fraud, casts a long shadow. Public trust is fragile.
- Secrecy: The company’s stealth mode and lack of transparency echo early Theranos tactics, raising red flags.
- Investor risk: With $18 million already raised, there’s concern about whether due diligence is being properly conducted.
This could be a genuine attempt at innovation—or a repeat of history. The key difference will lie in transparency, scientific validation, and regulatory oversight.
Public Reactions: A Mix of Curiosity and Cynicism
On social media, reactions have ranged from astonishment to outright mockery: “Have we learned nothing?”.
Memes comparing Haemanthus to Theranos have gone viral, with many wondering how a project with such a close connection to Holmes could attract serious investment again.
Still, investors appear intrigued—perhaps too intrigued. With $18 million already in the bank, critics are asking whether enough due diligence is being done to avoid a repeat of past mistakes.
Haemanthus, for its part, seems aware of the uphill battle it faces. In a recent post, the company acknowledged: “Yes, our CEO, Billy Evans, is Elizabeth Holmes’ partner. Skepticism is rational. We must clear a higher bar.”
They insist Holmes has “zero involvement” and that their approach is “fundamentally different” from Theranos.
*The Rise and Fall of Theranos
Theranos was founded in 2003 by Elizabeth Holmes, who dropped out of Stanford University at age 19 with the ambitious goal of revolutionizing healthcare by making blood testing faster, cheaper, and less invasive. The company claimed it could perform hundreds of diagnostic tests using just a few drops of blood from a finger prick, using its proprietary device known as the Edison.
Backed by influential investors and board members—including former Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger and George Shultz—Theranos reached a peak valuation of $9 billion, and Holmes was widely hailed as a visionary, even drawing comparisons to Steve Jobs for her black turtlenecks and branding style.
But in 2015, a series of investigative reports by John Carreyrou of The Wall Street Journal revealed that Theranos’ technology didn’t work as claimed. In reality, many of the tests were being performed using commercially available machines, not the Edison device, and often yielded inaccurate or unreliable results.
The exposé triggered investigations by federal regulators, including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the SEC, and the Department of Justice. In 2016, Theranos was banned from operating a blood-testing lab, and the company quickly began to unravel.
In 2018, Holmes and former Theranos president and COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani were charged with multiple counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. That same year, Theranos was officially dissolved.
In January 2022, after a lengthy trial, Holmes was found guilty on four counts of fraud and conspiracy related to defrauding investors. She was sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in federal prison and began serving her sentence in May 2023 at a minimum-security facility in Texas.
