The Berkeley startup that decided the most valuable DNA test is the one you already took. Upload the raw file, keep discovering.
A wordmark in teal, magenta and violet — the visual grammar of a chromosome painting, printed on the plainest thing in genomics: a file you upload.
Here is a fact that sounds like a business-school prank but is actually the entire premise of a company: you probably paid a lab to read your DNA, glanced at the ancestry pie chart, and then let the raw data file sit in a folder forever. Genomelink's whole plan is to open that folder.
The genomics industry has a curious accounting problem. A company like 23andMe or AncestryDNA sells you a spit kit, sequences a slice of your genome, hands you a tidy report, and considers the transaction complete. But the file it generates - a plain text list of genetic variants - contains far more information than any single report ever surfaces. In 2016, three people who worked in genomics in Japan looked at that leftover value and, instead of shrugging, started building on weekends.
Those three - Tomohiro Takano, Kensuke Numakura and Yuta Matsuda - eventually incorporated as AWAKENS, Inc. and gave their product a name that describes exactly what it does: Genomelink, a link between you and your genome. The pitch is almost aggressively simple. Upload the raw DNA data you already exported from 23andMe, AncestryDNA or MyHeritage. Genomelink reads the parts your original test skipped. You buy no new kit. You spit into no new tube.
What makes this interesting, rather than merely convenient, is the framing. Takano does not describe Genomelink as a test. He describes it as a “DNA App Store” - infrastructure on which many different insights, products and research projects can run against one uploaded file. It is a platform bet dressed in a consumer coat, and it explains why the company keeps adding reports instead of declaring the job finished.
The catalog now runs past 400 trait reports, spanning nutrition, personality, intelligence, sports and physical traits, with new ones added weekly. Users unlock a first batch free, which is a clever way to make the product feel less like a purchase and more like a subscription to your own biology. The genome, conveniently, does not change. The reports read against it do.
Then there is ancestry, which is where Genomelink quietly out-measures its own suppliers. Its deep ancestry report claims coverage of more than 130 ethnicities and 1,800-plus community breakdowns, built with a proprietary reference set and an algorithm called XGMix that resolves ancestry at the chromosome level. For comparison, the company points out that AncestryDNA reports around 107 regions and 23andMe around 44. You can, in other words, upload an Ancestry file to Genomelink and get a more granular ancestry answer than Ancestry gave you. That is either a compliment or a provocation, depending on who is reading.
The company also leans into the deep past. Its Ancient Ancestry report places a modern genome in historical context using ancient DNA and population genetics - Neanderthal ancestry, ancient bloodlines, the migratory story written into your chromosomes. It is the kind of feature that is scientifically real and emotionally irresistible, which is a rare and useful combination.
“We want to build a DNA App Store where billions of people will have access to their DNA data.”
— Tomohiro Takano, CEO & Co-FounderUpload a raw file and unlock 400+ reports across wellness, nutrition, personality, intelligence, sports and physical traits. New bonus traits drop weekly, so the file keeps giving.
Chromosome-level analysis across 130+ ethnicities and 1,800+ communities via the XGMix algorithm - finding origins your first test never printed.
Neanderthal ancestry, ancient bloodlines and population-genetic history that place your genome inside the broader stream of human migration.
An AI-powered genealogy tool that searches databases and GEDCOM files with global map visualizations to chase ancestors past the dead ends in a family tree.
A clinical test built to catch type 1 diabetes that has been misdiagnosed as type 2 - consumer curiosity funding real medical utility.
ISO 27001 certified, with a stated policy of not selling or sharing DNA data without clear consent. The most personal file you own stays yours.
A founder arrived in the Bay Area with no visa, no funding and no traction. He was packing to fly home to Japan when Berkeley SkyDeck accepted the team - the moment that changed everything.
Science advisory led by Carlos Bustamante, Ph.D. (Stanford) · team of ~15 across the Bay Area and remote.
Genomelink begins as a weekend project among three genomics specialists working in Japan.
The team relocates to the Bay Area, joins Berkeley SkyDeck, and gains support from Illumina Accelerator and the Carlos Bustamante Lab at Stanford.
Closes a ~$4M seed round with Berkeley SkyDeck, SONY and top-tier Japanese VCs.
Trait library passes 400 reports; deep ancestry expands past 130 ethnicities and 1,800+ communities.
Expands beyond consumer reports into AI genealogy (YourRoots) and clinical screening (T1D Scout).
“A little ego might be exactly what founders need to think beyond borders.”
— Tomohiro Takano, on building a U.S. startup as an international founder