Elizabeth Holmes’s romantic partner – the father of her children – reportedly has raised millions of dollars to start up a new blood-testing company that is strikingly similar to the one that landed the Theranos founder in federal prison.
The fundraising comes as Billy Evans, an heir to a hotel fortune, is pitching his new company, Haemanthus, to potential investors, according to the New York Times. Evans’s pitch: a health-testing company that can make diagnoses from users’ blood, urine and saliva.
Haemanthus’ pitch and those made by the Holmes-helmed Theranos share a few significant similarities.
Holmes launched Theranos in 2003 after her health-testing tech startup received significant investment from high-profile multimillionaires. She claimed her company had developed technology to rapidly and accurately test small amounts of blood to provide diagnoses.
Meanwhile, in a January patent, Haemanthus indicated it can use its technology to test sweat, urine, saliva and small amounts of blood for diagnoses. The company led by Evans, who has two children with Holmes, was incorporated in February 2024 – and it has indicated that it was set to begin running tests for animals before conducting testing on humans.
Theranos’s claims about its technology helped its valuation balloon, reaching its $9bn peak in 2014. But bombshell investigations from the Wall Street Journal revealed that Theranos’s claims were largely false. The tests were illegitimate, providing false results.
The scandal peaked when the company was dissolved in 2018. Later that same year, Holmes and the company’s president were charged with fraud. Holmes was sentenced to 11 years prison in 2022 for defrauding investors.
Haemanthus’ marketing materials, reviewed by the New York Times, show that the company’s technology will use a laser to scan blood, saliva or urine from pets and “analyze the samples on a molecular level”. The technology then would require only a matter of seconds to detect illnesses, cancer or infections.
According to the Times’ report, the marketing materials say the Haemanthus’ long-term goals include developing a small, wearable version of the device for humans.
Several investors have already passed on the pitch, according to the Times report. But, while reportedly being advised by Holmes, Evans has been able to raise almost $20m from friends and other investors.
Evans met Holmes in 2017 amid the fraud investigation that resulted in her imprisonment. He reportedly lives in Texas with their children while Holmes is serving time in a federal prison about two hours away.
