News & Updates

BioCertica Selected for MORE HEALTH for Africa (MHfA) Program 2025

BioCertica Wins Recognition at Africa’s Most Promising SMEs Awards

BioCertica Clinches $2.2 Million in Over-Subscribed Seed Round

This over-subscribed round, led by Pronexus and boosted by an I3 Innovation Grant funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, propels BioCertica into new markets and solidifies its partnership with one of the world's leading genetic sequencing companies, Thermo Fisher.

BioCertica's Triumph: Spotlight on South African Health Tech Excellence in the i3 Program with the Gates Foundation Endorsement 🌍✨

BioCertica, backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, stands as one of only four South African health startups chosen for the esteemed i3 program. Discover our commitment to pioneering global health tech innovations!

BioCertica releases new DNA Metabolic Health package

Release of the DNA Mindfulness package

We at BioCertica would love to help you have a better life for yourself in all aspects. To help us help you, we have created a package with a compilation of traits to help you become more self-aware. This package will give you insight into your in-born personality and behavioral attributes.

BioCertica 15 most promising Health Tech startups in Africa

TAILORBLEND & BioCertica: Taylon Bieldt’s Story

BioCertica Traits Update: February 2023

We’re excited to announce the release of 24 additional traits and updates to our Fitness, Nutrition and Well-being, Weight Management, and Skin Care DNA kits.

BIOCERTICA PARTNERS WITH TAILORBLEND

The BioCertica - TAILORBLEND integration provides individuals with their own premium personalised supplement, formulated based on their BioCertica DNA test results. It typically includes a wide variety of active ingredients, including all the essential vitamins, amino-acid chelated minerals, and premium functional ingredients. This all-in-one blend is delivered to your door, prepared with cold water, and enjoyed as a fruity beverage.

BioCertica Product Release: Pharmacogenetics Test

BioCertica introduces a pharmacogenetics test that tests for up to 2000 different genetic variants that are involved in gene-drug interactions. Genetic variants are useful in pharmacogenetics because some genetic variations that code for drug-metabolizing enzymes can influence how the drug is absorbed distributed, and removed from the body. This is the main contributing factor to why an individual's response to drugs may differ from another. Studies have linked specific genetic variants to a potential outcome in drug response.

Pioneers Magazine Edition 5

Celebrating innovation, thought leadership and the trailblazers in the local health tech industry, this edition has a special focus on the work that was done in the fight against COVID – highlighting how the Cape continues to punch well above its weight in pioneering health tech innovation to solve global problems.

BioCertica October 2022 Release: Updates and Improvements

At BioCertica we aim to improve our products continuously. In addition to releasing new products, we are committed to ensuring that our current products reflect the most recent research. This month, we would like to announce the latest product updates related to changes in content and titles of 8 products (or traits), personalised meal plan improvements, and most excitingly our updated mobile-app look and feel.

Update of SNPs and gene names list

Each of our 75 BioCertica traits has a corresponding list of genes and SNPs found within them, derived either from the GWAS or PGS catalog. To provide the best user experience, we decided to unify and standardize SNP- to-gene-mapping procedure and use only the ENSEMBL database as the basis for SNP mapping.

Product Update - October 2022

Today, we would like to announce the latest product updates related to changes in content and titles of 8 products. These updates stem from the need to fully match the product titles and related content to the traits and phenotypes measured during the genome-wide association studies (GWAS) based on which our products are developed.

International Venture Academy – BioCertica Announced Top Startup

The top 2 startups of the International Venture Academy 2022 were BioCertica and TEZTED. The programme included an intensive four-day Bootcamp live in Jyväskylä, Finland. Members of EBAN attended the academy to help with go-to-market and more.

Billed as the first African-based direct-to-consumer genetics company to introduce polygenic risk scoring (PRS) to generate DNA test results

Gert van Wyk, founder and CEO of BioCertica, tells Ventureburn that this technological advancement will enable healthcare practitioners to gain deeper insights into their patients’ genetics, ultimately advancing preventative care and precision medicine.

South African Startup BioCertica Adds Polygenic Risk Scores to Consumer DNA Tests, Plans to Expand

South African genetic testing startup BioCertica is in the process of expanding while going through a seed funding round, and has recently launched direct-to-consumer (DTC) polygenic risk score (PRS)-based DNA tests.

BioCertica - The First in Africa

BioCertica is the first African-based Direct-to-Consumer genetics company to introduce cutting-edge Polygenic Risk Scoring (PRS) methodology to generate DNA test results.

Modern Wellness - Autumn Edition 2022 - It's all in the genes!

See our feature on DNA testing in the Autumn 2022 issue of Modern Wellness. Our Chief Scientific Officer, Edin Hamzic explains the power of DNA testing, and how BioCertica delivers your results.

Ancestry dataset update - More populations

We have expanded our ancestry dataset, which means we now have more information about populations across all of Africa and Europe, South America, and Asia.