Giulia KennedyPhD
PinkDxChapter 13 · Strand A · Founder

PinkDx

Co-founded with Bonnie Anderson, PinkDx launched on April 25, 2024 with a $40 million Series A, upsized to $45 million in 2025, to build less invasive diagnostics for gynecologic cancers from Daly City, California.

APR 2024 – PRESENTCO-FOUNDER AND CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICERPINKDX, INC. · DALY CITY, CALIFORNIA

Overview

PinkDx reunited Kennedy with Bonnie Anderson, the Veracyte co-founder who had hired her in 2008. Secondary sources date the company’s founding to 2022, with Tim McMeekan as third co-founder.12 It launched publicly on April 25, 2024 with $40 million in Series A financing, co-led by Catalio Capital Management and The Production Board, with Mountain Group Partners, Byers Capital and Mayo Clinic also investing.34 The company is based in Daly City, California.3

The role

Kennedy is co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer.5 The company describes her as a molecular biologist and diagnostics innovator with deep expertise in genomics, bioinformatics and translational research, who at Veracyte “developed and validated genomic classifiers that enabled less invasive diagnostic pathways”.6 At PinkDx she leads scientific strategy and translational research, applying whole-transcriptome sequencing and machine learning to gynecologic cancer.

The company’s stated purpose at launch was to identify unmet medical needs unique to women and address them with scientific rigour, starting with gynecological cancers.3 By 2026 it described itself as transforming the diagnostic journey in gynecologic cancer, beginning with endometrial cancer.6

Financing

On January 23, 2025 PinkDx announced a second close of the Series A, adding $5 million from Blue Venture Fund, Sandbox Clinical Ventures and BEVC and bringing the round to $45 million.78

The science of the first product, a vaginal swab test for endometrial cancer, is told in the next chapter.

From the record

Facts

  • Giulia Kennedy is co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of PinkDx, Inc.53
  • PinkDx was founded in 2022 by Bonnie Anderson, Giulia Kennedy and Tim McMeekan.12
  • PinkDx launched publicly on April 25, 2024 with $40 million in Series A financing co-led by Catalio Capital Management and The Production Board, with Mountain Group Partners, Byers Capital and Mayo Clinic also investing.34
  • On January 23, 2025 the company announced a second close adding $5 million from Blue Venture Fund, Sandbox Clinical Ventures and BEVC, bringing the Series A to $45 million.78
  • PinkDx is based in Daly City, California.3
  • At PinkDx she leads scientific strategy and translational research applying whole-transcriptome sequencing and machine learning to gynecologic cancer.56

Contributions

  • Co-founded a women's health diagnostics company whose first programme, a vaginal swab test for endometrial cancer, reached peer-reviewed publication in 2026.6

Research

  • Gynecologic cancer detection

    2022 – PRESENT

    At PinkDx, co-founded with Bonnie Anderson and launched publicly on April 25, 2024 with a $40 million Series A, Kennedy leads scientific strategy and translational research applying whole-transcriptome sequencing and machine learning to gynecologic cancer, starting with endometrial cancer. The exploratory PNK001 study enrolled 236 women undergoing hysterectomy in 2024 and showed that molecular signals of endometrial cancer can be detected from a vaginal swab (International Journal of Gynecological Cancer, April 2026); the PROACTION study (NCT06527157) is validating the test across 16 U.S. sites.

  • Machine learning for clinical diagnostics

    DEC 2010 – PRESENT

    The method that links every classifier Kennedy has helped build since 2010: training algorithms on high-dimensional genomic data from clinical samples and validating them against histopathology. She presented on Veracyte's use of machine learning to translate genomic data into commercial diagnostic tests at the Precision Medicine World Conference in January 2018, and described the Afirma GSC's ensemble machine learning algorithms as deriving "from years of thoughtful scientific research, data analysis and statistical modeling". The same approach underlies the Envisia and Percepta classifiers and PinkDx's whole-transcriptome vaginal swab test.

Technologies
  • PinkDx vaginal swab classifier for endometrial cancer
  • Whole-transcriptome RNA sequencing
  • Ensemble machine learning classifiers

Publications

Achievements

  1. 25 APR 2024funding

    PinkDx $40 million Series A

    PinkDx launched with $40 million in Series A financing co-led by Catalio Capital Management and The Production Board, with Mountain Group Partners, Byers Capital and Mayo Clinic also investing.34

  2. 23 JAN 2025funding

    PinkDx Series A upsized to $45 million

    PinkDx announced a second close of its Series A, adding $5 million from Blue Venture Fund, Sandbox Clinical Ventures and BEVC and bringing the round to $45 million.78

Impact

  • PINKDX $40 MILLION SERIES A

    The financing that took the company Kennedy co-founded public.

Impact across the career