Abasi Ene-Obong Breaks Silence On 54gene; Hints At Sabotage & False Allegations In Exit

For the first time since stepping down as CEO of 54gene, Dr. Abasi Ene-Obong has opened up about the circumstances surrounding his departure and the company’s eventual collapse.

In a Medium post published on Thursday, Ene-Obong detailed his ordeal, drawing parallels between his experience and a broader pattern of sabotage against transformational African ventures. While 54gene’s fall was widely attributed to financial mismanagement and operational struggles, Ene-Obong has now hinted at more insidious forces at play, including sabotage and false misconduct allegations.

“When someone rises to do something that hasn’t been done before, that empowers the African people, various interests sabotage or try to sabotage them,” Ene-Obong wrote in the post. He reflected on how powerful African initiatives are often targeted by internal and external actors, referencing not only his own experience but also recent examples like Aliko Dangote’s refinery and historical cases like Michael Aondoakaa’s legal battle against a pharmaceutical company in the late 1990s.

54gene, founded by Ene-Obong in 2019, was a groundbreaking project aimed at addressing the severe underrepresentation of African genetic material in global pharmaceutical research. The Y Combinator-backed company quickly gained attention for its audacious mission and secured USD 45 M in funding from investors like Adjuvant Capital and Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund.

Its core asset, a biobank containing over 130,000 unique African patient samples, was set to revolutionise precision medicine and drug development in the region. However, by 2022, cracks began to appear in the company’s financial and operational structure.

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The company’s financial struggles were complicated by its ambitious business model. Genomics is a capital-intensive field, with significant costs related to sequencing equipment and cloud storage of genetic data. According to sources familiar with the industry, these costs can pile up quickly, and without a consistent revenue stream—especially as demand for COVID testing declined—54gene found itself in a precarious financial position.

Ene-Obong’s exit in October 2022, following the layoff of 95 employees and significant revenue losses from the decline in COVID-19 testing, raised questions. At the time, media outlets such as TechCrunch reported that his resignation was linked to “allegations of financial misappropriation.”

In his blog post, however, Ene-Obong fiercely rejected this narrative, revealing that the rumours were not only untrue but part of a broader strategy to undermine him. “When I decided to resign to have a chance at starting again… I read that I resigned ‘amidst allegations of financial misappropriation,’” he wrote. “This couldn’t be further from the truth, but again, it is the game people play.”

TechCrunch later retracted the statement and apologized for the error, but by then, the damage had already been done. The allegations, whether baseless or not, had spread quickly across the media, damaging both Ene-Obong’s reputation and the public’s perception of 54gene.

“Till today, I have not been accused by my former organisation of financial misappropriation. I received a full separation (a clean break, as it’s called) when I asked to be fully separated from the company and the board,” he revealed.

“I doubt this would have been possible or that I could have started a competing company without legal reprisal if everything written was true. Was there an attempt to find damaging information on me like they did Michael? Yes. A forensic accounting audit was conducted. But nothing unethical was found,” Ene-Obong emphasised.

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In his post, he disclosed how his financial integrity was central to his role at the company, citing instances where he took personal pay cuts to support his team.

“I ensured I was never the highest-paid person in the company,” he wrote, revealing that at one point, eight employees were earning more than him. He also wrote that he sacrificed his salary for months to cover bonuses for staff which the board had moved to withdraw, a decision he says was never made public until now.

“When I started my first startup[54gene], on its own a transformational idea, an investor I would later have the privilege of calling “friend” said something that has proven to have foresight,” Ene-Obong wrote. “He said, “Abasi, you are not building a typical startup,” “What you’re building is powerful,” and “It’s not if they come for you; it’s when they come for you, they will do so in one of two ways.” He said one way was financial; the other way, I will let you figure it out, but most of your guesses will probably be right … So, from the beginning of that company, I walked a very fine line, never doing anything unethical financially or otherwise.”

But according to Ene-Obong, the real blow to 54gene came not from financial mismanagement, but from internal conflict and manipulation. He alluded to a board decision that led to his resignation, describing it as akin to having a “figurative gun being pointed at [his] family (the company).”

Faced with mounting pressure, Ene-Obong revealed he felt forced to sign documents he didn’t agree with to protect the company he had built. He described leaving the company under a cloud of controversy, with various actors pushing misleading narratives about the company’s failures.

Although he refrained from providing further details, his comments suggest that the downfall of 54gene was not solely due to poor business decisions but may have been influenced by interpersonal conflicts at the highest levels of leadership.

“When companies fail, no matter how altruistic their purpose, disagreements arise,” said Ron Chiarello, who briefly took over as CEO after Ene-Obong’s exit.

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The decline of 54gene followed a well-known trajectory. In addition to layoffs and revenue declines, the company’s valuation was slashed by more than USD 100 M in 2022.

The closure of 54gene officially began in 2023, as the company struggled to stay afloat amidst financial distress and leadership instability. Chiarello, who left the company by September 2023, confirmed to TechCabal that 54gene was unable to continue operating financially. What followed were reports of unpaid creditors and a lawsuit filed by Teresia Bost, the company’s former general counsel and interim CEO, accusing 54gene of fostering a hostile work environment and discrimination.

Bost’s legal claims went beyond personal grievances. Her lawsuit alleged questionable financial decisions by former executives, which, she claimed, left the company near insolvency. According to Law360, Bost’s salary had been slashed from USD 330 K to USD 175 K, in breach of her contract, and she claimed she had been warned that the company could be insolvent by September 2022.

By the time the company entered liquidation in July 2023, it was clear that the vision of transforming African healthcare through genomics was slipping away. Yet, Ene-Obong’s Medium post paints a picture of a leader who, despite facing false accusations, remained committed to ethical leadership. “For me, it was never about the money,” he wrote.

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Looking back on the challenges he faced with 54gene, Ene-Obong acknowledged that “transformational projects get sabotaged,” and that false financial accusations are a common tactic used to derail African innovators. He hinted that 54gene’s downfall was accelerated by forces beyond financial pressures—forces that he suggests may have been deliberate attempts to undermine the project.

Ene-Obong’s reflections on 54gene come as he embarks on a new venture: Syndicate Bio, which he launched late last year. The company aims to drive precision medicine across diverse regions, starting with Africa. He is joined by Jumi Popoola as Chief Scientific Officer and Estelle Dogbo as Chief Operating Officer, both seasoned professionals in genomics and precision medicine.

Syndicate Bio aims to leverage collaborations with governments, pharmaceutical companies, and academia to create impactful local precision medicine initiatives. “We have started Syndicate Bio to empower inclusive advancements in global genomics science,” he announced in September 2023. For now, the details of how Syndicate Bio will differentiate itself from its predecessor remain sparse, but Ene-Obong has hinted at some forthcoming developments in the months ahead.

It’s clear that Ene-Obong is eager to move beyond the shadow of 54gene’s collapse, but the legal and financial issues surrounding the company continue to linger. As creditors seek restitution and former employees grapple with the company’s turbulent final months, the future of 54gene’s once-promising biobank—and Ene-Obong’s legacy in African genomics—remains uncertain. Nonetheless, his new venture signals that his ambition to transform genomics research in Africa is far from over.