A company that has long sold routine blood work and full-body scans to people who want to keep watch over their own bodies has raised $298 million, lifting its total to $350 million and its valuation to $2.5 billion. The money is meant to gather the scattered traces of a person's health, from lab results and scans to the steady pulse of wearable devices, and let an artificial mind read them together. Its founders argue that it would be strange to live in an age of capable machines and leave one's own body unexamined by them. Whether that promise of private, personal guidance can be kept as the
Function Health Raises $298M at $2.5B Valuation, Launches AI Model Trained by Doctors
Your data and your identity are never for sale.
Function is a lab testing company. Why is it suddenly building an AI model?
Its pitch is that people already have scattered health data, from records, blood tests and wearables, and can't connect it. The model is meant to tie it together and give personalized guidance.
What does a member actually get?
A chatbot that answers questions using their own data, including lab results, doctor's notes and scans. That's the description. How well it works hasn't been shown in this reporting.
The company says doctors trained the model. Does that settle quality?
It says doctors lead the effort. Dr. Dan Sodickson and Dr. Mark Hyman head the MI Lab team, and Swerdlin says doctors stay involved.
But that's the company's own statement. We don't know how the training works or how it was validated.
And privacy? Health data is sensitive.
Swerdlin says it meets HIPAA standards, encrypts everything and never sells data. Those are his assurances, not independently checked here.
What about the scale of the business?
Over 50 million lab tests since 2023, according to Function, and MRI scans at 130 locations heading for 200 by year's end.
Those figures are the company's too. The $298 million at a $2.5 billion valuation is the firmer number, since it's a financing round.
The Pulse
- A $298 million Series B at a $2.5 billion valuation has given Function Health the fuel to race into the crowded field of AI-driven health tracking.
- Medical data sits scattered across records, blood panels and wearables, and the company is pressing to stitch it into one usable picture for each member.
- Its new Medical Intelligence Lab and chatbot aim to answer personal health questions from a person's own labs, doctor's notes and scans, with doctors said to have trained the model.
- Privacy claims of HIPAA compliance and encryption now face their hardest test as the chatbot scales and MRI Function Scans push from 130 locations toward 200 by year's end.
A company that has long sold routine blood work and full-body scans to people who want to keep watch over their own bodies has raised $298 million, lifting its total to $350 million and its valuation to $2.5 billion. The money is meant to gather the scattered traces of a person's health, from lab results and scans to the steady pulse of wearable devices, and let an artificial mind read them together. Its founders argue that it would be strange to live in an age of capable machines and leave one's own body unexamined by them. Whether that promise of private, personal guidance can be kept as the network of machines and members grows is the question the coming year will answer.
Function Health, a company that sells regular lab testing to people who want to track their health, has raised $298 million in a Series B round at a $2.5 billion valuation, with Redpoint Ventures leading. The money is meant to fund a larger ambition: gathering the health information people already produce and joining it to an AI model that can make sense of it.
The problem it points to is an old one. Electronic health records, blood tests and wearable data pile up, and many people struggle to connect them in ways that genuinely help. Function wants to consolidate that information and make it usable for its members. The round drew a varied group of backers, including a16z, Battery Ventures and NFDG, along with Roku founder Anthony Wood and several NBA athletes. Total capital raised now stands at $350 million.
Alongside the funding came Medical Intelligence Lab, an effort to build a generative AI model that offers personalized insights from a user's data and research. Members can use a chatbot that answers questions from their own lab results, doctor's notes and scans. CEO Jonathan Swerdlin says it is no longer acceptable to have powerful AI and not apply it to health, and that people should be able to manage their own biology.
Swerdlin also insists the platform meets HIPAA standards, encrypts user data fully and never sells personal information. Development is led by chief medical scientist Dr. Dan Sodickson and co-founder Dr. Mark Hyman, who he says remain involved in training the model.
The company faces competitors such as Superpower, Neko Health and InsideTracker, and it argues its device-agnostic approach and combination of testing, diagnostics and clinical insight set it apart. Its physical reach is already significant: Function Scans operate at 130 locations and are expected to hit 200 by the end of 2025, and members can get lab work at 2,000 Quest locations. The real test ahead is whether the privacy commitments hold as the chatbot and the MRI network expand.
Function Health, a company that sells regular lab testing to people who want to track their health, has raised $298 million in a Series B round at a valuation of $2.5 billion. Redpoint Ventures led the round. The money is meant to fund a larger project: pulling together the health information people already generate and connecting it to an AI model.
The problem the company points to is familiar. Electronic health records, blood tests and the steady stream of data from wearable devices keep piling up, and many people struggle to link those pieces in a way that actually helps them improve their health. Function wants to consolidate that data and make it usable for its customers.
The round drew a broad list of backers: a16z, Aglaé Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Battery Ventures, and NFDG, the investment firm of Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross. Roku founder Anthony Wood took part, as did NBA athletes Allen Crabbe, Blake Griffin and Taylor Griffin. With this round, Function's total capital raised stands at $350 million.
Alongside the funding, the company unveiled Medical Intelligence Lab, an effort to build what it calls a medical intelligence generative AI model. The aim is personalized health insights drawn from a user's data, content and research. Function says the model is trained by doctors. For customers, it is offering an AI chatbot that answers questions based on their own health data and can draw on previous lab results, doctor's notes and scans to give tailored guidance.
Jonathan Swerdlin, Function's CEO and co-founder, framed the push in broad terms when he spoke to TechCrunch. It is not good enough, he said, to live in a world where AI exists and not apply it to your health. People, in his words, should be able to manage their biology, and the company's objective is to apply the best available technology to human health.
Swerdlin also addressed privacy. He said the platform meets HIPAA standards, fully encrypts user data and never sells personal information. Data and identity, he said, are never for sale. Leading development of MI Lab and its team of doctors, researchers and engineers are chief medical scientist Dr. Dan Sodickson and co-founder and chief medical officer Dr. Mark Hyman. Swerdlin said the doctors trained the model and remain involved in the process.
The field is crowded. Swerdlin named Superpower, Neko Health and InsideTracker as competitors, and said Function differs through a device-agnostic approach. He added that the platform combines lab testing, diagnostics and clinical insights, which he said makes it more than a typical AI coach or wellness app.
The company's physical footprint is already sizable. Function Scans, its advanced MRI service for early detection, operates at 130 locations and is expected to reach 200 by the end of 2025. Members can get lab tests done at 2,000 Quest locations, according to Swerdlin, and Function says it has completed more than 50 million lab tests since 2023.
What to watch next is how the privacy and HIPAA commitments hold up as the chatbot reaches more members and the MRI network grows toward its 200-location target by the end of the year.
Notable Quotes
It is not good enough to be in a world where AI exists and not be applying it to your health.— Jonathan Swerdlin, CEO and co-founder of Function Health
The platform meets HIPAA standards, fully encrypts user data, and never sells personal information.— Jonathan Swerdlin, paraphrased