Teal Health has closed a $22 million Series A, and the money is aimed at a group the clinic-first system tends to lose: women overdue for cervical cancer screening. Total funding for the San Francisco company now stands at $45 million.
The returning backers were Emerson Collective, Forerunner, Labcorp and Serena Ventures; MPower Partners is new to the table; and .406 Ventures led the round.
Kara Egan, Teal’s chief executive, started the company in 2020 with Dr Avnesh Thakor. The hardware is the Teal Wand, a self-collection device authorized by the FDA that lets a woman take her own HPV sample at home. A telehealth appointment, secure delivery of the result and follow-up care come with it. According to Teal, 59% of the women who pick the home route are underscreened, the population clinics struggle most to draw in. Egan’s case is that the current default asks too much: an appointment to book, time out of the day, and a test many women find uncomfortable.
Back in 2025 Teal banked $10 million, a round that came after the FDA granted it a Breakthrough Device Designation and after a $1.68 million grant from the National Cancer Institute. January 2027 is the date Teal is working toward: broad coverage from insurers for self-collected cervical screening, which would move at-home testing out of the niche and into routine preventive care.
Health systems, employers, payers and brands are the partnership targets Teal wants to widen, along with a bigger direct-purchasing channel. The company sits inside a wider move by diagnostics startups to pull screening out of hospitals.
