Function Lands Another $450M, CEO Says More Acquisitions Are Possible

The Austin, Texas-based Function, valued at $2.5 billion last fall, has emerged as the leader in the crowded direct-to-consumer health testing vertical

Function has a number for how long you could live — 100 years — and General Catalyst just put $450 million behind the ambition.

The growth financing, announced Wednesday, comes from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund and will speed the longevity company’s push to reach millions more people with its lab testing and imaging platform.

The Austin, Texas-based Function, valued at $2.5 billion in an oversubscribed Series B last fall, has grown to more than 500,000 members since its 2023 launch and logged over 100 million lab tests. 

Membership costs $365 a year and delivers more than 160 lab tests. Function dropped its price from $499 last November, a move toward accessibility.

The $1-a-day price point is also finding its way into unexpected places. Earlier this month, fintech company Robinhood named Function a member perk of its new invite-only Platinum Card, giving eligible cardholders a complimentary annual membership.

Beyond labs, members can add a full-body MRI, a 22-minute scan built to catch cancers, silent strokes and aneurysms early. Function picked up that capability when it acquired AI imaging startup Ezra last year.

“Our mission is simple: enable you to live 100 healthy years,” Function co-founder and CEO Jonathan Swerdlin said in a statement announcing the new financing. “Everyone deserves to feel their best and avoid suffering.”

He has long pointed to a fragmented system as the problem the longevity platform is built to solve.

“Appointments, scattered records, figure out what to take,” Swerdlin told Athletech News. “It’s not personalized, and it’s not easy. Function is removing friction across the health stack.”

This year alone, Function acquired Getlabs, a mobile healthcare company that sends licensed phlebotomists to members at home or the office, and SuppCo, an independent supplement testing platform that has spent the past year as a watchdog.

Swerdlin called the two platforms “incredible.”

“It took years of brilliant teams building them to get to where they are today,” he said. “Replicating their efforts would have been near impossible, and they are core parts of the health operating system.”

He left the door open to more deals, with conditions.

“Future deals make sense if it is better to acquire than to build, and it is necessary for our mission of making 100 healthy years possible for 8 billion people,” he said.

Function, which was co-founded by popular functional-medicine physician Dr. Mark Hyman, is scaling in a crowded field, and the consumer biomarker testing rush is on. Bryan Johnson’s Blueprint launched its own testing platform this year at $365 a year, the exact figure Function charges, with Johnson pledging he makes nothing on the blood work. 

Hims & Hers, Superpower (which Function sued in January, alleging its marketing misrepresented what its membership includes) and Hone Health have all rolled out testing platforms, and wearable makers Oura and Whoop have tied blood work to their devices. The at-home draw has become its own battleground, with Rhythm Health selling a $79 monthly test backed by athletes like Odell Beckham Jr.

Swerdlin acknowledges that Function has competitors, but says the company considers other “ethical companies” in the category to be peers on the same mission.

“Human health will need many to solve its issues and advance the frontier,” he said. “Long live humans.”

With Function stacking pieces of a health ecosystem, a wearable might seem like the obvious next move, considering their popularity with younger consumers. Meanwhile, tech giant Garmin just posted record fitness revenue, up 25% year over year and rolled out a $199.99 screenless band to compete with Whoop.

But a wearable isn’t in the cards for Function, Swerdlin said, though he noted the longevity platform has “great relationships” with companies that have built wearables.

“This financing reflects our belief that Function is one of the defining companies of our generation,” said Pranav Singhvi, partner and co-head of CVF, General Catalyst. “Function has created an entirely new approach to health that we have never had before. We believe Function is uniquely positioned to reach millions more people, and we’re proud to support the next phase of its growth.”