fda-authorized
(3)
Teal Health
Teal Health is a San Francisco women's health company behind the Teal Wand, the first and only FDA-authorized at-home self-collection device for cervical cancer screening. Founded by Stanford physician-researcher Dr. Avnesh Thakor and CEO Kara Egan, the company pairs a comfortable, tampon-like self-collection device with a women's telehealth platform so people with a cervix can screen for HPV at home and skip the stirrups. The device uses the same clinically validated Roche cobas HPV test that providers use in-clinic, detecting cervical precancer 96% of the time, and shipped nationwide to all 50 states after winning FDA authorization in May 2025.
Hemanext
Hemanext is a Lexington, Massachusetts medical technology company that reengineers how donated red blood cells are stored. Its flagship system, Hemanext ONE, removes oxygen and carbon dioxide from red blood cell units during processing and keeps the environment hypoxic through 42 days of refrigerated storage, slowing the oxidative degradation known as the storage lesion. The system carries FDA marketing authorization (originally via the De Novo pathway) and a CE mark, and aims to deliver a higher-quality blood product for patients who depend on transfusion, including those with thalassemia, sickle cell disease, and trauma.
Kara Egan
Kara Egan is the co-founder and CEO of Teal Health, the San Francisco-based company behind the Teal Wand - the first and only FDA-authorized at-home self-collection device for cervical cancer screening in the United States. A Stanford engineer-turned-Wharton MBA, Kara spent years as a venture capital investor at Emergence Capital and .406 Ventures before betting on a product she believed could remake an 80-year-old medical process. Backed by $23M from investors including Emerson Collective, Serena Ventures, and Forerunner, Teal Health has rapidly expanded nationwide with a device that studies show is just as accurate as in-clinic screening and preferred by 94% of women who tried it.