The Future of Preventive Healthcare: What Function’s Bold Acquisition of Ezra Signals for the Industry

What if your annual health checkup could look inside your body, detect cancer before it starts spreading, flag silent strokes before they steal your memory, and uncover early signs of disease—all in under half an hour? That’s no longer a vision of the future. It’s happening now.

Function Health, a fast-growing company on a mission to reinvent preventive healthcare, is changing the rules. Known for making comprehensive lab testing accessible to everyday people, Function already offers over 160 clinical tests for just $499 a year—without requiring insurance. With more than 100,000 members and partnerships across 2,200 Quest Diagnostics centers, the company has made it easier than ever to take control of your health.

Now, Function is going a step further—by acquiring Ezra, a trailblazer in AI-powered full-body MRI imaging. With this move, Function is introducing a breakthrough: a 22-minute full-body MRI scan powered by FDA-cleared AI, priced at just $499. That’s one-third the cost and a fraction of the time it used to take. And for the first time, advanced lab tests and full-body scans are being offered together as part of one seamless, affordable platform.

This isn’t just another health tech merger. It’s the start of a new model—one that uses data, AI, and affordability to build the future of medicine, where disease is caught early or prevented altogether.

About Function Health

Founded in 2022 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, Function Health is a pioneering healthcare technology company redefining personal health management. The company was co-founded by a team driven by personal health experiences and a shared vision to transform healthcare. Dr. Mark Hyman, a leader in functional medicine, serves as Chief Medical Officer, bringing deep expertise in preventive care. CEO Jonathan Swerdlin, COO Pranitha Patil, CTO Mike Nemke, and CPO Seth Weisfeld complete the leadership team, all united by a commitment to democratizing access to cutting-edge health testing and leveraging technology to create a more proactive healthcare ecosystem.

Function Health’s mission is to help individuals live 100 healthy years by shifting healthcare from a reactive model to a proactive one. The platform offers a membership-based model, providing access to over 100 advanced lab tests annually. These tests cover a wide range of critical health markers—including heart health, hormones, cancer signals, immunity, metabolic function, and inflammation—offering about five times the lab testing typically available in standard primary care visits. With expert medical guidance embedded within the platform, Function Health empowers members to uncover hidden health risks early, enabling them to take control of their well-being through an intuitive, user-friendly app.

For just $499 per year, members gain access to comprehensive tests, all backed by partnerships with trusted labs like Quest Diagnostics and Grail, ensuring reliable results and robust data privacy.

Since its beta launch in April 2023, Function Health has rapidly grown, attracting nearly 50,000 paying members and maintaining a large waitlist. The company has raised over $106 million from top investors, including Andreessen Horowitz Bio + Health and Kevin Hart, to scale its operations nationwide and continue its mission of revolutionizing preventive healthcare.

About Ezra

Founded in 2018 by Emi Gal, Ezra is a leader in AI-powered medical imaging, specializing in full-body MRI scans designed to detect diseases early, particularly cancer. Emi Gal, inspired by a personal loss, founded the company with the belief that early detection can save lives. His mother’s battle with cancer motivated him to create a technology that would enable earlier diagnosis for everyone, not just those with the resources to afford it. This mission drives the company to leverage AI to reduce the time and cost of full-body MRIs, making them accessible for regular health monitoring.

At the heart of Ezra’s innovation is the FDA-cleared Ezra Flash AI, which shortens scan times from over 60 minutes to just 22 minutes and reduces costs from $1,495–$2,500 to a more affordable price. This breakthrough enables the possibility of annual full-body scans, allowing individuals to monitor their health more proactively.

Before the development of Ezra’s AI technology, full-body MRIs were typically available only for high-risk individuals due to the prohibitive cost and lengthy scan times. The company initially worked through partnerships with imaging centers, helping to democratize access to this type of advanced screening.

Ezra’s rapid growth has been driven by its innovative technology, which not only helps detect cancer but also identifies other critical health issues, such as silent strokes, aneurysms, and fatty liver disease. This makes the service more comprehensive than just a cancer screening tool, positioning Ezra as a vital part of preventive healthcare.

The company continues to expand its reach, working with trusted imaging centers to bring these life-saving technologies to more people. With Emi Gal’s personal motivation at its core, Ezra is committed to transforming healthcare by making early detection and preventive screenings accessible to all.

Details of the Acquisition

Function Health has acquired Ezra, the AI-powered full-body MRI scanning company, in a move that merges two powerful health technologies. The deal brings together Function’s robust platform of 160+ lab tests with Ezra’s FDA-cleared AI technology, creating a more integrated and predictive health experience for members.

Ezra’s flagship technology, which significantly reduces both scan time and cost, will now be fully integrated into Function’s existing health platform. The new 22-minute full-body MRI scan, priced at $499, offers a dramatic improvement over Ezra’s previous scans, which took up to 60 minutes and cost as much as $1,495. This pricing and time reduction makes annual full-body scans accessible to a broader range of individuals, aligning perfectly with Function’s $499 annual membership, which already includes extensive lab testing.

The merger of these two technologies means members now have access to a comprehensive, 360-degree view of their health, combining detailed lab results with advanced imaging. The new offering will help detect early-stage cancer, silent strokes, aneurysms, fatty liver disease, spinal issues, and more—enabling proactive health management like never before.

Ezra, which doesn’t run its own imaging centers but partners with over 100 radiology locations across the country, will now expand its reach alongside Function’s nationwide network of 2,200 Quest Diagnostics locations. In the coming months, Ezra’s imaging services will be available at over 1,000 sites.

This acquisition is a bold step toward making preventive healthcare not only more accessible but also predictive, with the integration of AI-driven diagnostics setting a new standard for the industry. Function Health’s vision of enabling individuals to take control of their health with data-backed insights is now more achievable, offering a holistic solution to preventive care at scale.

Clinical Impact and Vision

1. Early Cancer Detection

   
   Ezra’s AI-powered full-body MRI scans have proven to be a game-changer in early cancer detection, with about 6% of members identifying potential cancers at an early stage. The significance of early detection cannot be overstated—survival rates for early-stage cancers can be as high as 80%, compared to under 20% for late-stage diagnoses. The technology has already led to life-saving discoveries, such as the identification of brain tumors that had previously gone undiagnosed, allowing for timely treatment and greatly improving patient outcomes. This proactive approach to health has the potential to revolutionize the way cancer is detected and treated, saving countless lives.

2. Broader Preventive Care

   
   While cancer detection is a critical aspect, the scans also play a pivotal role in identifying a wide array of other serious, often silent, health conditions. These include silent strokes, which may contribute to cognitive decline, and aneurysms, which can be caught before they rupture, potentially saving lives. The technology also helps in diagnosing spinal issuesthat could impact mobility, early-stage fatty liver disease, and providing highly detailed body composition metrics that go beyond the capabilities of traditional DEXA scans. By detecting these hidden conditions early, Function Health and Ezra give individuals the chance to address these health risks before they evolve into more severe problems, enhancing long-term health management.

3. Data-Driven Future

   
   A cornerstone of Function Health and Ezra’s vision is the creation of a longitudinal health dataset that will be powered by annual full-body MRI scans and extensive lab testing. This wealth of data, enhanced by FDA-cleared AI, will track subtle health changes over time, providing early indications of emerging health issues well before symptoms appear. This shift from a reactive to a predictive healthcare model is at the heart of Function’s mission to enable personalized preventive care. The integration of both imaging and lab data into a 360-degree health profile lays the foundation for data-driven medicine, setting a new standard for proactive healthcare that can predict, rather than just react to, health challenges.

Rising Cancer Rates and the Imperative for Proactive Health Platforms

Healthcare systems worldwide are contending with a disturbing rise in cancer cases, particularly among adults under 50. Alarming increases in breast, colon, liver, and kidney cancers—especially in younger women—have shifted the urgency around early detection from a clinical preference to a public health imperative. This trend is reshaping not only policy but also innovation agendas, creating a pressing need for scalable, data-driven tools that enable earlier interventions.

Function Health’s acquisition of Ezra is timely in this regard. While lab-based testing can flag metabolic and biomarker shifts, imaging—particularly high-resolution full-body MRI—provides a critical second layer of diagnostic intelligence. The integration of Ezra’s FDA-cleared AI imaging technology with Function’s expansive lab testing portfolio isn’t just a technical merger; it represents a conceptual leap toward continuous, multidimensional health surveillance. In this model, individuals aren’t just patients when they fall ill—they are active participants in their ongoing well-being, monitored through AI and data over time.

Competitive Landscape: Innovation Strategies and Differentiation

The space Function Health and Ezra are now shaping is not without competition. Notably, Prenuvo and SimonMed Imaging have made significant inroads into the consumer health screening market. Prenuvo, buoyed by over $70 million in venture funding, has established a distinct brand around whole-body MRI scanning for the general public. Its celebrity endorsements, polished user experience, and owned imaging centers give it a strong vertical integration advantage. SimonMed Imaging, while more traditional, brings decades of radiology expertise and national infrastructure to the same preventive imaging market.

What sets the Function-Ezra model apart, however, is the dual-modality foundation—lab and imaging—and the distributed scale-up strategy. Ezra’s choice not to own physical imaging centers but to instead partner with nearly 100 radiology sites allows for nimble, capital-light growth. Post-acquisition, Function plans to grow that network to 1,000+ locations—paired with its 2,200 Quest Diagnostics lab partners—to form one of the most expansive preventive health infrastructures in the U.S.

By offering a 22-minute full-body scan at $499—down from Ezra’s $1,495 price point—and bundling it with over 160 biomarkers tested annually through Function’s $499 subscription, the combined platform is not just lowering costs. It is redefining the economics of preventive care. Few, if any, competitors currently offer this kind of integrated, data-rich, and AI-optimized health screening at such scale and accessibility.

The Clinical Debate: Navigating Consensus and Pushing Boundaries

Despite public enthusiasm and venture capital confidence, full-body MRI screening remains contentious among healthcare professionals. The American College of Radiology (ACR) has taken a conservative stance, warning that such scans—especially for asymptomatic individuals—lack robust clinical backing to justify widespread use. Their concerns focus on the risk of false positives, unnecessary anxiety, and over-treatment from incidental findings.

Function Health and Ezra are acutely aware of this debate and are proactively addressing it. Instead of pushing volume-based diagnostics, their strategy centers on building longitudinal data sets that reveal health patterns over time. The aim is to move from one-off findings to trend-based insights—monitoring subtle anatomical and biochemical changes year-over-year. This contextual layer could be the key to reducing false positives and increasing diagnostic specificity.

Moreover, by aligning with leading medical professionals like Dr. Mark Hyman and investing in clinically grounded AI, the company is working to reposition full-body imaging not as a standalone panacea but as part of a broader, continuous care ecosystem. Trials, real-world evidence, and growing data will all be critical in eventually shifting regulatory and professional consensus.

Inside the Vision: A Personalized, Predictive, and Scalable Health Model

The Function Health–Ezra acquisition is not just a product expansion; it is the unfolding of a bold, deeply personal vision. CEO Jonathan Swerdlin, CMO Dr. Mark Hyman, and Ezra’s founder Emi Gal share a belief that healthcare should be proactive, democratized, and data-first. Gal’s motivation to launch Ezra stemmed from his experience losing his father to late-stage cancer—an experience that shaped his mission to make early detection technology widely available.

This merger operationalizes that mission. Their new model doesn’t rely on waiting for symptoms to trigger a response. It continuously gathers insights—bloodwork, advanced imaging, AI analysis—year after year. Combined, these elements build a personalized health profile that evolves with the individual, offering the possibility of intercepting disease at its inception. This marks a departure from traditional, reactive systems built on episodic care, toward a preventive infrastructure that’s always “on.”

Capital, Scale, and the Business of Preventive Medicine

Investor interest has mirrored this long-term vision. Function Health has raised over $106 million, with marquee backers like Andreessen Horowitz Bio + Health and celebrity investor Kevin Hart. Current fundraising efforts reportedly target $200 million at a $2 billion valuation—signaling strong market belief in the commercial potential of consumer-directed preventive care. Ezra, too, raised $44 million over its lifetime, most recently securing €18.5 million from Healthier Capital and FirstMark Capital.

This capital is being deployed strategically: building distribution partnerships, enhancing AI models, subsidizing scan costs, and developing clinical validation. The $499 full-body scan—enabled through Ezra’s AI-driven acceleration technology—demonstrates how financial efficiency and technological innovation can translate into real consumer affordability.

Function Health is not building a niche diagnostic company. It’s architecting a mass-scale, digitally integrated health system that could serve millions, reshaping primary care, chronic disease prevention, and even longevity science in the process.

Overcoming Resistance: Building Trust Through Outcomes

Skepticism from within the medical community remains one of the most significant hurdles to mainstreaming full-body MRI. But Function Health appears prepared for this resistance. The company is focusing on data transparency, AI model validation, and clear clinical communication to counter concerns about overdiagnosis and cost-effectiveness.

Function’s strategy includes reducing false positives through AI interpretation, layering scan data with lab results to contextualize findings, and offering medically supervised follow-up protocols to minimize unnecessary escalations. Their goal isn’t just to roll out scans—it’s to redesign the preventive journey from the ground up.

In doing so, they may ultimately prove that personalized, longitudinal care powered by AI is not only viable but superior. If successful, the acquisition of Ezra could mark a historic inflection point—not just for the two companies, but for how the world defines and delivers preventive healthcare.