Every at-home STI test uses a vaginal swab. Testmate Health's urine-based test works for everyone. Lab-quality results in under 30 minutes.
Unlike every other at-home STI test on the market, Testmate Health's platform works for both men and women—because, as founder Dr. Siew-Veena Sahi notes, 100% of the population has sex.A Lausanne-based startup is using urine-based molecular technology to make rapid, clinic-free STI testing accessible to anyone—at a moment when the federal safety net for sexual health is collapsing.
Every at-home STI test on the market—including Visby Medical’s FDA-authorized OTC test, cleared in March 2025—uses a vaginal swab. By design, every one of them works for women only. "If we’re really going to cut the spread of STIs, it doesn’t work to only test 50% of a population," argues Dr. Siew-Veena Sahi, founder and CEO of. "You need a solution that 100% of the population can use." Sahi is building it: the world’s first urine-based, at-home STI test that screens men and women alike for chlamydia, gonorrhea, neisseria and trichomoniasis in under 30 minutes, with no clinic visit, no lab, and no prescription required.CDC's 2024 STI Surveillance Report , more than 2.2 million cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis were reported in the U.S. last year—13% higher than a decade ago. Thevalues the global STI diagnostics market at $10.63 billion in 2024, projected to reach $16.08 billion by 2030, with the fastest growth in decentralized, at-home testing. "Testmate is solving a problem that's been systematically ignored: Young people, LGBTQ+ communities, and rural populations face persistent barriers to STI testing, and 80% of infections go undiagnosed as a result," notes Lindsey Taylor Wood, founder and general partner of The Helm, a Testmate investor.Dr. Siew-Veena Sahi, founder and CEO of Testmate Health, argues that testing only women for STIs leaves half the sexually active population unscreened—and untreated. Testmate Health has developed the first urine-based, at-home molecular STI test for both men and women, with lab-quality results in under 30 minutes. Sahi grew up in Geneva, trained as a physician in the U.K., and spent years as a contributing researcher on a WHO working group examining the accuracy of STI diagnostics in asymptomatic pregnant women. A volunteer placement at Muhimbili National Hospital in Tanzania made the mission clear: Women traveled long distances for STI tests but rarely returned for results days later. "The loss to follow-up is really real," Sahi recalls. "What's the point of testing if you can't treat the patient?" For chlamydia and gonorrhea, treatment is a straightforward course of antibiotics. The barrier was never the cure—it was the delay. The technology came from an unlikely direction: a phone call with her father, a former aeronautical engineer, who mentioned that rapid DNA detection was being used to identify Salmonella in the food supply chain at the University of Geneva. Sahi wondered whether the same chemistry could work for chlamydia and gonorrhea. She tried it in the lab. It worked. "I didn't set out to be an entrepreneur," she explains. "It kind of found me." After a 2020 MassChallenge Switzerland cohort—where she met her cofounder, an entrepreneur-in-residence with two successful exits—Sahi incorporated Testmate in 2021. A pre-seed round of 1.6 million Swiss francs , matched by the Swiss Innovation Agency, followed. A $6 million seed round led by RH Capital, with participation from Foreground Capital, The Helm, Zürcher Kantonal Bank, and Amboy Street Ventures, came next.Testmate Health's at-home urine test delivers lab-quality STI screening for four common infections in minutes—no clinic, no swab, no waiting room required. Testmate Health developed the first urine-based, at-home molecular STI test for both men and women, with lab-quality results in under 30 minutes. Urine contains inhibitors that block DNA detection and dilute pathogen concentrations, making molecular accuracy without lab infrastructure genuinely difficult. Testmate solved preanalytical complexity with a single-use, reader-free device that delivers results in under 30 minutes, paired with an app that connects a positive result to a provider for same-visit treatment. A clinical validation study at the University Hospital of Geneva demonstrated performance on par with Roche instrumentation. "Today's at-home tests require mailing samples and waiting days for results. In contrast, Dr. Sahi's urine-based molecular platform delivers lab-quality diagnostics in under 30 minutes, with no clinic visit, no swab, and no lab infrastructure," notes Elizabeth Bailey, cofounder and managing partner of Foreground Capital. "She's aiming for the same ubiquity we've seen with pregnancy tests, but with clinical-grade molecular technology for STIs."Raising capital has required dismantling three compounding barriers: collateral damage from COVID-era diagnostic companies that collapsed after pivoting away from their core focus"STIs are, ironically, not a very sexy topic," Sahi observes, noting that generalist investors benchmark the category against oncology rather than the actual size of the undiagnosed population. Then came 2025. With momentum building, the new administration shut down federal STI testing labs, defunded Planned Parenthood, and cut HIV programs—freezing investor confidence in the sexual health space mid-stride. One investor who stayed the course offered a framing Sahi now repeats: "This administration is just for four years, but STIs are forever." Testmate's response has been institutional. In December 2025, the company announced a strategic partnership and investment with Intermountain Health, a nonprofit system of 34 hospitals and approximately 400 clinics across the western U.S. "Our partnership and investment in Testmate reflect our commitment to solutions that make care faster, more accessible, and equitable," said Karen Brownwell, vice president of Lab Services at Intermountain Health, in the joint press release. "When these STI tests become FDA-approved in the U.S., Testmate's innovative approach to molecular diagnostics will allow us to deliver lab-quality results outside traditional lab settings, directly impacting communities that have historically lacked access to timely testing."Half Indian and half Chinese, and by her own account looking younger than her credentials suggest, Sahi describes a recurring dynamic: walking into meetings where people assume the older male colleague is the CEO until introductions are made. The sharpest illustration came as post-pitch feedback: As a woman in diagnostics, was it really sensible to wear a black turtleneck? The reference was to Elizabeth Holmes. Sahi's response cuts to the structural asymmetry: Bernie Madoff wore a suit. No one advises male founders to stop wearing suits because a male fraudster did. A single fraudulent woman creates a dress code for all women in a field. The equivalent logic is never applied to men—and that asymmetry has a cost, measured in credibility and capital. "Dr. Sahi is building physician-grade diagnostics that work outside traditional infrastructure," Wood adds. "That's the kind of game-changing innovation by women that we're here to fund." Testmate's FDA submission is pending; the Visby De Novo clearance validated the regulatory pathway. The benchmark Sahi sets for herself, though, is not clearance—it is ubiquity: STI testing as routine and stigma-free as a pregnancy test. With 2.2 million reported U.S. cases in 2024, a contracting federal safety net, and 80% of infections still going undiagnosed, the market is not a niche. It is a crisis with a urine test—and a physician entrepreneur—at its center.
STI Self-Test Women's Health Diagnostics Startup Chlamydia Gonorrhea Home Test Urine-Based STI Test Rapid STI Test
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