Tasso

Tasso specializes in blood-based diagnostics. Patients are able to sample their own blood remotely with the company's device. The Seattle-based company partners with health systems, clinical research organizations, academic medical centers, and others who are looking to deliver diagnostic tests to their patients. The company was originally established to find another way to collect blood instead of using a fingerstick or venous draw. Since then, Tasso's products have been utilized in pharmaceutical clinical trials, by Olympians as part of a virtual anti-doping program, and by hospital systems across the US.

Tasso’s devices operate on the upper arm, drawing blood from a network of capillaries under the skin at the push of a button. Users don’t require training to collect their own blood, and the process enables applications like remote patient monitoring. The company's devices can collect liquid or dried samples that can be shipped via mail. The Tasso OnDemand device, which collects dried samples as dots on a strip, received clearance in May 2020 in the European Union for non-diagnostic uses, like monitoring patients in clinical trials. In October 2021, Tasso announced a partnership with InnoVero, a company making sample collection kits to test for doping in athletes, using dried blood spots.

"With the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a fundamental shift in how we think about healthcare, and demand for patient-centric, in-home solutions is greater than ever. Today, Tasso devices are successfully supporting decentralized clinical trials, clinical research, and remote patient health monitoring,” said Ben Casavant, CEO and co-founder of Tasso.

Tasso, in its early days, received grant funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) and the National Institute of Health (NIH). On December 16, 2021, the company landed $100 million in funding. The Series B round brings the company’s total funding in 2021 to $131 million. In addition to about $13 million in grants, the company raised $17 million in July 2020.