Function Health and the New Consumer Health Playbook
In the U.S., one of the brightest names in venture is Function Health. For a monthly subscription, members receive personalised blood tests, detailed insights, and recommendations on nutrition, fitness, and lifestyle. It’s preventative, proactive, and designed with the polish of a modern lifestyle brand. Investors have taken note: Function Health has raised over $50 million from the likes of a16z and another entrant, Superpower, recently secured a $30 million Series A led by Forerunner.
The breakthrough is less about science and more about delivery: Function Health solved a problem that has tripped up countless healthtech startups - how to make preventative care feel desirable and worth paying for. It blended healthcare, consumer branding, and technology into a neat package: recurring revenue, scalable data, and a premium-feeling user experience.
No surprise, then, that European founders are eyeing the model. From London to Berlin, startups are now pitching the “Function Health of Europe.” But the big question remains: can that model be transplanted? Or does Europe require its own formula?
The Obvious Challenge: Selling Health in a Market That Expects It Free
The elephant in the room is Europe’s national healthcare systems. In the U.S., healthcare is fragmented, expensive, and riddled with friction. Consumers are accustomed to paying their way through the maze, so a slicker alternative feels like progress.
In Europe, by contrast, public healthcare looms like the cathedral in a town square: vast, immovable, and culturally sacred. Most citizens have never had to pay directly for care. It’s not that problems don’t exist - they do - but the usual venture logic (“if the pain is real, people will pay for the fix”) doesn’t map neatly here.
Americans are told prevention is an investment: spend on early tests today to avoid catastrophic costs tomorrow. That logic works in a system where a hospital visit could bankrupt you. In Europe, the state is expected to catch you if you fall. Which raises the core challenge for startups: how do you not only solve a pain point, but also persuade Europeans to open their wallets for something they’ve never paid for before?
Health and Wellness is the New Social Currency
That said, ageing populations, staff shortages, and austerity cuts have stretched public systems thin. And while European healthcare excels at reactive medicine, prevention is not its forte. This is the supposed opening: the prevention gap that public systems don’t cover.
While Americans tend to spend on primary healthcare - such as tests, doctors’ appointments, and treatments - European consumers are more likely to direct their spending towards wellness. The popularity of Oura rings, continuous glucose monitors (CGMs), boutique gyms, and cold-plunge clubs shows Europeans are willing to spend - but mostly on lifestyle-driven products that feel tangible, social, or even Instagrammable (or TikTokable, if that’s the right way of putting it).
Health and wellness is social identity and status. A CGM is data, yes, but it’s also a conversation starter. A £275-a-month gym membership is part exercise, part community, part signalling. In many ways, health has taken the place that travel once held as a cultural marker of taste and wealth.
For founders, the lesson is clear: in Europe, one method of getting people to pay for health is by bundling it with other forms of value - social capital, identity, experience. Prevention alone may not be strong enough as a proposition unless it’s packaged in a way that feels aspirational or communal.
The Distribution Difference
Distribution is another critical fault line. In the U.S., fragmentation makes D2C appealing. A startup that offers a cleaner, simpler experience can stand out in the chaos.
Europe is the opposite: most markets have just a handful of entrenched distribution channels - whether it’s the UK’s NHS or Germany’s GKV, other national insurers, or dominant lab networks. Winning access to these can take years, but once you’re in, the moat is formidable.
Trust plays a central role. Europeans are more likely to trust an insurer or national health body than a shiny consumer app. Which means startups need more than clever UX: they need clinical validation, regulatory approval, and deep local expertise to gain credibility. For those who succeed, however, embedding within these institutions can create distribution advantages that are far more defensible than pure consumer marketing.
Key Takeaways for Founders
If you’re building in Europe:
Treat regulation as strategy, not overhead. Compliance can be your moat.
Evidence is your marketing budget. Publish, validate, repeat.
Consider B2B2C. Distribution is concentrated, and institutions are gatekeepers.
Consumers will pay, but often for products that feel aspirational or experiential.
Growth will be slower - but trust, once earned, compounds magnificently.
If you’re building in the U.S.:
Velocity matters. Ship, test, pivot - fast.
Model cash-pay scenarios. Consumers expect to pay directly.
Beware of policy cliffs. Regulation can shift abruptly.
Brand is often a proxy for trust.
Enduring Consumer Health in Europe
Europe’s consumer health market isn’t a copy of America’s - and it doesn’t need to be. Function Health has proven what’s possible when preventative care is reimagined as a consumer experience. But in Europe, the winners will be those who adapt the idea to local realities: public systems, cultural expectations, and different spending behaviours.
That means designing services that sit at the intersection of credibility, experience, and access -credible enough to be trusted, engaging enough to feel aspirational, and integrated enough to reach scale.
Function Health may be the American poster child. But in Europe, the winners won’t just be posters. They’ll be passports - giving consumers entry into healthier, more personalised lives while fitting seamlessly into the systems and cultures they already trust.
