Funding profile · Digital pathology

Instapath

One Form D, filed in 2019, fully sold. Two NSF awards worth more than the round itself. Nothing on the SEC record since, and no announced venture round at all.

$1.79MOffered and sold, the only Form D on record (Sep 2019)
$1.72MNSF grants obligated, 2018 to 2027
20Investors in the 2019 offering, about $89,250 each
0Form D filings since 2019

Data as of September 22, 2026. Company-reported figures are labeled.

Rounds at a glance

When Round Amount Investors Source
2017 Competition prizes $52,500 Cox Business and Inc.; Tulane Office of Technology Transfer; Tulane Business Model Competition; International Business Model Competition Independent
Jul 2018 NSF STTR Phase I, award 1820258 $225,000 National Science Foundation NSF
Winter 2019 Y Combinator batch Not disclosed Y Combinator YC listing
Sep 2019 Equity offering, Rule 506(b) $1,785,006 offered, all sold 20, not named in the filing Form D
Mar 2021 to Feb 2027 NSF SBIR Phase II, award 2039417, cooperative agreement $1,499,999 obligated National Science Foundation NSF
2020 to 2026 Any later priced round None found None found Not found

What the filings show

Instapath Inc. · Form D · filed Sep 20, 2019

First sale
Sep 5, 2019
Offered
$1,785,006 equity
Sold
$1,785,006 · $0 remaining
Investors
20 · average about $89,250
Minimum investment
$0
Exemption
Rule 506(b)
Non accredited
None
Sales compensation
None · finders fees $0
Related persons
David Tulman (executive officer, director), listed at the Houston address
Issuer
Delaware corporation, incorporated 2017, revenue range declined
Filing
SEC EDGAR, CIK 0001788885

Reading the filings

  1. Angel sized checks, not a venture round.$1,785,006 across 20 investors is about $89,250 each. That is the shape of a YC demo day round and a friends and angels list, not a fund led financing. The filing names no placement agent and reports $0 in finders fees.
  2. It closed completely, and then stopped.Offered and sold are the same number and nothing remains. A fully subscribed offering with no amendment and no follow on filing for seven years is unusual for a company still shipping product and still drawing NSF money.
  3. Non dilutive capital exceeds equity on the record.NSF has obligated $1,724,999 across two awards against $1,785,006 of recorded equity. Counting only what is documented, close to half the money that built this company came from a federal agency rather than investors.
  4. The Phase II award is doing the work a Series A usually does.Award 2039417 started March 2021 at $1,000,000, took another $499,999 in FY2023, was last amended in January 2026 and runs to February 2027. Its stated end point is verification and clinical validation of the integrated system. A grant, not a round, is funding the step before commercial scale.
  5. Only one officer appears anywhere in the filing.David Tulman is the sole related person, listed four times, once per role and address block. Mei Wang, the co-founder and CEO named by Y Combinator and the NSF awards, does not appear on the Form D at all, and no outside director is listed. That is consistent with a board that had no investor seat in 2019.
  6. Absence of a filing is not absence of money.Companies that raise under Section 4(a)(2) or on SAFEs that have not converted file no Form D. Y Combinator’s own investment in the Winter 2019 batch does not appear here. The 2019 filing is a floor on capital raised, not a ceiling.

Commercial signals

Signal Detail Source type
Regulatory FDA establishment registration 3016418391 with one listed product under code IBK, Class I fluorescence microscope, 21 CFR 864.3600, listing created May 30, 2024. No 510(k) and no PMA on record. Public record
Product naming The company calls the registered Class I device Neo. The FDA listing carries the proprietary name Nova. Claim differs from the record
Second product Luci, sold for research and biobanking. The company’s own page states: “This device is not approved by the FDA for clinical use”. Company-stated
Third line A remote slide scanning service, described on the company site as an on-demand service model. No pricing published. Company-stated
Customers No named hospital, clinic or biobank customer found in any public source. Not found
Clinical evidence Peer reviewed accuracy data exists for the underlying method on prostate, kidney and breast tissue, but every published study used a customized system built in the Tulane lab. No registered trial and no published study of the commercial instrument. Gap between paper and product
Headcount Six, per the Y Combinator company listing. Company-stated
Intellectual property One granted US patent in the company’s name (US11988584B2, May 2024). The foundational structured illumination patent, US10768402B2, sits with Tulane University of Louisiana. Public record

What to watch

  • A new Form D. One is due within 15 days of the first sale of any new Regulation D offering.
  • Whether the NSF Phase II award is followed by a priced round, or whether it ends in February 2027 with no new capital behind it.
  • A 510(k) submission, which would change what the company can claim and what it can charge for.
  • Any named customer, published price or revenue disclosure. There is none today.
  • Whether the Tulane patent is licensed exclusively to Instapath. The assignment record does not say.

The Instapath story on Healthcare DiscoveryHealthcare Discovery

Related companies

  • Bikanta: Also in Diagnostics. A Berkeley startup that licensed a fluorescent nanodiamond imaging platform out of the NIH, sold it as a research reagent, and ran out of money before it reached a
  • Clear Gene: Also in Diagnostics. An RNA test built to tell a surgeon whether the whole tumor came out
  • Delee: Also in Diagnostics. A Monterrey team built a machine that filters circulating tumor cells out of whole blood, published two papers on it, and raised about $2.75 million
  • X-ZELL: Also in Diagnostics. A Singapore and Bangkok company that set out to find early cancer in a 10mL blood draw, published one 146 patient prostate study, then turned the staining machine built

Sources

  1. Public recordForm D, Instapath Inc., CIK 0001788885, primary documentSEC EDGAR · Sep 20, 2019
  2. Public recordNSF award 1820258, STTR Phase I, and award 2039417, SBIR Phase IINational Science Foundation · accessed Sep 22, 2026
  3. Public recordopenFDA device registration and listing, Instapath Inc., registration 3016418391FDA · accessed Sep 22, 2026
  4. Public recordopenFDA 510(k) and PMA searches for applicant Instapath, no records returnedFDA · accessed Sep 22, 2026
  5. Public recordNIH RePORTER, no awards to Instapath Inc.NIH · accessed Sep 22, 2026
  6. Public recordUS11988584B2 and US10768402B2 assignment recordsUSPTO via Google Patents
  7. Peer reviewedStructured illumination microscopy for cancer identification in diagnostic breast biopsiesPLOS One · May 9, 2024
  8. IndependentTBMC Past Winners: A faster, better way to perform pathological evaluationsTulane Freeman News · Mar 20, 2025
  9. IndependentTulane Team Wins International Business Model CompetitionSilicon Bayou News · May 17, 2017
  10. IndependentInstapath Biopics LLC Wins $10K Get Started Louisiana Pitch Competition At NOEWBiz New Orleans · Mar 23, 2017
  11. CompanyInstapath home, products, Neo and Luci pagesinstapathbio.com · accessed Sep 22, 2026
  12. CompanyInstapath Inc. company profile, Winter 2019 batchY Combinator · accessed Sep 22, 2026

Compiled from SEC, NSF, NIH, USPTO and FDA public records and published reports as of September 22, 2026. Form D notices report offerings under Regulation D; amounts reflect the filing date and may not capture later sales. Healthcare Venture Capital Fund holds no position in Instapath. This page is not an offer to sell or a recommendation to buy any security.