Funding profile · Medical devices and diagnostics

Tambua Health

No Form D has been filed under Tambua Health’s name. What exists instead is a trail of press-reported seed checks from 2019 to 2020, an aggregator total that does not add up to the sum of those checks, and a 2026 company listing describing a product that has nothing to do with the one investors originally backed.

$150KY Combinator Winter 2020 check, standard YC terms
$100KBackstage Accelerator seed check, reported Mar 2019
$125KTotal funding as tallied by Tracxn, across 2 rounds
$0Form D filings found under Tambua Health or Yoneda Health with the SEC

Data as of September 24, 2026. Company-reported and aggregator figures are labeled.

Rounds at a glance

When Round Amount Investors Source
Mar 2019 Seed $100,000 Backstage Accelerator Aggregator
Mar 2020 Y Combinator Winter 2020 $150,000 for 7% equity, YC’s standard terms that batch Y Combinator Aggregator, press
May 14, 2020 Seed Not disclosed Ventures Platform Fund Press, aggregator
Aug 15, 2020 Seed Not disclosed Future Africa Aggregator

What the filings show

Nothing. A search of the SEC’s Form D notices, and of EDGAR full text for mentions of Tambua Health or Yoneda Health, returns no results. That is consistent with a company whose disclosed checks came from an accelerator, from Y Combinator’s own standard deal, and from African seed funds investing outside the US federal registration system, none of which necessarily generates a Form D. It does not by itself mean no money changed hands beyond what is listed above; it means there is no federal filing to check the press figures against.

Reading the record

  1. Two of the four rounds have amounts, two do not.Digest Africa’s funding log puts a number on the Backstage Accelerator seed ($100,000, Mar 2019) and the Y Combinator seed ($150,000, Mar 2020). The Ventures Platform Fund and Future Africa checks from May and August 2020 are recorded only as undisclosed amounts.
  2. The YC figure lines up with press coverage.Both Techpoint Africa and Ventureburn describe Y Combinator’s Winter 2020 batch as a $150,000 investment for 7% equity, the standard terms YC used for that cohort. Digest Africa’s $150,000 line for the same round is consistent with that.
  3. The aggregator total does not match the disclosed rounds.Tracxn puts Tambua Health’s total funding at $125,000 across two rounds. That is less than the $250,000 in disclosed amounts alone (Backstage plus YC), before adding whatever Ventures Platform and Future Africa put in. Tracxn’s own funding round table for the company, when checked line by line, also lists implausible multi-million dollar figures in fields marked as amount and valuation, which do not resemble a seed-stage African healthtech company’s numbers and look like a data error rather than real figures. None of Tracxn’s dollar figures beyond the $125,000 headline total should be relied on.
  4. No SEC paper trail exists to settle the discrepancy.A US incorporated company that later listed a Fremont, California headquarters would typically be expected to leave some federal financing record if it raised institutional equity domestically. None has been found here, which leaves the press and aggregator numbers as the only record available.
  5. The company’s federal grant claim has no matching record.A 2020 investor profile said Tambua Health received a grant from MIT and Harvard University. No NIH or NSF award under the company’s name appears in the federal grant databases checked for this profile.

Commercial signals

Signal Detail Source type
Regulatory No FDA 510(k) or PMA record found for an applicant named Tambua or Yoneda. Public record
Clinics and revenue A 2020 investor profile said the device was “being piloted as a diagnostics tool in 267 clinics and has generated tens of thousands of dollars in monthly recurring revenue,” with Stanford and MIT named as COVID-research customers. Not independently confirmed. Company-stated
Team size Reported team size ranges from 6 employees (Tracxn, May 2026) to 11 to 50 (LinkedIn and Digest Africa) to a YC-listed team size of 13. Aggregator, varies
Headquarters Listed as San Francisco on the company’s 2020 site, and as Fremont, California on its current LinkedIn page, alongside offices in Nairobi and London. Company-stated
Product, 2026 Y Combinator’s live listing for the tambua.health URL now shows the company as “Yoneda Health,” selling “NoDraw,” a bloodless blood-panel app, rather than the acoustic lung device the checks above were made against. Differs from funded product

What to watch

  • Any Form D or other federal filing that would independently confirm a round size.
  • Whether the capital raised for the acoustic lung device carried over to the NoDraw blood diagnostic product, or whether that is a separate entity operating under the same domain and YC listing.
  • Confirmation, one way or the other, of the 267-clinic and monthly-recurring-revenue figures.
  • A current, named investor list, none of which has been published since the 2020 rounds.

The Tambua Health story on Healthcare DiscoveryHealthcare Discovery

Related companies

  • In Your Corner: Shared investor: Backstage Capital. An online counseling and coaching marketplace that began as Pretty Padded Room in 2011, went through Y Combinator in 2014, and closed in 2016
  • Scanbase: Similar focus. An API that turns a phone photo of a rapid diagnostic test into a result, sold to the companies that make and ship the tests
  • Scanwell Health: Similar focus. A Los Angeles company that turned a phone camera into a urinalysis reader and sold the first over-the-counter urine testing app in the United States
  • AlemHealth: Similar focus. Battery powered imaging hardware and cloud reporting software built for hospitals with unreliable electricity and thin bandwidth

Sources

  1. Public recordSEC EDGAR full text and Form D search for Tambua Health and Yoneda HealthSEC · checked for this profile
  2. Public recordopenFDA device 510(k) and PMA search, applicant Tambua and YonedaFDA openFDA · Sep 24, 2026
  3. AggregatorTambua Health Inc., company and funding recordDigest Africa · captured Mar 15, 2019, updated through 2020
  4. AggregatorTambua Health, company profileTracxn · captured 2021, data through May 2026
  5. IndependentHere are the African startups that pitched at Y Combinator’s Winter 2020 Demo DayTechpoint Africa, Tage Kene-Okafor · Mar 18, 2020
  6. IndependentHere are the African startups and Africa-focused firms from Y Combinator’s W20 Demo DayVentureburn · Mar 13, 2020
  7. IndependentVentures Platform Fund invests in three African startups as portfolio passes 30Techpoint Africa, Tage Kene-Okafor · May 14, 2020
  8. CompanyInvesting in Tambua Health, Brass and FunnelJoySeries V, Ventures Platform · May 14, 2020
  9. CompanyTambua Health helps doctors diagnose respiratory diseasesFuture Africa · captured 2024, describing 2020 events
  10. CompanyTambua Health, LinkedIn company pageLinkedIn · accessed 2026
  11. CompanyTambua Health / Yoneda Health, company pageY Combinator · accessed Sep 24, 2026

Compiled from SEC and other public records and published reports as of September 24, 2026. Form D notices report offerings under Regulation D; no such notice was found for this company. Healthcare Venture Capital Fund holds no position in Tambua Health. This page is not an offer to sell or a recommendation to buy any security.