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The company’s long-time partner, , is developing the test, which will be available as soon as Friday afternoon.

“Drive-through testing is an option, but it doesn’t exist everywhere,” Dr. Chris Hall, Nurx’s senior medical adviser said in an interview with Crunchbase News. “We feel that all of the testing options are necessary to address this crisis, but we just feel like home-based testing is going to be a really important part of that.”

Nurx, which is based in San Francisco, has more than $93 million in funding and is backed by investors including and . It last raised $32 million for its Series C round in August 2019.

Nurx first published a blog post to answer a few questions about coronavirus, before the company realized it could play a bigger role in the solution. The startup has been working for about two weeks on making an at-home test available, Hall said, and has been meeting with Molecular Testing Labs multiple times every day, including weekends. The entire Nurx team has been working on rolling out the at-home COVID-19 test.

“We began to realize pretty quickly after creating that blog post that we were perfectly situated to pivot to this service,” he said.

While Nurx is perhaps best known for delivering birth control and the HIV-prevention medication PrEP, it has been in the at-home testing space for a while, providing testing kits for sexually transmitted infections, HIV, Hepatitis C and HPV.

Getting tested for coronavirus in the United States , and Nurx is one of several startups working on making more COVID-19 tests available since the gave certified labs the green light to develop and distribute them. Austin-based at-home testing startup also announced plans to have an at-home COVID-19 test available next week. Los Angeles’ and San Francisco’s also announced home test kits.

A person wanting to get tested for the virus can use the Nurx app or website, indicate interest in the test and fill out a survey with questions about symptoms. A Nurx provider will then review the information and decide if the patient should be tested. If so, the company will send a test kit with expedited shipping and instructions on how to complete the test and how to send the kit back to Molecular Testing Labs’ facility in Vancouver, Washington.

To complete the test, patients will perform a throat swab. Molecular Testing Labs performs a polymerase chase reaction (PCR) test to determine if the patient has COVID-19.

A patient should receive results within 24 to 48 hours, Hall said, and Nurx will advise them what next steps they should take, such as isolation. Patients will receive automatic advice, but if they have unanswered questions they can communicate with a provider.

Nurx will have the test, which will cost under $200, available on a “limited basis” when it’s first introduced. The company’s planning to provide 10,000 home testing kits in the upcoming weeks and, according to a company spokeswoman, 100,000 tests in the near future.

“We are here to work with everyone just to increase the sheer number of tests that are out there,” Hall said. “No single provider and no single company or initiative is going  to be able to solve this problem alone.”

Editor’s note: This article was updated post-publication to reflect that patients will now perform a throat swab rather than a nasal swab to complete the test.

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“I had a high deductible insurance plan and after about six months, I started getting all these bills, indicating that the lab tests weren’t covered,” Cheek recalls. “I ended up having to pay, out-of-pocket, over $2,000 for those basic lab tests.”

Upon digging further, Cheek discovered the problem: traditional lab testing is often cumbersome, costly, and confusing—and this is more true as the cost of healthcare in the United States has increasingly shifted to the consumer.

“I asked myself how can we put an end to the traditional lab experience and make it something that’s useful, convenient and affordable,” Cheek told Crunchbase News, “in the same way that consumers can purchase pregnancy tests or vitamins over the counter.”

So she launched EverlyWell with that goal in mind, eventually scaling from $500,000 and three tests in 2016 to over 35 tests, hundreds of thousands of users, and “tens of millions” in sales annually. Last year alone, the company grew its customer base by 300 percent, Cheek said.

Now, as part of an effort to continue growing, Austin-based EverlyWell has raised $50 million and announced a partnership with Target that involves rolling out some of its tests in more than 1,600 of the national retailer’s stores.

Previous investor and new backer led the round, which also included participation from , , and others.

EverlyWell’s digital platform connects consumers with existing, independent, certified labs for at-home collection tests that are ordered and reviewed by board-certified physicians. Once the sample is submitted, consumers can access online results with “evidence-based insights,” suggestions, and next steps within a few days’ time, according to the company.

The company has also expanded its product line to offer 35 panels, including what it says are first-to-market tests in fertility, vitamins, peri- and post-menopause, and high-risk HPV. EverlyWell has also launched what it describes as an end-to-end care model for consumers, now offering an independent physician consult and prescription, if appropriate, for select STDs and Lyme Disease testing. It prides itself on providing pricing for all tests prior to purchase, so that there is no surprise for the user.

“������Ƶ have clearly responded very strongly to our product, and that has meant we have not had to pivot to a B2B model as many other consumer companies end up having to do,” Cheek told Crunchbase News.

EverlyWell also plans to hire with its new capital. It recently tapped former Pinterest and Trulia executive to serve as its chief marketing officer and doubled its headcount since January to 70 people. The company also tapped Dr. Robert Langer to serve as the head of its scientific advisory board. Dr. Langer is one of only four individuals receiving both the National Medal of Science and the United States National Medal of Technology and Innovation.

“Lab testing is arguably one of the most important steps in preventing and managing illness, but has been largely ignored by digital health companies,” said , managing partner at Goodwater Capital, in a written statement. “With a clear consumer pain point and a strong executive team that integrates both consumer and healthcare expertise, EverlyWell is successfully navigating an entrenched industry to offer consumers an opportunity to take charge of their own health.”

Part of EverlyWell’s challenge is awareness. Most people, when thinking of at-home lab testing, think of DNA tests conducted by the likes of or .

“We offer a fundamentally different product than DNA testing,” Cheek said. “It’s a lot of work to educate the average American consumer about the fact that we exist. But we believe the opportunity is there.”

, co-founder and managing director of Austin-based Next Coast Ventures, said his firm believes that more people are looking for digital ways to address their personal health. And he  too personally had a similar experience to Cheek after getting lab work done.

“It’s one of those situations where I thought, ‘this desperately needs a new solution,’” he told Crunchbase News. “And here’s a company that’s doing forward things about it.” As part of the financing, Smerklo is joining EverlyWell’s board.

Earlier this year, I covered how vitamin company and meditation app had raised venture funding to meet certain personal health needs. (You can read more about those companies here and here.) This company falls into the same category, in my opinion. And Cheek agrees.

“We’re all providing digital access to consumer-driven experience or for a more transparent product that is fairly priced, and that’s key in typically commoditized industries,” she said.