Megann Watters, managing director of Labcorp Venture Fund, is one of the 100 leading corporate venturing professionals in our 2025 Powerlist.

Megann Watters originally started her career as a lab-bench scientist in biomedical engineering, before a stint at the US Patent and Trademark Office. Then business school took her to what she calls the “business side of innovation” at Labcorp, the US provider of laboratory services.
When Watters started at Labcorp 14 years ago, her role primarily focused on licensing, but the rapidly changing healthcare innovation landscape demanded a broader and more flexible strategy.

Today, Watters leads a team of 10, with five members primarily supporting Labcorp’s venture fund. “We are set up very intentionally to be flexible with how we partner with external parties,” she says. A majority of her time is spent on evaluating, making and managing equity investments, as “that is the best way to access early-stage innovation right now”.
She is focused on transformative healthcare technologies. “Advancements in AI and ML, and being able to ingest and analyse large data sets quickly and at a lower cost, is enabling a lot of interesting solutions that impacts diagnostics and healthcare,” says Watters. She is particularly excited about novel biomarker detection, multi-omics sequencing and alternative sample collection methods.
“We are set up very intentionally to be flexible with how we partner with external parties.”
Managing more than 50 active direct investments, the team has a strong commitment to women’s health, investing in companies such as Teal Health, which is developing an at-home cervical cancer sample collection device. “We are continuously trying to identify unmet needs,” she says.
The team focuses on early-stage investments, seed to series B, and takes an observer position on the startup’s board to ensure a solid relationship develops with Labcorp.
Watters’ investment approach goes beyond financial returns. Approximately 60% of the portfolio involves some form of partnership with Labcorp. “We see ourselves as so much more than just a cheque,” she says, highlighting its commitment to providing in-kind support and internal expertise to portfolio companies.
She encourages all portfolio companies to lean heavily into this. “If you are not taking advantage of your relationship with Labcorp and all the internal expertise, you are not getting the full benefit,” she says.

The Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist represents the 100 individuals spearheading the future of the corporate venturing industry.
These individuals excel in terms of their venturing approach and structure, number and quality of portfolio companies and in their contributions to the corporate venturing profession.