Tennis legend Maria Sharapova has joined Cofertility as their newest investor, bringing her influence and financial backing to the startup. Cofertility aims to make egg freezing more accessible and affordable by linking it with egg donation, offering women the opportunity to freeze their eggs for free when they donate half to intended parents who are unable to conceive.
Sharapova, who retired from professional tennis in 2020, has become an influential figure in entrepreneurship and investment, consistently backing startups that she believes will have a lasting impact. Her investment is driven by her personal understanding of how the biological clock affects women, particularly athletes, and how accessible egg freezing can play a crucial role in giving women more control over their reproductive futures.
Cofertility was co-founded by Lauren Makler, former Founder of Uber Health, Arielle Spiegel, who initially built Cofertility as an educational platform, and Halle Tecco, Founder of Natalist and Rock Health. The company has raised $5 million in seed funding from Initialized Capital, Offline Ventures, and a number of angel investors in 2022.
Back then Lauren Makler, co-founder of Cofertility, shared her vision for the company on Twitter, stating, “We’ve set out to build a new kind of human-centered fertility ecosystem. We’re rewriting the egg freezing and egg donation experience, providing people agency over if, how, and when they have babies.”
Cofertility’s unique model addresses two significant issues in the fertility space: the high cost of egg freezing and the stigmatization of egg donation. By combining these processes, the company offers a solution that makes egg freezing free for women who choose to donate half of their retrieved eggs to families who cannot otherwise conceive.
Despite the increasing availability of fertility benefits in the workplace, Cofertility remains focused on the consumer market. In an interview with FastCompany, Makler noted, “It’s a great thing when companies offer fertility coverage, but unfortunately, it’s typically confined to the companies that can afford it, so that’s typically larger corporations that generally already have advantaged employees in terms of access and compensation.”
With Sharapova’s investment, Cofertility plans to expand its platform further, attracting more donors and intended parents, and continuing its mission to make egg freezing and third-party reproduction more accessible and less stigmatized.
