Every Monday we share a quick “best of” from the week that was with our Inner Circle members. What’s trending in the Femtech Insider community and beyond? We’ve got you covered! In this week's brief we talk about The Future of IVF, plus...
- Webinar: Femtech Trends & Predictions for 2022
- Femtech Investor Database 2.0
- Startup Spotlight 🤩
The Future of IVF
Not to pat our own backs, but.. We called it last week in our round-up of opportunities for 2022! IVF is indeed having a moment. And we're starting the year off with two exciting stories:
- Future Fertility, a company using AI to improve fertility care and IVF outcomes, raised a Series A
- Eggschain announced a new partnership with Boston IVF for cryogenic preservation of sperm for use in IVF and long term storage
🤔 "Interesting. So what's this IVF opportunity all about?"
Great question! Let us fill you in! 👇
First: What Is IVF?
IVF (In vitro fertilization) is a type of assisted reproductive technology (ART) whereby an egg is fertilized by sperm in a test tube or elsewhere outside of the body. IVF is helpful for those struggling to conceive.
👉 Read: The IVF Funnel - Understanding Your Chances of Success (Angel Investor, "IVF customer" & Natalist Founder Halle Tecco on the Natalist Blog)
Secondly: Some Stats (Source: Penn Medicine)
👉 1 million: Number of babies were born in the U.S. between 1987 and 2015 through the use of IVF or other ART. According to the CDC around 1-2% of all U.S. birth annually are via IVF.
Note: The percentage of "IVF babies" is on the rise.
👉 21.3%: The chance of having a full term, normal birth weight and singleton live birth per ART cycle.
Note: A 1-in-5-ish chance. Considering patient expectations, this is a really low number, which is why innovation that increases the chances of IVF success is so exciting.
👉 $10K: The average cost of a single IVF cycle in the U.S. is between $10K and $15K, and is dependent upon insurance coverage, patient characteristics and the treatment center.
Note: Expensive! Fertility benefits companies like Carrot or Stork Club are trying to solve for this. #access
Thirdly: Innovation Opportunities
So... High patient impact, lots of pain points and room for innovation, a large and growing market, high cost aka lack of access. How can we make this better? 🤔
In understanding the IVF opportunity a go-to source is Dr. David Sable, "Bio Fund Manager (Special Situations Funds), Columbia prof & ex-reproductive endocrinologist." Below we're sharing from his directional article "Revisiting The Seven Trends That Define The Future of IVF". A must read!
The key trends he identifies (and reflects on in the article):
👉 IVF for Prevention of (Monogenic) Disease. Status: "That made a lot of sense, but sadly it’s not happening."
👉 Much Greater Cost pressure on the IVF Procedure. Status: "We’re getting there." #employerbasedcoverage
👉 Standardization of Procedures, Including Increased Automation. Status: "A lot of work (and capital) is being put to work on this, particularly in cry-storage and biobanking, and certain robotic aspects of embryology. "
👉 IVF Megaclinics. Status. "Yup. ongoing."
👉 A Quantum Leap in IVF Technology. Status: "Maybe not quantum, but certainly steps, most in the right direction."
👉 Widespread IVF medical tourism. Status: "Well, yes and no."
👉 The Gradual Disappearance of Egg Donation as a Treatment for Infertility.Status: "Not so much.
Read the full article and subscribe on Substack
Fourthly: IVF Innovation on Femtech Insider
Below is a recap of relevant startup news we covered in 2021. (We also wrote a lot about fertility benefits, which is somewhat related. Those stories are not included below.)
- Overture Life raised a $15M Series B
- AiVF got CE clearance
- Alife raised a $9M seed round
- TMRW launched an automated platform to safeguard eggs and embryos
- Béa Fertility raised £800K to bring at-home fertility treatments to the UK
- Presagen's Life Whisperer uses AI to help IVF patients avoid invasive embryo genetic testing
So what's next? Well... We're sure we'll be writing even more about assisted reproductive care this year, but for now we'll end this brief overview with David Sable's words:
"In the meantime we humbly charge ahead, knowing that the greatest advances are likely those that we’re not imaginative or creative enough to predict. Yet."
So here's to the future(of IVF)! 🚀
... and talking about the future: If you want to hear us talk about the trends and opportunities we see in the femtech and women's health innovation ecosystem in 2022, join us tomorrow! 👇
Upcoming Events
TOMORROW: Jan 11, 2022, 6pm GMT - Femtech Future: Trends and Predictions for Women's Health Innovation in 2022
What will 2022 bring for femtech and women's health innovation? Join us on Jan 11 for a presentation on trends we're watching, opportunities we see and developments that will impact the femtech community and ecosystem in 2022.
This webinar is your opportunity to get a head start in the new year! We hope to see you there!Claim your free ticket for the event usind the Inner Circle promo code: crystalball
Mark your calendar!
➡️ Jan 18 - Breaking into Femtech: Careers in Women's Health Innovation
Members-only Inner Circle Resources
In case you missed it: Check out some of our members-only content below or visit the Inner Circle Member Hub for more.
👉 Femtech Investment Round-ups
👉 Upcoming Inner Circle Events
Inner Circle Members also get 10% off when promoting roles on our job board, booking one of our workshops or advertising with us.
Femtech Investor Database 2.0
Funders gotta fund (women's health innovation startups) and in order to do so, they need to know about the many amazing femtech companies out there! Since our early days Femtech Insider has been the #1 stop for many early-stage founders looking to raise and we want to step up our game when it comes to "femtech investor discovery" on our platform.
💡Fun Fact: Our Femtech Investor Page is one of the most viewed pages on Femtech Insider, so it's about time we give it a bit of an overhaul.
In the past the page has only featured VC funds dedicated to women's health, but we recognize that there is an increasing number of generalist funds, who are getting excited about our space, are ready to invest and we want to make it easier for startups to find them.
Inspired by Monetizing Media's Eric Peckham's work in the media innovation space, we have added two new databases to our Femtech Investor Page:
- VC Funds with Partners Interested in Women's Health
- Angel Investors Interested in Women's Health
Hopefully these can be useful and a small contribution to helping get more women's health companies funded in 2022! Of course you can add yourself (please do!) and as always we appreciated your help in spreading the word. 💗
Startup Spotlight
Wanna know which startups get us excited these days? Below are a few of our recent (femtech-ish) discoveries!
👉 Veracity Selfcare: Personalized Skincare and clean beauty based on hormone balance ("Hormone Health Everything")
👉 NourishedRx: The first smart, Food-as-Medicine market platform designed to drive lasting dietary change for health plan members. The company’s core AI-enabled platform matches at-risk members with personalized, Registered Dietitian–vetted high-quality meal offerings (taking eating habits, circumstances, cultural cuisine, and taste preferences into account) that leverage behavioral science to support lasting dietary change and, ultimately, improved health outcomes. ("Precision Health meets HelloFresh meets Meals on Wheels")
👉 Trova Health: A virtual mental health care network of experts who know the challenges of global living and expat life, in your language, and in your time zone. ("Mental Health meets Remote Work")
Know of a startup that should be on our radar? Let us know!
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