New-York based femtech startup Health In Her HUE (HIHH) has raised a $1 million pre-seed Round to build a platform helping Black women and women of color easily access culturally sensitive healthcare providers, health content, and community. Investors in this round include Seae Ventures, The Genius Guild Greenhouse Fund, Unseen Capital, and Female Founders Alliance. Angel syndicates in this round include Pipeline Angels, BLXVC, and Bedua Partners.
HIHH seeks to fight racism in healthcare and improve outcomes for Black women and women of color. For example, according to the Center for Disease Control, Black women are two-to-three times more likely to die during childbirth than white women, but when they have a culturally sensitive doctor, their outcomes improve.
The platform already features nearly 1,000 culturally sensitive healthcare providers including doctors, doulas, midwives, lactation consultants, therapists, and nutritionists. It also has a large and growing community eager to use the platform and see it evolve. With the new funding, HIHH will be focused on developing a new platform and a membership experience that will offer women customized care support via tailored content, consults, care recommendations, and other benefits and perks.
HIHH Co-Founder & CEO Ashlee Wisdom said, “We know that Black women are looking for healthcare providers they can trust to listen to them and provide them culturally sensitive care. This shouldn’t have to mean only going to see a Black doctor or doctor of color, but if that’s a patient’s preference, it shouldn’t be as difficult as it currently is to find those providers. We see an opportunity to leverage technology to help make those connections, and provide content that will support all doctors, clinicians, and practitioners to provide more culturally sensitive care to the women using our platform.”
HIHH Co-founder and Chief Product Officer Eddwina Bright said, “Black women are looking for a trusted and central space to find connections to providers, health information, and community support. We’ve seen a lot of engagement with our content to-date, and women share how valuable they’ve found our master classes led by Black physicians. We want to take what we’ve learned from those masterclasses and develop well produced content with providers and practitioners of color. Now that we have funding, we’re excited to continue developing content that Black women will find engaging and relevant, which will help them be better informed and equipped to manage their health and find providers who can meet their needs.”
“Due to a historical lack of empathy and poor outcomes, a foundation of trust has never been built for many women of color engaging the healthcare ecosystem,” said Pete Sally, co-founder of Seae Ventures. “Through their unique platform, Health In Her HUE’s member and physician community have begun cementing the building blocks that will lead to equitable access, navigation, delivery and outcomes. Seae Ventures is thrilled to play a role supporting this long overdue mission.”
“Health In Her HUE is providing access to quality healthcare for Black women who have been traditionally overlooked and stymied from having successful birth outcomes,” said investor and epidemiologist Kathryn Finney who is CEO and General Partner of the Greenhouse Fund. “That is why Ashlee is one of the first investments from our Fund. She has tapped a marketplace that has been ignored for too long. As a Black-founded venture she and her team are uniquely positioned to provide quality care for the half a million Black women who give birth each year in the U.S.”
