This News Digest Brought to You by
BUNDL
BY: ERIN FLYNN JAY
According to two venture capitalists in the women’s health space, the top five venture capital raises of 2022 for Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) companies were:
Maven Clinic – Series E at $90M
Oma Fertility--Series A at $29M
AiVF – Series A at $25M
Gameto – Seed at $23M
Alife – Series A at $22M
The analysis was offered by two different venture capitalists who do not work together and who both wished not to be named. The raises do not include other businesses that look at provide prenatal or post-natal care, menopause, or contraception.
Who was behind these venture capital fund raises and what are they using the money for?
In November 2022, Maven Clinic, the largest virtual clinic in women's and family health, announced it raised a $90 million Series E funding round. According to a Maven Clinic press release, this was led by General Catalyst, with participation from CVS Health Ventures, La Famiglia, and Intermountain Ventures, as well as existing investors Sequoia, Oak HC/FT, Icon Ventures, Dragoneer Investment Group, and Lux Capital.
This brought Maven's total funding to $300 million.
Maven is using this new funding to continue to invest in personalization across its platform in both commercial and Medicaid populations.
Oma Fertility raised $29M through Seed and Series A rounds led by JAZZ Venture Partners, Root Ventures, Mithril Capital, Global Asset Capital, and Free Solo Ventures in addition to a $8.5M debt facility led by Silicon Valley Bank according to their June 2022 press release. Oma Fertility also purchases fertility clinics and is building De Novo IVF centers. They are associated with Oma Sperm Insight and Oma Robotics.
In June 2022, AiVF®, developer of the first fully operational AI-based IVF software platform, announced in a company press release that it raised $25 million in a Series A round led by Insight Partners, a New York-based venture capital and private equity firm with participation from Adam Neumann’s Family Office, 166 2nd.
AiVF is using the funding to fuel adoption of the company’s AI platform, EMA™ in the United States and Europe, expand its work force and develop additional solutions to drive a new generation of digital fertility care.
AiVF did not respond to requests for comment on their expanded capacity to serve the US and European markets.
In January 2022, Gameto, a biotechnology start-up solving the problem of accelerated ovarian aging to change the trajectory of women's health and equality, announced it raised a $20 million in Series A funding led by Future Ventures, with participation from Bold Capital Partners, Lux Capital, Plum Alley, TA Ventures, Overwater Ventures, Robert Nelsen and Anne Wojcicki.
Gameto also raised $3 million in Seed funding in March 2020 from a range of notable investors including Jack Abraham, SALT Fund, FJ Labs, Dan Rose and Brian Armstrong, according to a company press release.
The Series A funding was led by venture-capital firm Future Ventures. Founded by Steve Jurvetson and Maryanna Saenko, Future Ventures focuses on early-stage disruptive technologies.
Gameto is building a platform for ovarian therapeutics to initially address menopause and improve assisted fertility with three sequenced programs:
Fertilo. Treats oocytes outside of the body, increasing maturation rates and oocyte quality to improve IVF and egg freezing outcomes.
Deovo. To initiate drug discovery and a computational platform for ovarian aging.
Ameno. A cell-based therapeutic to disassociate the unwanted effects of menopause that occur with the loss of fertility.
In March 2022, Alife Health, the fertility technology company building artificial intelligence tools to advance in-vitro fertilization (IVF), announced it raised $22 million in Series A financing co-led by existing Seed lead Deena Shakir at Lux Capital, and new investors Rebecca Kaden at Union Square Ventures and Anarghya Vardhana at Maveron, both of whom joined Alife's Board of Directors.
With its new funding, Alife brought its first two products to market and continues conducting clinical studies for a third product. Alife's first medical product, Stim Assist, was released in October 2022. It is used during the ovarian stimulation process.
Alife also released its first patient product late last year. Upon conducting extensive interviews with past IVF patients, Alife identified the need to streamline and organize the IVF process. With Alife's mobile app, patients gain a comprehensive platform that includes educational resources and easy-to-use organizational tools for medication reminders, appointments, lab results, and more.
"Looking into 2023, there is still a large amount of capital that funds must deploy in the near future, but I expect that they will be very selective on who they fund" remarks Dr. Eduardo Hariton, a practicing REI physician who is the Managing Director of US Fertility's Innovation Fund. "Companies who have not been able to achieve product-market fit or meet previous milestones may struggle to raise further capital. Ultimately, this may lead to some consolidation of companies in our space."
The themes reported in this publication are those of the news. They do not reflect the views of Inside Reproductive Health, nor of the Advertiser
IVF Patient Drop Out Rises, Patients Seek Fertility Clinic
The number of patients who do not continue after a failed IVF cycle is on the rise at some IVF centers.
To counter the decrease in IVF revenue, fertility centers are turning to partners who have IVF-ready, financially qualified patients, but who don’t yet have a fertility clinic.
Courtney from BUNDL has a list of treatment-ready patients in each city. There is no fee but the offer is for the US and Canada only.
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