Femtech, the integration of AI, smartphones, and wearables to provide insights into women’s reproductive and menstrual health, is gaining momentum with users. Investors are also showing interest in this growing sector.
London-based Flo Health, a fertility-focused period-tracking app, announced a successful $200 million Series C funding round led by General Atlantic. This funding round values the startup at over $1 billion post-money, making it the first “purely digital” femtech app to achieve unicorn status. Despite the lack of clear comparisons in the femtech category, Flo Health’s achievement is noteworthy.
Despite facing challenges like a privacy-related regulatory investigation from the Federal Trade Commission, Flo Health has experienced significant growth. The company boasts 380 million users globally, with 70 million monthly active users on the free version and 5 million paying for the premium version.
The new funding will be utilized to attract more users, particularly focusing on menopause and perimenopause, and potentially pursuing acquisitions. General Atlantic, the lead investor, expressed confidence in Flo Health’s vision for women’s health and wellness, highlighting the company’s leadership in the category.
Investors have poured nearly $5 billion into femtech startups in the last three years, a 60% increase from the previous years, driven by technological advancements and the increasing importance of digital health in the healthcare industry.
Flo Health’s journey was spearheaded by CEO Dmitry Gurski and his twin brother, both tech talents with a history of building health and fitness apps. The company aims to revolutionize women’s health by providing personalized, accurate insights throughout their reproductive journey.
TechCrunch: Many femtech startups like Elvie also build hardware as part of their product. Do you have any plans in that area? If not, what’s on the horizon for Flo?
Dmitry Gurski: We don’t have any plans to build hardware into our product. Our priority is to continue integrations with devices like Apple Watch and deliver a personalized experience for users across ages and demographics, and personal health goals. This includes providing accurate cycle and symptom predictions, improving personalized health insights, and strengthening our localization in international regions.
Flo Health’s success lies in its commitment to empowering women with extensive features, such as ‘Anonymous Mode’ for privacy and a Symptom Checker for personalized health insights. The platform offers curated cycle and ovulation tracking, allowing users to monitor over 70 symptoms and access various tools to manage their health effectively.
The company’s stance on user privacy is reflected in its dual certifications for security and privacy, holding both ISO 27001 Security and ISO 27701 Privacy certifications.
As Flo Health continues to grow, its focus remains on expanding its user base, especially targeting women in perimenopause and menopause stages. The company’s subscription-based model will continue to be the core of its business strategy.
With a dedicated team of experts and a strong presence in North America and Western Europe, Flo Health aims to cater to users across various demographics, offering a comprehensive platform for women’s health and wellness.
Flo Health acknowledges the importance of user trust and data protection, implementing strict measures to safeguard individual data and privacy rights.
The company’s success in the market is attributed to its unwavering commitment to delivering a high-quality product tailored to a vast customer base.
