Democratizing fertility care thanks to AI
Our venture Ovom Care announced a €4.8 million seed round to make reproductive care more successful and affordable
Our venture Ovom Care today announced a €4.8 million seed round that will propel the company forward on its journey unifying advanced AI technology with modern fertility care. Sifted broke the news in a great story this morning!
Ovom was born — sorry, no pun intended — out of our company building efforts at Merantix. Ovom’s CEO Felicia von Reden joined us as an entrepreneur-in-residence and worked with us on a big question: how can we leverage technology to democratize fertility care, increasing access and affordability across the globe?
In a competitive market, Ovom has had fast traction, treating more than 100 patients. But what really makes Ovom special is its amazing all-female founding team working across tech, medicine, and embryology: Felicia, Dr. Lynae Brayboy, and Dr. Cristina Hickman.
Merantix was proud to participate in this seed round, which was led by Alpha Intelligence Capital and supported by Ananda Impact Ventures.
I sat down with Felicia to discuss how Ovom Care got to where it is today and what comes next.
Rasmus: What’s the biggest problem with how fertility is currently being treated and why did you create Ovom Care to help solve that?
Felicia: Reproductive care today is very archaic and non-data driven. We see three core problems in the reproductive care industry. First, low success rates in achieving the desired outcome - a life birth rate. Success rates average today around 35% in the European market. This leaves patients with the need for multiple rounds of fertility treatment. However, those treatments are extremely expensive. In the UK up to 8-10k per IVF cycle. This makes care inaccessible for the vast majority of us. Also, public care is available in some countries but connected with low quality care and years-long waiting lists as well as heavy restrictions of who is eligible to get access to care. Finally, care today is not patient-centric. It's inconvenient, stressful, analoge. It doesn't allow for the transparency and support that patients in the 21st century expect and desire.
Why did you create Ovom Care?
We created Ovom Care with the mission to enable more successful, accessible and convenient reproductive care - leveraging modern technology, specifically AI to hyper-personalize treatment for every patient. No more one-size-fits-all but tailored care to each patient's unique biology and reproductive goals.
Our technology allows for higher success rates in treatment - reducing the time to baby for our patients. We enable value-based pricing to alleviate the financial risk of patients. Lastly, while creating a technology driven ecosystem that is designed to cater to the patients needs for transparency, continuous support and an informed fertility journey. We put the patient in control of their reproductive health.
How does Ovom Care use AI solutions to create better patient outcomes?
In a few different ways. We create a treatment optimization algorithm that personalized every step across the treatment journey based on patient data.
This means that we are developing a medical decision support ecosystem which guides the clinician & embryologist in their decision making to adjust the decisions so that the overall treatment success for that patient is maximized. For example: Adjusting the dosage of medication throughout the stimulation phase based on the patient's unique biology, diagnostic results, and response to administered medication. This then results in the recommendation for a higher or lower dosage and adjusted timing.
We apply the same logic for every single step across the fertility care journey to then maximize the chances of the whole process - increasing the chances of success.
You’ve already treated more than 100 patients having just recently founded the company. What have you learned so far when it comes to treatment that surprised you?
This isn't really a surprise, but patients want to be in the know. They want to know exactly what is happening, why it is happening and what are their chances. The times of the clinic being a “black-box” and we are experiencing care today are over. Our algorithms and digital ecosystem is designed to cater exactly that need. Being with the patient every step of the way, supporting them with information and explanation to create transparency.
You have a London clinic and are looking to Portugal next. What made you think of those markets and how do you think about geography and location when it comes to growing the business?
Regulation is one of the most important aspects when considering locations. Reproductive care is highly regulated and this regulation varies across different countries in terms of what kind of treatments are allowed. The UK and Portugal are both very progressive.
Additionally, as we are focusing significantly on medical tourism we wanted to choose a country that allows broad access to the European market but also to the US market. Portugal has gained significantly in popularity for both markets. We are combining high-tech fertility care with a serene environment in which the patient can feel comfortable. Traveling to Portugal as a couple, returning as a family.
Accessibility and access to care is a big priority for you. Can you describe a little bit about how and why Ovom Care is able to offer better pricing (and thus more access/flexibility) for treatment?
There are multiple aspects. The first is value based pricing. Aligning the interest between the clinic and the patient, we offer a “no baby, no fee” scheme. If the patient does not achieve pregnancy with us, they do not have to pay for their treatment. This eliminates the risk of not being able to achieve a pregnancy and on top of that having to pay significant amounts for treatment. This also highlights our confidence in our technology improving success chances and enabling patients to achieve their goals.
Also, we are already today offering financing solutions in partnership with third party providers and are currently expanding those offerings to allow for easy financing over a longer period of time, spreading cost of treatment over time.
Overall, we can reduce the cost for treatment. Automation and digitalization of the process allows us to save time for our personnel that was spent on tedious, lengthy, repetitive tasks. Eliminating this allows the team to focus on what matters - spending time with the patient. This also means that we can reduce the cost per treatment as less time involvement is required with staff being one of the main cost drivers in fertility care.
In 10 years time, what does modern fertility care look like and how is Ovom Care involved?
In 10 years we have achieved making IVF care successful for every person, believing that we will enter an era of enhancing the individual fertility of both women and men instead of maximizing the chances limited by biology.
Additionally, we believe fertility care will be democratized with smaller entities requiring much smaller labs to perform fertility care. This brings care closer to patients homes and makes it drastically less expensive. Similar to visiting your gynecologist.
Read more about Ovom Care on their website, or follow their journey on Linkedin.