A reproductive well being start-up run by considered one of Britain’s most outstanding enterprise capitalists has clinched a £5m funding spherical regardless of a tough financing marketplace for early-stage corporations.
Sky News understands that Fertifa, which offers company purchasers with wellbeing providers for workers going through fertility and different sexual well being challenges, will announce on Friday that it has raised the cash from blue-chip traders together with Notion Capital and Triple Point Ventures.
The firm has processed greater than £1.5m price of employer-funded reimbursements to workers for fertility remedies within the final 12 months.
Its purchasers embrace Lululemon, Meta, Bain Capital, Space NK, the regulation agency Osborne Clarke, Centrica and Virgin.
It can also be the unique supplier of the insurer Aviva UK’s household planning and fertility profit for numerous profit schemes.
Fertifa sells its providing based mostly on a per-employee, per-month pricing mannequin, and gives reimbursement administration by charging a 5% payment on transaction volumes.
Reproductive and sexual well being wellbeing providers have develop into an more and more essential factor of worker profit packages at main corporations in recent times, though solely a minority provide them at present.
Fertifa, which raised a pre-seed spherical final 12 months led by Speedinvest, is run by Eileen Burbidge, the founding father of Passion Capital and an investor in well-known start-ups such because the digital financial institution Monzo.
Ms Burbidge mentioned: “Providing our sufferers with wellbeing assist funded by their workplaces brings such peace of thoughts for them – and displays and evidences these employers’ commitments to [diversity, equity and inclusion] and supporting worker wellbeing at notably delicate occasions and when these workers are extra worthwhile to the enterprise than ever.
“There is such an obvious commercial business case to employee wellbeing, particularly when it relates to reproductive health journeys, and we are proud to deliver it better than anyone else in Europe.”
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Fertifa facilitates providers geared toward males’s reproductive well being in addition to helping ladies going by means of the menopause and different facets of grownup sexual well being.
The firm mentioned it had grown revenues greater than tenfold during the last 12 months, and had saved employer purchasers practically £250,000 by means of the identification of ineligible claims.
Founded in 2019 by Tony Chen and Nick Kuan, Ms Burbidge has been operating Fertifa since early final 12 months.
Itxaso del Palacio, a companion at Notion Capital, mentioned: “Although there is eight times more spent on assisted reproductive technology in Europe than the US, there are three unicorn companies in the US and none in Europe.
“It’s clear that there’s a large alternative for a crew with dedication to raised outcomes to make a major affect.
“We believe we have found this in Fertifa and are excited to see what can be achieved.”
Manuel Antunes, funding supervisor at Triple Point Ventures, mentioned that reproductive well being had been “overlooked in European public health systems and not covered by most private insurance plans”.
Recent analysis means that 42% of ladies contemplate leaving their jobs as a result of signs of perimenopause and menopause.
Fertifa is concentrating on being the UK market chief within the sector inside 12 months, after which within the EMEA area by the tip of 2024.
Based in London, it’s also getting ready to launch a financing product to assist purchasers’ workers fund their use of reproductive well being providers.
Source: information.sky.com”