All Access

Health Tech Deals

Standard

Health Tech Deals Thought Bubble

Thought Bubble

Health Tech Deals Alerts

Alert

mustard

BFD Expert Voices - Health Tech Deals

BFD Expert Voices

Amid a booming fertility market, Progyny is expanding its reach to touch areas like menopause and male infertility, CEO Pete Anevski tells Axios.

Why it matters: Globally, fertility alone is an $8 billion opportunity, while the surrounding reproductive market has gained significant traction as well, Aaron writes.

Driving the news: Progyny reported Q3 earnings earlier this month, reporting a quarterly revenue boost of 37% to $281 million.

Adjusted EBITDA increased by 43% to $50 million.

What they're saying: "It does not seem like people are cutting back on benefits and we saw 20% of clients add an offering to their existing benefits," Anevski says.

"We will continue to explore other adjacencies that are focused on women's health or a segment that is underserved in women's health and also in family building," he says.

Progyny will launch products that address menopause, postpartum issues, maternal health, and pre-conception in January, with a male infertility offering planned after that.

What's next: While no acquisitions are imminently on Progyny's radar, the company continues to look at M&A regularly.

"Valuations continue to be frothy, given what's happening in the economy and funding, we will explore options and would love to find to something that makes sense."

Meanwhile, though Progyny started in the employer space, the company recently penetrated government plans.

"We got our foot in the door in the government space, with a population of 300,000 lives and this will be important for the future," Anevski says.

State of play: Next year will mark Progyny's ninth in the market — and over that almost decade, the fertility and family-building space has ballooned.

Cercle has raised $4.2 million to date, including backing from Sandberg Bernthal this month.

Sonio raised $14 million in Series A for prenatal screening in July.

Mate Fertility raised $5 million to tackle IVF provider shortage in May

Oula raised $19 million in Series A funding to flip the maternity care model in January.

Sunfish raised $4 million for fertility financing, also in January.

1 big thing: Progyny to birth new products across fertility, repro health

Illustration of a pregnancy test with a dollar sign appearing on the screen.

Reed Jobs' cancer-focused venture firm Yosemite made its first digital health bet on virtual cancer care coordination startup Maia Oncology, Maia founder Liya Shuster-Bier tells Erin exclusively.

Why it's the BFD: Cancer survivor Shuster-Bier experienced firsthand the struggle of coordinating her oncology treatment while managing a growing list of ailments caused by that treatment, including a heart condition and medically induced menopause.

Details: Yosemite and Takeda Digital Ventures co-led Maia's $4.25 million seed round and co-incubated the company.

Other round participants include the American Cancer Society's BrightEdge, BBG Ventures and Coalition Operators.

Funds will go toward honing Maia's go-to-market strategy, hiring more talent, and launching the company's first pilot in partnership with a cancer center and health insurance company.

Takeda also negotiated for Maia to acquire the assets of Shuster-Bier's previous cancer companion startup, Alula. All of Alula's investors are now investors in Maia, per Shuster-Bier.

What's next: Shuster-Bier foresees the company collecting a Series A sometime next fall.

What she's saying: "I entered cancer treatment as an otherwise healthy, half-marathon-running 29-year-old," says Shuster-Bier. "I left with a heart condition, medically-induced menopause, and high risk for skin and breast cancer."

"I often tell people: I'm less scared of dying from cancer than from what this treatment is going to do to me," Shuster-Bier adds.

How it works: Aiming to start serving patients by early 2024, Maia matches patients with a primary care team who coordinates treatment with their oncologist.

Using virtual and remote tools, Maia providers help patients manage symptoms and toxicities as they emerge while sharing information across caregivers through the patients' existing electronic health record.

Conditions include heart disease, metabolic disease, and hypertensive disorders that are precipitated and exacerbated by cancer treatment.

Maia will track patient outcomes including hospitalizations, ER visits, and development of new comorbidities and their severity.

Flashback: Reed Jobs, 31, debuted Yosemite in August. The company has since raised $200 million and is currently in the process of raising $400 million.

Yosemite is a spinoff of Emerson Collective, the Palo Alto impact investing firm founded by Laurene Powell Jobs.

State of play: Recent years have seen the emergence of venture-backed startups for cancer care navigation and management, but "no one's redesigning the care" in the way Maia aims to, says Shuster-Bier.

Jasper Health, an NYC-based cancer care navigation startup, last February raised $25 million in Series A funds and "may be back fundraising before next year," CEO Adam Pellegrini told Axios in August.

Thyme Care, a Nashville-based oncology management platform, in August collected $60 million in Series B funding.

The bottom line: "Our mission is to graduate healthier cancer survivors," Shuster-Bier says.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to note Yosemite has raised $200 million since its debut in August and is now in the process of raising $400 million.

2. The BFD: Jobs' Yosemite makes first health bet

Illustration of hundred dollar bills and coins arranged in the shape of a cancer ribbon.

Want more health tech deals? Check out the Axios Pro Deals Tracker beta.

• Route 92 Medical, a San Mateo, Calif.-based maker of medical devices for neurovascular intervention, raised $31m in Series F funding from insiders USVP, Norwest Venture Partners, InnovaHealth Partners, and The Vertical Group. www.route92medical.com

• Medmo, a New York-based medical imaging startup, raised $9m led by Lerer Hippeau and joined by insiders Jerusalem Venture Partners, C2 Ventures, and Stone IsraVentures. www.medmo.com

• Salus, an Istanbul, Turkey-based telemental health service, raised $4.7m in seed funding led by Northzone with participation from 500 Emerging Europe, Pitch Drive, the CVC arm of İş Bank, and insiders Collective Spark, Wamda Capital. https://axios.link/3uw90on

 • OSR Holdings, a South Korean pharma and medical device developer, agreed to go public via Bellevue Life Sciences Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: BLAC), a SPAC formed by Bellevue Capital Management. https://axios.link/47fn5VV

• Abris Capital Partners is seeking to sell Polish health care group Scanmed, with American Heart of Poland as the most likely buyer, per Reuters. https://axios.link/3uplC0L

3. Deals o' the day

• Greg Tracy, former VP of product development at ResMed, joined Wondr Health as CTO. https://wondrhealth.com/

• Jay Meyers, formerly chief growth officer at Quartet Health, joined Path as chief commercial officer. Also at Path, David Katcher, former head of global operations at Lyft, joined as COO and Tracey Scraba, formerly deputy general counsel at Signify Health, joined as the company's first general counsel. https://axios.link/47f3chC

4. It's Personnel

🩺 Just what the (Urgent Care) doctor ordered — NYT

📈 Employer-sponsored health care costs keep rising, and it's "sort of untenable" — Yahoo Finance

😷 U.S. to offer more free COVID tests nationwide — Reuters

5. Your daily dose

illustration of a digital thermometer that reads "daily dose" 

It's Monday, Health Tech readers, and the beginning of the Thanksgiving holiday week.

👨‍🍳 Aaron attended a pasta-making class last night and created handmade capellini, bow tie, pappardelle, and linguine. 

☑️ Thanks for reading, and extra thanks to newsletter editor Claire Rychlewski and copy editor Mickey Meece. Please ask your colleagues, friends, and family to sign up.

November 20, 2023

1 big thing: Progyny to birth new products across fertility, repro health