‍

30 June 2023: London, UK. Despite the worst fundraising environment since 2017[1], London-based Fertifa has successfully raised a £5 million seed round, led by leading SaaS investors Notion Capital alongside Triple Point Ventures. Other investors who participated include Conviction, Calm/Storm, Tiny.vc, EQT Foundation and angel investors Eamon Jubbawy, Catherine and Jonathan Lenson, Dorothy Chou, Caroline and Mike Hudack and Scott Mackin who joined existing and follow-on investors including Passion Capital, Lemonade Stand, Speedinvest and existing angels Tom Blomfield (co-founder of Monzo), Adam Knight and Jeremy Yap, among others.

The financing round followed a pre-seed extension last summer led by Speedinvest and underscores investors’ confidence in Fertifa’s traction as well as the social imperative and massive commercial market opportunity around reproductive, hormonal and sexual health benefits.

The company already counts companies of all sizes, from large corporates to small SMEs, across all sectors including financial services and banking to retail as contracted clients. Just some of the workplaces offering Fertifa support and services to its employees include lululemon, Bain Capital, Space NK, RAPP, Osborne Clarke, Centrica and Virgin, among others. As of April this year, Fertifa is also the exclusive provider of Aviva UK’s Family Planning and Fertility Benefit for Optimum and Optimum Referral schemes (1,000+ members).

While increasing its revenues 10x over the last year, the company has also processed reimbursement claims and saved its patients more than £1.5 million in the same period through employer-funded allowances. In doing so, it has saved those employers nearly £250,000 in compliance, by identifying ineligible claims. Also within the past year, several “Fertifa babies” have been born, the most recent being three weeks ago — and more crucially, the company has helped thousands of individuals (i.e., workplace client employees and Fertifa patients) navigate the often perplexing and anxiety-inducing journeys of fertility preservation (egg/embryo or sperm freezing), planning, treatment cycles (IVF, IUI, ICSI, etc), menopause, contraception, endometriosis, PCOS, fibroids, STIs, surrogacy and adoption, as well as men’s sexual health.

Fertifa was founded in 2019 by Tony Chen and Nick Kuan to provide impartial advice and wellbeing support to as many individuals as possible so they could make the best decisions for their unique and individual circumstances. Since January 2022, Eileen Burbidge, who led the pre-seed round with her Passion Capital partner, Malin Posern, has been at the helm of the business developing its commercial footprint, partnerships, breadth of service and investments in best-in-class clinical care.

This recent funding round will enable Fertifa to continue investing in its team, product, and clinical services – as well as launch adjacent services such as treatment financing, off the back of its unique experience in administering employer allowances and reimbursements. While the company’s mission is to provide reproductive healthcare access to any individual irrespective of their gender, age, sexual orientation or relationship status, over time, the ambition of the company is to establish itself as the most trusted service provider for all personal health matters representing a new dimension of employer-funded private pay healthcare provision in Europe.

Itxaso del Palacio, Partner at Notion Capital said, “Although there is 8x more spent on assisted reproductive technology (ART, including IVF, IUI, ICSI, etc) in Europe over the US, there are three unicorn companies in the US and none in Europe. It’s clear that there is a massive opportunity for a team with commitment to better outcomes to make a significant impact. We believe we have found this in Fertifa and are excited to see what can be achieved.”

Manuel Antunes, Investment Manager at Triple Point Ventures said, “Reproductive health has a large care gap in Europe. It's been overlooked in European public health systems and not covered by most private insurance plans. We can therefore draw comparisons between the American payer system and the European system in this area, allowing us to rely on American success precedents for our European thesis. Fertifa has emerged as the leader in the UK market, and we're proud to partner with them for further success in Europe.”

Deepali Nangia, Partner at Speedinvest who led the previous funding round said, “It is about time corporates understand the importance of supporting their employees in their health and well-being and not solely rely on the overburdened public health care system. Fertifa, for us, is doing exactly this by enabling better care and outcomes in reproductive and family health leading to a healthier and more productive workforce.”

Eileen Burbidge, Executive Director of Fertifa said, “It has been a privilege working with the Fertifa team since early last year — and even more so to work with all of our clients and their employees. Providing our patients with wellbeing support funded by their workplaces brings such peace of mind for them — and reflects and evidences those employers’ commitments to DE&I and supporting employee wellbeing at particularly sensitive times and when those employees are more valuable to the business 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.”

‍

About Notion Capital

Notion Capital is a European B2B SaaS and Cloud VC with more than $1bn assets under management and with more than 100 investments to date. The Notion team founded, built and exited two highly successful SaaS businesses - Star and MessageLabs - and invests exclusively in exceptional founders with the ambition to build global category leaders. The Notion portfolio includes GoCardless, Mews, Paddle, Unbabel and YuLife. Notion is also the founder of Included VC, the venture capital fellowship for individuals from diverse and overlooked communities from around the world.

About Triple Point Ventures

Triple Point Ventures is an early stage B2B investor in the UK, investing in software, healthcare, fintech, the future of work and climate.

‍

[1] Total venture capital raised by startups plunged 80% from Q1 2022  to Q1 2023. Venture deal count fell 45% over the same span. Overall, Q1 was the slowest quarter for both capital raised and deal count since 2017, source: https://carta.com/blog/state-of-private-markets-q1-2023/

[2] 42% of women consider leaving their jobs due to symptoms of perimenopause and menopause, source: https://www.lattelounge.co.uk/42-of-women-consider-leaving-job-due-to-menopause/

[3] More than 70% of millennials say they would leave their job for another for more attractive fertility benefits, source: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/news/what-each-age-group-wants-in-a-job-6021154