ASV Insights presents the Top 10 Deals of 2023 where we will look at how recent major successes reflect the latest trends in women’s health and sexual wellbeing.
Founded in 2014, Israeli-based pregnancy care company, Nuvo Group, entered into an LOI to merge with LAMF Global Ventures, a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC). Nuvo is valued at $269 million with potential to grow to $300 million should Nuvo hit a specified commercial target. The LOI was signed in April of 2023 with the intention to close the transaction by Q1 2024, according to Femtech Insider.
Nuvo Group is a pioneer in pregnancy monitoring, leveraging hardware and data collection to improve quality of pregnancy care. Nuvo serves US based providers such as Penn Medicine, Axia Women’s Health, Banner Health, Ouma, and others.
It’s no secret that the US lacks in the maternal health category. America has the highest maternal mortality rate among developed nations – and it’s only getting worse. But founders and policy makers alike are determined to reverse this downward trend. In September 2023, as part of HHS’ Maternal Health Day of Action, the Biden-Harris administration promised to invest nearly $90 million through various HRSA programs to expand access to maternal health care. From an innovation perspective, we are seeing a surge in early-stage maternal health startups, focused on bringing affordable, quality care to mothers throughout their pregnancy journey. Fortunately, 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable with early intervention, monitoring, and specialized pregnancy services like doulas.
The market size further promotes pregnancy care productization. The maternal health market size is expected to grow from $23.9B in 2023 to $72.6B by 2032 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.9%.
Nuvo Group represents one of the many innovative startups looking to meet this increasing demand for maternal health services that are, at present day, dramatically underserved due to prohibitive costs, disparities in insurance coverage and lack of compassionate and inclusive care. Some early players like Mahmee aim to disrupt the status quo by working with providers and payors to offer pregnancy and post-partum services. Elythea represents another B2B2C model that leverages next generation machine learning to integrate with EMR systems to predict high risk pregnancies and prevent emergency outcomes.
Pregnancy care and care coordination are also offered by companies such as:
Partum Health – Seed stage. Partum is a Chicago based pregnancy care coordination platform offering services including birth doulas, postpartum doulas, lactation and feeding support, physical therapy, mental health services, nutrition support, acupuncture, and childbirth education.
Delfina Care – Series A stage. Delfina is a digital platform that connects patients and providers during pregnancy care. Patients are reassured knowing their providers are in the loop about their health and providers are offered a comprehensive data source to better understand their patients’ health in between visits.
Poppy Seed – Seed stage. Poppy Seed offers 24/7 on-demand text service that grants access to doulas, midwives, and nurses for wherever you are in your pregnancy or postpartum journey.
Marani Health – Series A. Marani is a platform that leverages both software and hardware to track patients’ health metrics during pregnancy and provide visibility to care providers.
Nessle – Pre-Seed stage. Nessle offers an online platform that connects new and expectant parents with perinatal experts for on-demand virtual care.
Quilted Health – Series B stage. Quilted is a midwife-led pregnancy and gynecology care platform. They offer full-stack clinics in Washington state and are expanding.
Maternal health ties in closely with mental health. With conversations on the rise about postpartum depression and new innovation including the FDA approved PPD medication, the explosion of pregnancy related health innovation is sure to continue.
