Why We Invested: Ovom
Making reproductive healthcare more successful, patient-centric, and accessible for all with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Ananda has invested in Ovom’s EUR 4.8 million seed round alongside Alpha Intelligence Capital and Merantix. Ovom is revolutionising fertility care, utilising data insights and artificial intelligence to transform how individuals confront the challenges of becoming a parent.
Ovom is pioneering new approaches to fertility treatment, utilising its own fertility clinics and forging strategic partnerships, all while developing the Ovom AI software platform. This innovative system significantly improves the chances of successful conception, expands access to fertility services, reduces treatment costs, and enhances the overall patient experience. Through these pioneering efforts, Ovom offers substantial hope to numerous individuals and couples eager to begin or expand their families.
The global fertility crisis
Globally, 17.5% of the adult population — roughly 1 in 6 — experience infertility. Factors such as delayed parenting, unhealthy lifestyles, and environmental toxins contribute to escalating infertility rates, inflicting profound psychological distress on par with life-threatening diseases like cancer.
For many, in vitro fertilisation (IVF) represents a beacon of hope on their journey to becoming a parent. The process involves harvesting eggs and fertilising them with sperm in a laboratory setting, followed by the transfer of embryos to the uterus. Success often requires multiple IVF cycles, with outcomes varying widely among individuals and age groups. Despite its promise, IVF presents considerable financial and emotional challenges, with treatment costs ranging from EUR 15–30k and success rates hovering around 35%, making it unaffordable for many to go through this process.
Revolutionising IVF treatment with AI
For the past forty years, the field of fertility care has seen little to no innovation, leading to static success rates. Ovom is set to revolutionise this by applying AI to optimise and improve the current treatment process in the short- to mid-term, and radically altering the approach to treating infertility with biomedical breakthroughs in the future.
While fertility has seen AI applications in specific areas like sperm quality analysis and embryo selection, Ovom introduces a pioneering approach by synthesising these siloed domains into a cohesive whole. This holistic approach, confirmed by our expert conversations and initial evidence of the Ovom pilot clinic in London, demonstrates that understanding and addressing the interplay of various fertility factors is key to maximising treatment success.
Ovom’s AI is engineered to consider fertility nuances and their interdependencies, empowered by exhaustive data collection across the entire treatment spectrum. Furthermore, it is the foundation for cutting-edge bioscience and research of, as of today, unexplored fields of fertility. Those findings, created as IP within Ovom, do not just bring forward our understanding of human fertility but also create a long-term competitive advantage for Ovom. By integrating a hybrid clinic model, Ovom significantly reduces patient visits through digitisation and at-home diagnostics, minimising disruptions in their lives and treatment costs. This strategy democratises access to fertility treatments, ushering in an era of accessible, patient-focused care.
Ovom and Ananda: the perfect match
Women’s Health is underfunded and under researched, with a mere 2% of medical research funds allocated to this crucial field. This oversight has resulted in a profound data shortage on health issues that predominantly or solely impact women. Ananda steps up to address this urgent need, aware of the significant societal impact and the vast market potential, considering women represent half of the world’s population. Enhancing our understanding of ovarian and fertility issues could significantly increase women’s control over their bodies, potentially initiating an era of equality as profound as that ushered in by the contraceptive pill. With a commitment to changing the status quo, Ananda has immersed itself, over the past 18 months, in identifying and supporting the most innovative and impactful early-stage startups in Women’s Health, leading us to partner with Ovom.
From the moment we met Felicia, the CEO of Ovom, we were captivated by Ovom innovative approach to transforming fertility care through a blend of product and medical advancements. The leadership team, comprising of Felicia, who brings a strong combination of leadership and business acumen, Cristina, the COO with a deep background as an embryologist, experience in running fertility clinics, and expertise in AI, and then Lynae, who is the Chief Medical Officer with a medical and clinical research background, formerly serving as CMO at Clue, forms a powerful founding trio.
Mascha Bonk, Investment Manager at Ananda, recalls, “The instant we witnessed Felicia’s pitch at a female founder event organised by Sie.Ventures, it was clear we were encountering something extraordinary. Their vision was expansive, and the all-female founding team was remarkable. They possessed a unique blend of visionary leadership, serial entrepreneurship, global credibility, and formidable expertise in scientific research.”
With each innovative stride, Ovom dismantles barriers, ushering in a new dawn of inclusivity and hope in reproductive healthcare. As we venture into the era of intelligent medicine, Ananda and Ovom join forces, steadfast in the conviction that the dream of a family is not a privilege but a possibility for all. Together, we pave the way towards a future where the wisdom of technology nurtures the creation of life.
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