Investing in Female Health
Digital health is happening now. At NGP, my team and I firmly believe that healthcare is going to be transformed due to the widespread adoption of mobile devices and wearables that enable a completely new way of collecting and analyzing health-related data. Preventive healthcare is going to take a bigger role as more health data is digitalized and it can be analyzed and transformed into actionable recommendations improving outcomes at lower costs. According to its recent mHealth report, research firm Ketchum found that nearly 60 percent of U.S. smartphone owners already use mobile devices to manage their health and wellbeing, and we expect this trend to continue driving further digitalization of healthcare.
NGP recently led a $20 million Series B investment in Clue, a fertility and cycle tracker service. By empowering women to track and discover patterns in their cycle, Clue leverages mobile technology to help women better understand their bodies. Female health is an important topic that has tremendous impact on general health. For example, according to an estimate by WHO, modern contraceptive use by 300 million women across the 69 focus countries averted an estimated 82 million unintended pregnancies, 25 million unsafe abortions, and 124,000 maternal deaths in 2016.” We believe that over time digital services can have an impact of similar magnitude on female health as contraceptive use. However, the premise that technology and smart product design can be leveraged to improve female health is an area that has not received a lot of attention in the technology industry to date but there is a tremendous opportunity to innovate.
During our first meeting almost two years ago when Clue consisted of just a few employees working out of Berlin’s hip Kreuzberg district, we saw something unique in the company’s mission to support reproductive health with a digital solution and we were impressed with the user experience of their service, so we started following the company closely. Since then, Clue has attracted capital from leading investors, built their team and expanded their active user base to a more than 5 million strong community.
Our decision to support Clue and lead a new financing round was driven by three primary factors:
#1. The Opportunity
Clue serves a huge market, addressing issues that concern half of the world’s population during most of their lifetime. However, as female health and topics like family planning is not a matter that should be limited to only females themselves, the company also launched Clue Connect — a way to allow users to connect and share insights with partners and others close ones. As global investors with presence in India, China, Europe and the United States, we strongly believe that Clue is a company that can have a global impact by offering a digital solution that is accessible to the growing smartphone population everywhere.
#2. The Solution
Clue is offering a best-in-class user experience through a predictive calendar that gives you an idea of when your next period is about to start. An average user puts in around 40 data points each month — ranging from parameters such as pain and emotions to sleep and exercise — and the solution identifies patterns and offers personalized suggestions for users. Clue’s strong engagement metrics stand out in comparison to other mobile services and confirm that the easy-to-use service offers value -long term.
#3. The Team
Clue is led by a visionary founding team. Ida Tin, the CEO, has surrounded herself with a capable team and active stakeholders and built an impressively mission-driven organization that puts the user at the center of everything it does.
Clue is primed to lead the market based on its mission driven team and best-in-class solution. We are privileged to join the Clue family and look forward to supporting the team’s continued efforts to build solutions for female health, globally.
