Maven Clinic, which provides online health services to women and families, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $110 million in funding, bringing its valuation to more than $1 billion, a first for an American company in the world. area of women’s and family health. .
“I’m very excited for the vote of confidence in not just us but the category itself,” said Kate Ryder, Founder and CEO of Maven Clinic.
“There’s a lot of research on the first 1,000 days of life, and if you just invest in that period – up to age 2 – you can have a huge return on investment in the rest of the system because that these kids have better tools to go through life,” she said.
Maven Clinic’s telehealth platform includes access to a network of providers, including fertility specialists, adoption coaches, doulas, lactation consultants, pediatricians, and child care providers. children. Individuals can participate on a usage basis, but most of its business comes from companies, including Snap, Bumble, L’Oreal and Microsoft, which offer it as employee benefits.
Less than a week after Microsoft offered Maven Clinic as a benefit in March, 1,300 employees had signed up, said Sonja Kellen, senior director of global health and wellness at Microsoft. Now, a few months later, 2,300 employees are using the platform.
“You don’t really know how many people are on this journey — building a family or starting a family — until you start something like this,” she said.
The company, which was founded in 2014, did not disclose the current number of members. But he said his membership had soared 400% since the start of the pandemic.
“Covid has accelerated all digital health ventures,” Ms. Ryder said, but people “are also starting to prioritize health equity, women’s health, and family health.”
The pandemic has helped expose weaknesses in the patchwork of childcare systems and the gender and racial inequities of the healthcare system, and it has caused business leaders to focus on support and retention employees with families, she said.
“All the trends kind of converged for us,” she added.
Around 15% of in-person referrals made through the platform are for childcare support, and since March 2020 around a quarter of scheduled appointments have been with mental health providers – an indication of stress and difficulties of working parents.
Next, Ryder wants to reduce the barrier to quality health care for low-income families.
“A Medicaid mom who is black and has an increased risk of maternal mortality — she needs a personalized Maven experience as much as the member who works at a company in Dallas or New York,” she said.
The funding was led by Dragoneer Investment Group and Lux Capital and included an investment from Oprah Winfrey.
