UK femtech Flo Health is set to raise more than $200m in equity from US growth investor General Atlantic — a backer of companies like Uber and Airbnb.
The period-tracking app’s Series C is the joint-biggest ever raise for a femtech — along with US fertility startup Prelude Fertility — according to data platform Dealroom. It also gives Europe its first femtech unicorn and takes Flo’s total funding to more than $290m.
All the funds have been committed and a stock purchase agreement has been signed, cofounder and CEO Dmitry Gurski tells Sifted. The funding round is expected to close in coming weeks, subject to regulatory approvals.
Flo will use the funds to expand into new user segments like perimenopause and menopause and invest in R&D for AI-driven personalised insights tools.
Europe’s first femtech unicorn
While in the US just a few femtechs have hit unicorn status — including fertility clinics Maven and Kindbody — in Europe the sector’s unicorn stable has been bare until now. Previously, the largest raise by a femtech startup was Elvie’s £70m Series C, picked up across two rounds in 2021.
Flo isn’t disclosing what its exact valuation will be when the funds hit its account, but Gurski tells Sifted the company hit a pre-money valuation of $1bn. “Reaching unicorn status is a significant milestone for Flo and the entire femtech industry,” he says.
It comes after a challenging time in the market across the last couple years, says Gurski. “But despite everything, Flo has shown steady, significant growth, after more than eight years of continuous expansion.”
Flo’s revenue in 2023 was $112m — up from $35m in 2022, according to the company’s latest annual accounts. Losses over the same period fell from $35m to $25m. The company has just under 500 employees globally, Gurski tells Sifted.
It plans to deploy some of the fresh capital to increase R&D headcount with “investments in top-tier talent across [our] global offices in Europe and North America,” Gurski says.
On longer-term plans, he tells Sifted that, “while we’re not announcing specific IPO plans at this time, this funding broadens our range of future paths and gives us the flexibility to choose the best path forward for Flo’s continued success and impact in the women’s health space.” Gurski adds: “Our immediate focus remains on executing our growth strategy and further solidifying our position as a leader in femtech.”
The most downloaded women’s health app
Flo was founded in 2015 — a year before the term “femtech” was first coined by Ida Tin, founder of soon-to-be rival period tracking app Clue. It’s since grown into the most-downloaded women’s health app on both Google Play and AppStore, according to market insights platform Sensor Tower.
Flo’s platform allows users to track their period cycle and monitor symptoms, as well as providing them with tailored health insights and educational content.
The startup says it has 70m monthly active users and close to 5m paid subscribers as of June 2024. About 50% of those are based in the US, with the remaining half split evenly between the UK and EU.
Historically underfunded
Femtech has long been considered an underfunded sector. In 2023 European startups raised just $191m, a fraction of the $9.7bn shelled out on the wider healthtech sector. On top of that funding in the wider digital health sector — which encompasses the vast majority of femtechs — has been hit hard by the downturn.
But despite that, Flo isn’t the only femtech that’s raised a sizeable sum in 2024. In May, Swedish digital birth control startup Natural Cycles picked up $55m, one of the largest European digital health rounds of the year.
Others haven’t been so fortunate. At the start of 2023, Clue announced it was making layoffs and audio erotica site Emjoy shuttered earlier this year.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/flo-health-unicorn-raise-news/
