Elektra Well being, a digital well being firm for girls going by means of menopause, has secured $3.3 million in prolonged seed funding, which it would use to broaden its care to extra sufferers, it introduced Wednesday.
New York Metropolis-based Elektra Well being, based in 2019, gives digital scientific look after menopause in New York, Connecticut and Florida (and shortly Massachusetts and Pennsylvania). This scientific care features a customized care plan, labs, prescriptions and digital visits with a care group. Throughout all 50 states, the corporate additionally gives academic content material, messaging with a menopause information, a personalised wellness plan and group assist. Elektra Well being works with well being plans, together with Mass Basic Brigham Well being Plan and EmblemHealth. The corporate additionally works straight with some employers and gives a money pay choice for shoppers.
“The healthcare system right this moment privileges the reproductive window and actually something associated to household constructing and maternal well being. … I absolutely agree that we want significantly better care and assist for the maternal well being journey, but it surely mustn’t come on the exclusion of how we care for girls in order that they will reside in good well being and have good high quality outcomes for these years that observe that menopause transition,” stated Jannine Versi, co-founder and COO of the corporate, in an interview.
The $3.3 million in funding was led by UPMC Enterprises, the enterprise capital arm of UPMC. Wavemaker 360, Flare Capital Companions and Seven Seven Six Fund additionally participated within the funding spherical. In whole, the corporate has raised $7.6 million.
UPMC selected to spend money on Elektra Well being due to its purpose to fill an unmet want in girls’s well being.
“UPMC is all in favour of investing in options that concentrate on empowering girls and Elektra proved to have all the weather UPMC values on this house: evidence-based schooling and care that prioritizes girls’s well being wants and drives outcomes,” stated Kathryn Heffernan, senior director of strategic product administration at UPMC Enterprises, in a press release. “The purpose of the Elektra platform is to fill a spot and supply revolutionary alternatives to strengthen the doctor-patient relationship as girls transfer by means of the menopause transition.”
With the financing, Elektra Well being is concentrated on two areas: partnering with extra payers and increasing its footprint to supply scientific care to extra sufferers, Versi stated. The corporate can be rising its group.
Nearly each girl will undergo menopause, however solely 20% of OB/GYN residency applications within the U.S. present menopause coaching. Ladies experiencing menopause face a spread of signs, together with scorching flashes, bother sleeping, mind fog and temper modifications. As well as, current analysis from Mayo Clinic exhibits that menopause prices $1.8 billion in misplaced work time per 12 months.
However menopause care has been gaining extra traction just lately. Recognizing the necessity amongst feminine employees, increasingly more employers want to supply menopause assist. A number of different digital suppliers are additionally within the house and are devoted to menopause remedy, together with Evernow, Gennev and Midi Well being. And there’s a rising recognition that girls’s well being is just not a “monolith,” Versi stated.
“As with each different a part of healthcare, we will’t kind of lump collectively the healthcare providers and desires of fifty% of the inhabitants and name it a day,” Versi declared. “I feel this funding represents a sophistication out there because it pertains to buyers and stakeholders who take into consideration girls’s well being over the lifespan.”
Photograph: :Peter Dazeley, Getty Pictures
