Pioneering a fertility and family planning benefits platform, Berlin-based Apryl has secured €4.1 million in a funding round led by Breega. Atlantic Labs, Crista Galli Ventures, Myelin VC, Alliance For Impact Ventures (a Ventech fund) and Westtech Ventures also contributed.
On a mission to enable companies to support employees on their path to parenthood, Apryl wants to introduce a new generation of inclusive employee benefits to the workplace – reflecting both the increasing awareness around fertility challenges and growing work-perk competition.
Founded in 2019 by Jenny Saft and Tobias Kaufhold, the startup was born from a simple observation – if Europeans are now having children later in life, fertility rates are continuing to decline with age. This, alongside the fact that fertility treatment is still a costly experience, inspired the concept behind Apryl and the development of the pioneering family forming benefits platform.
According to the WHO, 15% of the world’s population struggles with fertility, and it’s a growing and widespread problem, and more and more women over the age of 35 are remaining childless involuntarily. Further, it’s important to make the point that infertility is not a ‘female problem’ – it’s equally experienced by men and women, and, it affects mixed-sex and same-sex couples alike.
Given this, Apryl believes that in the long run, a large percentage of the professional population will need support with reproductive treatments. Current public health care systems are simply not providing the coverage that’s needed, leaving prospective parents with sizable fertility treatment bills and/or overly complicated reimbursement requirements.
The result has left the current generation with a fertility dilemma and infertility is a major health problem in today’s society.
In the backdrop of this medical crisis, raging talent wars for knowledge workers mean that companies today are desperately looking for ways to attract and retain the best employees thus creating an important power shift between employers and employees.
This is where Apryl comes in with a unique proposition – enabling companies to support employees on their path to parenthood in a confidential and secure way. With Apryl, employee benefits include subsidies for care navigation, consultations, access to clinics and treatments such as egg/sperm freezing, IVF, adoption or surrogacy.
CEO Jenny Saft commented: “We created Apryl because we believe that everyone should have the same chances to start a family – whatever their age, gender, sexual orientation, relationship status or financial means. Companies today have a key role to play in helping employees on their path to parenthood. To remain competitive, they must demonstrate a family-first culture and a willingness to support their employees in this critical life phase. We believe that to win the war for talent, businesses must show they can tackle the problems that really matter to millennials. Apryl’s fertility benefits platform allows them to do just that”.
The innovative startup has already won over a strong international community of impact-driven fertility healthcare experts, researchers, investors and supporters. Including g leading business names in the global fertility and healthcare space, such as Kate Ryder from Maven clinic and Martin Varsavsky, Founder and Chairman of Prelude Fertility & Gameto, CEO of Overture Life.
The fresh funding will fuel Apryl’s next stage of growth. The young company is now focused on hiring fresh talent in product, operations, sales and marketing to strengthen and reinforce its unique position in the European market. The long term goal is to work with companies on a global scale to give more people access to reproductive and family forming options, and create the next generation of inclusive benefits.
Victor Drault, Principal at Breega commented: “Tobi and Jenny’s solution speaks to a growing issue for both today and tomorrow’s workforce. At Breega, we strongly believe in their vision, we also believe that providing them with the right operational support – thanks to the Breega Scaling squad – will transform that vision into reality, helping them to become a global category leader in the fertility benefits space.”