Healthtech startup Apricity has just secured €17million to grow its virtual fertility clinic. The UK-based company is aiming to become Europe’s leading fertility player with its solution that enhances patient experiences.
Going through fertility treatment and dealing with fertility concerns brings a great load of stress and is a hard time for any person or couple to pass through. It’s estimated that in the UK, 1in every 6 couples struggle to conceive naturally. Existing treatment is too often associated with stress, anxiety and impersonal experiences in clinics – that are often also hard to access. It’s time to make fertility treatment more accessible and supportive – and that is what Apricity aims to do.
The funding
Healthtech startup Apricity has just announced the raise of €17 million in a Series B round to expand its virtual fertility clinic solution across Europe. The funding was led by MTIP, the Swiss healthtech investor, with participation from Barcelona-based specialist consumer fund Iris Ventures.
Caroline Noublanche, founder and CEO of Apricity, said: “MTIP’s deep-rooted understanding of the healthcare landscape combined with Iris Ventures’ expertise in the consumer space will be invaluable as Apricity enters its next stage of growth and we expand into more regions. We look forward to supporting more women and couples across Europe who are struggling to conceive and can now hope for a better, less stressful alternative option.”
Marc Dietrich, who joins the board of directors on behalf of MTIP, added: “Fertility tech is one of the most important areas of healthcare innovation and we’re excited to support Apricity as it leads the industry to new heights.”
Transforming fertility care
Launched in 2018 in the UK, Apricity is taking a fresh approach to reproductive health, blending personal, patient-centric fertility care with cutting-edge tech. In doing so, the startup aims to help people increase their chances of conception without the need to travel to a clinic, all while offering a smoother patient experience.
The virtual clinic assists with every step of the fertility treatment journey and provides continuous, personalized support through its app. Apricity has pioneered new technologies to transform fertility care, developing first-of-its-kind AI algorithms that identify the most suitable fertility treatment for patients and then determine the best embryo for selection through 3D reconstruction. Apricity is the first company to develop 3D reconstruction technology for embryos to assist in fertility treatments.
The UK-based team has seen rapid growth this past year as the telehealth and digital health phenomenons have really taken off, reporting that its revenue and customer growth have more than doubled.
Christoph Kausch, Managing Partner at MTIP, said: “The virtual business model has really taken off across the healthcare industry, and Apricity was one of its pioneers. Rather than focusing on just one part of the fertility journey, Apricity is using cutting edge technology to transform the end-to-end experience for patients and has seen incredibly strong traction as a result.”
The young startup also acquired Madrid-based period-tracking app Woom in May this year, and has signed up major corporate customers which use Apricity’s services as part of their employee benefits – including tech giants and large banks, as well as the leading providers of employee benefits in the UK, AXA and Reward Gateway. The B2B offering now accounts for more than one-third of its revenue.
The new funds will be used to accelerate Apricity’s growth in the UK, expand geographically (to Spain before the end of the year, followed by Germany and Italy), and further develop its technology, as it continues on its mission to become the leading fertility player in Europe. This includes expanding its at-home services to include at-home ultrasound scans in select areas.
Montse Suarez, Founder and Managing Partner, Iris Ventures, said: “Finding ventures that put the needs of the modern consumer at the heart of their mission is what drives us at Iris Ventures. There is no doubt Apricity is a stand-out in their field, using patient-centric technology to make a real impact in the lives of fertility patients, delivering high quality care when and where patients need it most. It is just a matter of time until Apricity’s big success in the UK is exported to other European markets, such as Spain, and we are proud to come together with Caroline and the entire team at Apricity in their mission to reimagine fertility care.”
