Maven, a digital health clinic for women has announced today that it will be starting its second round of investment. The healthcare startup is focused on improving the lives of working women. Venture capitalist firm Sequoia is leading the charge.
The company has started a Series B roundup worth $27 million. Sequoia, which has never invested in businesses started by women, has found a change of heart and is now in full support of Maven.
Joining Sequoia is another venture capitalist firm OAK HC/FT. Female Founders Fund, 14W, and Spring Mountain Capital is already heavily invested in the health startup. These three will be joining in the second round of investment as well.
OAK HC/FT’s Nancy Brown and Jess Lee who works as a partner at Sequoia will also join Maven as a board of directors. Maven will have an all-female board of directors.
Maven was founded by Kate Ryder, a former journalist who worked at The Economist and The New Yorker. In 2012, she then joined Index Ventures as an early stage investor.
Here is the complete updated Press Release that Maven sent us:
Maven Raises $27 Million in Series B Financing to Bridge the Gap Between Working Women and Families and Modern Health Benefits
Fast-growing digital health company partners with Sequoia and Oak HC/FT to expand access to its popular health services, including fertility, maternity, and return-to-work care
Maven, a digital health company focused on bringing women and families better access to healthcare, today announced $27 million in Series B funding led by Sequoia Capital and Oak HC/FT with participation from existing investors Spring Mountain Capital, 14W, and Female Founders Fund. The new round of financing brings the company’s total funding to $42 million and will help Maven enhance its flagship product, Maven’s Family Benefits platform, which supports working mothers and new parents with everything from fertility through return-to-work care, and is currently offered by employers like Snap, Cleary, Protective Life, and Bumble. Sequoia partner Jess Lee and Oak HC/FT partner Nancy Brown will join the Maven board.
The company also announced today that it has expanded its return-to-work care products with the introduction of a breastmilk shipping service. The new service, combined with the existing Maven healthcare platform, will provide more working mothers and parents with the support they need to return to work comfortably and successfully.
“In a system that desperately needs reform, focusing on the core patient—women—and starting with the core experience of millennials starting families, is critical,” said Kate Ryder, CEO, and founder of Maven. “This is the beginning of long-overdue change in our healthcare system, and in society at large. At Maven, we’re just getting started.”
More than 40 percent of American women who give birth leave the workforce – some by choice, but some by necessity due to the lack of adequate support from employers, health plans and healthcare providers. Even though women represent nearly half of the labor force in the U.S. and gender diverse companies outperform the competition by 15 percent, less than a quarter of senior leadership is female and on average women make 80.5% of what their male counterparts are paid. The modern and evolving family is similarly left to fend for itself or else opt-out, leading to a less diverse workforce.
“There are so few companies out there tackling hard-to-solve women’s health challenges that are founded by women. Maven has done an amazing job creating a healthcare solution that helps give women the support they need at work,” said Jess Lee, partner at Sequoia. “I’m excited to collaborate with Kate and the Maven team to usher in an era of modern health services for today’s working families.”
Founded in 2014, Maven operates the largest digital women’s and family health provider network, with highly-vetted providers that range from OB-GYNs to women’s health physical therapists to career coaches, to give quick, on-demand access to healthcare wherever someone is, whenever they need it. Maven’s B2B offering for employers and health plans, Maven’s Family Benefits platform, modernizes family planning for millions of working women and families with high-touch, inclusive programs for everything from adoption to IVF to maternity care to tracks for Dads.
Maven works with global companies that range in size from 200 to 200,000+ people, has grown 14x in the last 12 months, has delivered care to more than 150,000 patients, and was used in 166 countries in the last year. For practitioners, Maven provides the flexibility and modern tools they need to better support patients and clients, and deliver outstanding, low-friction care.
“In an economy where unemployment is low and competition for talent is fierce, companies can’t afford to lose experienced, accomplished women due to a lack of available healthcare options and services,” said Annie Lamont, co-founder and managing partner of Oak HC/FT. “Maven offers progressive and innovative companies the ability to provide women with the benefits they need to make starting a family and returning to work a viable option, thereby reducing one of the major sources of talent drain in the US economy.”
“Maven is offering services that are a win for working women, a win for their families, a win for employers and a win for the global economy,” said Nancy Brown, partner with Oak HC/FT. “By providing outstanding fertility, maternity and return-to-work support, Maven can help close the gap and encourage a more diverse workforce.”
A majority of healthcare providers and healthcare users are female. This means that the majority of health decisions regarding families and children are made by women. Most doctors, technicians, and nurses are women.
But the people running health care systems, top of the hierarchy executives, are men. Ryder believed that there’s a huge market that needs to be filled. Ryder personally attests to a need for more female healthcare professionals.
She was constantly reminded of the severe lack of options for working women. Ryder said in a statement,
A lot of my friends started having kids while I was working in venture capital, so I started hearing about the difficulties of having kids or postpartum depression.
Maven provides women with a network of over 1000 women-focused and family-oriented medical experts. Users can see healthcare experts either via private messages, face-to-face and even through video. All of these features are built into the app.
Women can make use of therapists, OB/GYN career coaches. The healthcare app also has services for families looking to adopt, or have kids through InVitro Fertilization and families looking for maternal care.
Maven is partnering with tech companies, including Bumble (a dating app) and Snap (Snapchat’s parent company).
Ryder says she one day wants women to get health care as easily as ordering a urinary tract infection test.
Ryder’s motivation and determination were evident from early on as she quit her job in 2014, to dedicate fully to this product. She proved her entrepreneurial skills with flying colors, despite having many obstacles along the way.
She gathered a small team of like-minded individuals and was able to create Maven from scratch, within a year.
Companies and businesses will benefit from this revolutionary concept too. They will have greater productivity in the workplace, their employees will be less likely to quit, and they will save massively in healthcare costs.
Stay tuned for more updates!
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