Jenny Button first remembered Em during the coronavirus lockdown. She used the Oura ring and Whoop monitoring band to gain insight into her body, but no device could provide her with data on one of the most important aspects: her reproductive and menstrual health.
“That seemed crazy to me, because these are things that all women want to be able to track and understand more deeply,” she told TechCrunch. This is what she thought. Why not create a wearable device that could tell someone more about reproductive health? She wrote to one of Dyson's engineers, made a connection, and started testing the idea.
“Five years, thousands of designs and iterations, and extensive user testing later, we have introduced the world’s first smart menstrual cup,” said Button.
The UK-based company has raised $9m (£6.8m) in a seed round led by Lunar Ventures as it prepares for the product's official launch next year.
This product works like a regular menstrual cup and is designed to store menstrual blood rather than absorb it. However, Emm's medical-grade silicon “embeddes advanced sensor technology in an ultra-thin profile.” This sensor collects data that helps users understand patterns about their menstrual cycles. Button hopes this has the potential to “transform the research, diagnosis, and treatment of menstrual and reproductive health conditions.”
She's not alone in thinking this way. Several months ago, other femtech founders told the Guardian that menstrual blood is an “overlooked opportunity in women's health” and could provide insights that health tests based on circulating blood cannot.
For example, it may help diagnose painful and often misdiagnosed medical conditions such as endometriosis.
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“Today, one in 10 women suffers from endometriosis,” Button said. “Like many other diseases in reproductive health, it is a disease that takes an average of seven to 10 years to diagnose.”
Button believes the delay is “largely due to a lack of meaningful data and inadequate characterization of menstrual health in clinical practice.” “Until now, there has been no reliable tool to accurately and objectively track that aspect of health.”
In addition to endometriosis, one in three women experience “serious reproductive problems” during their lifetime, she added.
Data collected from the Emm app is encrypted and stored securely using two-factor authentication. “It is also always anonymized or pseudonymized, with personally identifying information removed or replaced with a code, and access is only made available to Emm personnel who really need it,” she said.
Button used the word “strategic” to describe the funding round and said he connected with the lead investor through his network. Other investors in the round include Alumni Ventures (which backed Oura), The Labcorp Venture Fund, and BlueLion Global. The funding will be used to bring the product to the UK market next year, she said, adding that the waiting list for pre-orders for the upcoming launch already exceeds 30,000.
Capital will also be used for research and development. Button hopes to enter the U.S. market in early 2027.
“Menstrual health is just the starting point for Em,” says Button. “Ultimately, we believe it will have a significant impact on women's health more broadly,” she continued, adding that she hopes to one day expand the product into diagnostics, perhaps other digital care tools, and even treatments.
“Our mission is to speed diagnosis, give people the data to advocate for themselves, and ultimately help them take control of their bodies and their health journeys,” she said.