Caroline Mitterdorfer's fertility journey began with an initial cancer diagnosis at age 27. Mitterdorfer told TechCrunch that her diagnosis made her realize how little she knew about her health and fertility. She became passionate about the study of this universe and became a self-proclaimed fertility advocate.
Through his research, Mitterdorfer realized that it takes doctors a long time to diagnose fertility problems. She co-founded Levy Health with the goal of speeding up this process.
San Francisco-based Levy Health has built a clinical decision support platform that allows doctors and fertility specialists to diagnose women with infertility issues earlier. The platform asks users to fill out a variety of questions, including how long they've been trying to get pregnant and whether they track ovulation, and requires them to submit test results before making an appointment with a fertility specialist.
Levy Health's software analyzes patient questionnaires, biomarkers, and test results to narrow down a list of 110 potential diagnoses to a few underlying conditions that the patient may have. We present this information and possible treatment options to your doctor before he or she sees you. Doctors review everything before reporting to patients, and Mitterdorfer said this process has reduced time to diagnosis by 50%.
Mitterdorfer said clinical decision support platforms are not new, but they are new to the field of infertility treatment. One of the reasons it takes so long for women to receive a diagnosis is because women discuss infertility issues with their gynecologists and primary care providers, but they don't necessarily treat endocrine disorders such as infertility. He said he did not have adequate knowledge about the issue. .
“We truly believe that by empowering diagnosticians, we can change the way women receive early diagnosis,” Mitterdorfer said. “Fertility clinics have a big problem. There's more demand than supply, and while there's a lot of innovation in IVF labs, there's not a lot of patient focus.”
Through her infertility advocacy work, Mitterdorfer is co-founder and chief operating officer Sylvia Hecher, who has held numerous positions in fertility clinics and companies, and founding physician Teresa Hecher, who specializes in gynecology. -I met Dr. Vilsmeyer.
The three launched a company in Germany in 2022. Mitterdorfer quickly realized that despite regulatory approval in Europe, the European market was not working with Levy Health because the company did not want to pass costs on to consumers. said. So the company packed up and moved to the United States, where it is currently based.
Levy Health launched in the U.S. in 2023. The company has acquired six B2B customers, including fertility benefits company Progyny. Boston IVF is a chain of fertility clinics. and Everie, an egg donor organization.
“The biggest challenge for companies in the healthcare space is finding their first five customers,” Mitterdorfer said. “Word of mouth in the medical field is important, and being one of our first companies, Progyny, helps build that trust and reputation.”
Levy Health just raised $4.5 million in a seed round led by XYZ Ventures with participation from Atlantic Labs and Possible Ventures. Mitterdorfer said the company will use the funding to continue building its team and technology, as well as funding clinical research related to areas such as fertility and egg freezing. .
“Over the next six months, we are focused on publishing clinical studies and validating KPIs to clinically support egg freezing in women,” Mitterdorfer said. “Trust is important, but so is 'are we really delivering the value proposition that we're trying to deliver?'”
Fertility health as a market continues to gain momentum. According to Precedence Research, the U.S. fertility market was valued at $6.19 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow 63% by 2033.
There are many companies approaching this problem from different angles. Carrot Fertility is a fertility-focused employee benefits provider that has raised $114 million in venture capital. Mira is an at-home hormone testing kit that has raised $4.3 million in VC. Pozitivf is a chain of fertility clinics that has raised $20 million.
“For me, it's very important to know that what we're building is ultimately helping millions of people get an early diagnosis,” Mitterdorfer said. Ta.