Luna is a health and wellness app for teenage girls, designed to help teenage girls navigate their teenage years. This app allows adolescents to ask questions about their health and get answers from experts. You can also track your period, mood, and skin condition. The London-based startup presented today on the Startup Battlefield stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, detailing its mission to educate and support teenage girls.
Luna is the brainchild of best friend duo Jas Schembri-Stothart and Jo Goodall, who came up with the idea for the startup as part of an assignment during their MBA program at Oxford.
As part of the class, Schembri-Stothert and Goodall were required to form teams, identify a problem, come up with an idea, and pitch it to tease investors. They are allowed to choose their own teammates, and Schembri-Stothart told TechCrunch that she wants to make sure she has a team of talented women.
After teaming up with several other women from around the world, the group began discussing women's health issues they were experiencing in their late 20s and early 30s, and the conversation turned to how they felt about it. I kept coming back to the fact that there was a lack of information. Adolescent health status.
They all agreed that if they had learned more about women's health warning signs when they were teenagers, they would have had an easier time navigating their teenage years and young adulthood.
The group came up with the idea for an app to help teenagers on their health and wellbeing journey through adolescence. I pitched this idea to my professor and received positive feedback. The two continued to focus on their studies and put the project aside, but during the summer vacation they reconsidered the idea and thought about making it a reality.
Schembri-Stothert and Goodall decided to revisit their old schools to set up focus groups with teenagers to learn their perspectives on their ideas. The teens told the pair that because they get most of their information from TikTok, they face a misinformation crisis and don't know what's factual or fake.
They also pointed out that the education system was not helping them learn about their health and bodies.
Image credit: Luna
“When we finished these sessions, people were emailing us like, 'Hey, where can I download the app?'” Schembri-Stothert said. “We felt there was clearly a demand for this and there was a huge opportunity here that no one was taking advantage of. If we don't do it, someone else will and we 'We'd be shooting ourselves in the foot.' So we decided to just give it a go. ”
After graduating from the MBA program in 2021, the two built the app, released a simplified version of it in November 2022, and shared it with teenagers who participated in focus groups. Since then, the company has been building the app and adding new features based on user feedback.
Luna allows users to anonymously ask questions and get answers from experts such as general practitioners, gynecologists, dermatologists, and academics. All questions are anonymous and you can check and read other users' questions on the app.
To date, nearly 45,000 questions have been asked on the platform by 100,000 members. The startup uses AI to quickly provide answers to questions already asked on its platform.
For example, if a user asks a question about how to improve their skin and a dermatologist on the app answers, that answer will automatically be used to answer other users who ask the same question. This eliminates the need for healthcare professionals to spend time answering each question individually, allowing them to focus on providing new advice and insights.
The app has a series of questions that users ask daily to start tracking their mood, while also logging menstruation, skin, sleep, and more. Luna provides users with monthly reports that provide insights based on what they record. The app encourages users to form healthy habits and to consider consulting a doctor about certain things, such as consistently heavy periods.
Luna also has a “Learn” section where users can stay informed through articles and videos from experts on specific topics such as body positivity, job insecurity, relationships, and more.
Image credit: Luna
“I want Luna to reach into the hearts of teenagers around the world, support a more educated and empowered generation of women, and help not only teenage girls but also their parents. I also want to help because I think there's a huge untapped opportunity to support parents. Masu.”
The app operates on a freemium model, allowing users to access all parts of Luna for free, but with restrictions at certain points of use. Users pay 2.99 euros per month and get unlimited access to the app.
The startup has raised €1.4 million in funding to date, with investment from multiple angels and funds including Syndicate Room, Octopus Ventures, Moonstone, Jade Ventures and Incisive Ventures.
Luna is available worldwide except the United States. The company hopes to secure the best possible product and launch it in the U.S. next year to take advantage of the huge market opportunity.
Luna is available for iOS and Android.