New York, NY-based digital health care company Progyny, which focuses on in vitro fertilization and fertility, has closed its Series B round after raising nearly $15 million. The company also launched an app designed to deliver a comprehensive “shopping” experience for consumers seeking fertility services like invitro fertilization, egg freezing and doctor consultation.
The app, simply called Progyny Mobile, is the latest offering from Progyny, which also offers Eeva, the first and only FDA-cleared embryo-viability-testing system. Progyny Mobile gives users a goal-based tour to services near them. After selecting a specific service, such as egg freezing, the app then leads users on a “journey” to find the services, comparing prices, locations, success rates and FAQs.
“Picture a shopping service that knows who you are and what your goal is, and then guides you through the process,” George Nassef, Chief Technology Officer of Progyny, told MobiHealthNews in an interview. “Progyny shepherds you along, gives you a patient advocate, and does it silently, with privacy, while you are on your mobile.”
Progyny Mobile comes six months after Progyny’s benefits services launched. Since then it has added provider partners and begun to work with self-insured employers (still unnamed, at this point) that want to offer fertility services. Progyny’s benefits services also include plans for consumers without employer-provided plans, plus IVF and and egg-freezing services.
Related apps from other companies, such as Swiss-made Ava, focus on tracking a user’s biological indicators to help with planning the actual fertility, but Progyny Mobile works to create an experience that takes the stress and confusion out of the search for fertility services.
“Right now, if you were seeking IVF or egg-freezing services, you would start by looking through numerous websites that don’t know your location, don’t necessarily show prices and don’t really know anything about you,” he said. “The app does. Even if you aren’t ready for the services, there is a whole FAQ in here where you can learn more about what is a very complex and emotional subject.”
Progyny is also working on a calculator feature to the app that will act as an IVF success predictor tool, slated to be released within the year. Currently, Progyny Mobile gives success rates of IVF service providers that are listed with the CDC, with the most recent figures from 2014. Some providers are so new that they don’t have CDC figures yet, but, Nassef says users will be able to plug in their personal information to help predict their personal success rates.
“The nice thing about not having to rely on government data is you can tell the app your blood type, your DNA score, the partner’s semen count, weight, BMI, that sort of thing,” said Nassef. “If you put those figures into an algorithm, you’ll be able to predict your own success rate right away instead of looking at data from the government that may not pertain to you."
Progyny’s total funding to date is at $67.43 million, according to CrunchBase. For the most recent round, the lead investor was a large, undisclosed family office. Additional funding was provided by Kleiner Perkins Caufiled and Byers, Mellon, SR One, TPG Biotech and Union Grove Venture Partners.
