With a focus on femtech, MedAnswers announced that it landed $5 million in seed funding. This news comes in conjunction with the rollout of its new tool FertilityAnswers, dedicated to providing information to users trying to get pregnant. 

The Los Angeles- and Barcelona-based startup was backed by lead funder Special Situations’ Life Sciences Innovation (LSI) Fund with participation from Viking Global Investors. 

WHAT THEY DO

The company's new product FertilityAnswers emulates a social media feed, but the goal is to help consumers trying to conceive view clinically validated expert information. The platform curates the feed and allows users to connect with board-certified professionals. 

Fertility professionals are able to post articles and rate those posted by others. The tool also has a matching capability, which is able to link women to clinics, IVF programs and clinical trials. 

“Our users have been struggling to conceive for an average of 2.5 years and they are mostly in their 20’s. Sadly, the health data they share and the questions they ask seem as though they are at the beginning of their journey. The faster we match them to the right products, services, clinicians and fertility solutions, the faster they can achieve their dream of having a family,” Alice Crisci, CEO of MedAnswers, said in a statement.

WHAT IT’S FOR 

The new money will be used to continue the rollout of FertilityAnswers. In particular, the money will go toward solidifying the company’s intellectual property position and growing its collection of board-certified experts. The company also plans on rolling out a multilingual program. 

THE LARGER TREND

The digital health industry has become increasingly focused on women’s health. In fact, many are looking to the so-called femtech industry as a potential money maker. A Frost & Sullivan report said the industry could have a market potential of $50 billion by 2025. 

One of the biggest focuses of femtech is fertility. This is perhaps unsurprising, as fertility rates in many parts of the world including the US, UK and Japan have dropped, according to the World Bank. 

The tech world has angled to help people trying to conceive — from wearables, like Ava’s wristband, to at-home products like Concept designed to help a woman determine when she is ovulating.