London-based Elvie is a femtech company that develops smart technology for women. The company’s products include; Elvie Trainer – a Kegel trainer that helps women strengthen the pelvic floor; and recently launched Elvie Pump – a silent wearable breast pump.
Elvie raises Series C round
In a recent development, the femtech company announced that it has raised $80M (approx €67.72M) in its Series C round of funding.
The round was led by BGF, with participation from BlackRock Private Equity Partners and a consortium including Hiro Capital and Westerly Winds. Besides, existing investors Octopus Ventures and IPGL also invested in this round.
With this fundraise, investors Daina Spedding (BGF) and Persefoni Noulika (BlackRock) will join the Elvie board. Persefoni Noulika mentions, “Elvie has established itself as a brand innovator within the women’s health and wellness space and has already commercialised two breakthrough, patented and FDA-approved devices.”
Improve women’s lives through smarter technology
Founded in 2013 by Tania Boler, Elvie develops products that improve women’s lives. After realising the lack of support for new mums, Boler brought together a team of engineers, designers, and business minds to redesign the existing unattractive and outdated medical devices in women’s health into sleek consumer products that could be used at home.
The company aims to revolutionise categories like breast pumps and pelvic floor health. It has launched 4 products in the market. Its first product Elvie Trainer is a Kegel trainer and app; the second product is Elvie Pump – a first silent, wearable breast pump.
And in October 2020, it brought two new breastfeeding products to market – Elvie Catch and Elvie Curve; both enhancing the Elvie breastfeeding range. Elvie Curve is a wearable, silicone breast pump that uses natural suction to enable comfort, and Elvie Catch is a set of two secure milk collection cups to catch leaks and collect additional milk.
Since the launch of Elvie Pump on the catwalk of London Fashion Week in September 2018, the company claims to have experienced hyper-growth. Its business grew 6 fold in 2019, almost doubled in 2020 despite the Covid crisis, and is currently on track to double again in 2021.
Recent growth
In the last 12 months, the company launched its product in 10 new markets across Europe and Asia. Elvie has also reported that its sales in the US witnessed rapid growth, as the country is the world’s biggest breast pump market.
“Elvie Pump has assumed the number 1 position in its category in the US and UK. Elvie will continue to drive its leadership in the breast pump category whilst simultaneously expanding its product portfolio into other key life stages – to become a global platform for all women’s health needs,” says the company.
Recently, the company also hired Sarah Highfield, who joined as COO and CFO in September 2020 and was previously CFO of Costa Coffee.
Capital utilisation
The raised capital will be used by Elvie in three key areas. These include, innovation and development of new products and services for women; continued expansion of new and existing markets; and strengthening the company’s operation and infrastructure for the next phase of growth.
Tania Boler, CEO and Founder of Elvie, says, “Elvie has already revolutionised every category it has entered – but we know that we have barely scratched the surface of what is possible for women’s tech. This further investment, alongside the wealth of expertise our new Board members bring, place Elvie in pole position to capitalise on the $50B femtech opportunity – and that’s only the beginning. We won’t stop until we have fulfilled our ambition to create the go-to destination for women’s health at all life stages; providing sophisticated, accurate, and personalised solutions.”
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