Midi Health, a virtual care clinic for women experiencing menopause, aims to expand its reach nationally with $14 million in seed funding, the startup announced Thursday.
The San Francisco-based company, which works with employers and health systems, provides insurance-covered virtual care for women experiencing midlife hormonal transition, helping with sleep, brain fog, depression, anxiety, painful sex, period problems and other issues. Its services include hormonal and non-hormonal medications, supplements, lifestyle coaching and preventive health guidance. Midi Health aims to fill an unmet need for middle-aged women, said CEO and co-founder Joanna Strober, in an interview.
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“What we saw is a really large care gap,” Strober said. “There’s a lot of care that people are offering for women before they have children and there’s a lot of emphasis on maternity and fertility. Then there’s a really large area of time, really around [ages] 40 to 65, where women just don’t get a lot of care.”
The seed funding was co-led by Felicis Ventures and SemperVirens. Other investors include Emerson Collective and Icon Ventures. Midi Health’s mission to improve access to menopausal care is why SemperVirens chose to invest, said Allison Baum Gates, general partner of the investor.
“One million women reach menopause each year with little to no preparation for the hormonal changes which can significantly disrupt sleep, mood, energy levels and many other fundamental aspects of health,” Gates said in a news release.
Felicis is also investing in Midi Health to help expand midlife care for women, regardless of where they live, said Victoria Treyger, general partner of Felicis.
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“Healthcare for women aged 40+ is one of the largest segments of healthcare that has not been transformed by digital health,” Treyger said in the release. “The power of Midi’s B2B2C model is that by partnering with health systems and employers, Midi can reach tens of thousands of women at scale in rural and urban geographies.”
Midi Health currently only provides care in California, but is using the funding to expand nationally in January. The $14 million will also help the startup form more partnerships with employers and health systems. Additionally, Midi is working to hire and train more clinical staff through its program called Midi University, Strober said. This includes 10 hours of training with experts in bone health, breast health, sleep, painful sex and mood health.
“One thing we’ve found is there’s not enough trained providers in our category,” Strober said. “You can’t just hire people and put them on our platform. We actually have to have them go through an extensive training program.”
Other companies providing menopause treatment include Gennev, Evernow and Alloy, but Strober believes there is a key differentiator. Midi Health is the only company offering insurance-covered care in the space, Strober declared. Aetna, Cigna and UnitedHealthcare are among the major insurers that accept Midi Health.
Photo credit: Bohdan Skrypnyk, Getty Images
