VCs are pouring millions into companies that want to help you get pregnant. Meet the startup that just raised $25 million to create a better storage system for eggs, sperm, and embryos.
- TMRW, a startup that wants to digitize the egg-freezing process, just raised an $25 million to get its system into more clinics in a round led by 5AM Ventures.
- By 2022, TMRW wants its system to be used in 25% of all in-vitro fertilization cycles in US fertility clinics, TMRW co-CEO Joshua Abram told Business Insider.
- In recent years, the fertility space has exploded, with companies tackling everything from benefits to testing and egg-freezing clinics.
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TMRW wants to become a household name in the fertility clinic business.
Right now, the startup is using technology to improve the egg-freezing process and reduce the potential for errors. To help bring its tech to more clinics, TMRW just raised $25 million in a series B funding round led by 5AM Ventures. In total, the company has raised $39 million.
"Patients are going to say to doctors, I really want to work with you," but they'll need reassurances the clinic uses TMRW, co-CEO Joshua Abram told Business Insider.
Founded in 2018, TMRW provides a system for fertility sample storage using robotics and software.
By 2022, TMRW wants its system to be used in 25% of all in-vitro fertilization cycles in US fertility clinics, Abram said. The company's also announced that it hired on Melanie Goldey as its chief operating officer and chief financial officer. Goldey was previously CFO of media company Refinery29, which was bought in October by Vice.
In recent years, the fertility space has exploded with startups. Companies like Carrot and Maven are offering benefits and virtual care. Others focus on testing or egg-freezing clinics.
A growing market for fertility sample storage
According to the Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology, in 2017 there were 10,936 fertility preservation cycles for patients looking to store their eggs, up from 8,825 cycles in 2016.
To store that material, fertility clinics use a process called vitrification, in which samples are frozen quickly rather than over time. The samples are then stored in liquid nitrogen until they're ready to be used.
But there's a fair amount of room for human error. In March 2018, two fertility clinics - University Hospitals Fertility Center in Cleveland and Pacific Fertility Clinic - both experienced issues with the tanks storing eggs and embryos. The malfunctions resulted in 4,000 samples lost at the Cleveland clinic.
There have also been instances of couples suing fertlity clinics after learning their children are the biological children of other couples who had also stored their samples with the clinics.
What TMRW wants to do is to digitize the egg, embryo, and sperm storage system, with the hope of taking out some of the room for human error.
As part of TMRW's service, each fertility sample gets its own unique identifier that it carries with it through the whole process. For $20 per patient, per month, TMRW supplies fertility clinics with the software and lab equipment needed to preserve and store the samples. TMRW uses "heavily manipulated" cryorobotic technology that's also used in cell therapy, treatments that harness the body to treat conditions like cancer, Abram said.
To start, Abram said, the company's been working with five fertility clinics around the US to test out the system. Now with the additional $25 million, the plan is to expand that work from experimental to commercial in those clinics as well as others, growing to the system's use in 25% of all IVF cycles by 2022.
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