Nearly four months after launching from stealth, women’s health and beauty startup FemTec Health is ramping up its offerings with a new direct-to-consumer brand.
Called Awesome Woman, the subscription-based brand takes inspiration from beauty box company Birchbox, which FemTec Health acquired in October.
With a monthly subscription, consumers get access to products and services in a focus area of their choice, including reproductive health, hormone balance, vaginal and urinary health, sexual wellness, beauty and wellness and prevention.
The deal comes with unlimited telehealth services, at-home diagnostic tests and a range of personalized probiotics, vitamins and supplements at a full-service $99-per-month price tag.
The personalized component draws from the company’s artificial-intelligence-powered data science platform, which uses health data including genomic data to customize its product and service offerings for each consumer.
“Part of the problem with the healthcare system is that it is so fragmented and disjointed. Women have to see so many different providers who, most often, don’t talk to each other,” said FemTec Health Chief Scientific Officer Kimberly Capone, Ph.D., in a statement. “Many of the healthcare issues women face are interconnected which is why we believe in looking at the ‘whole woman’ and joining the dots to solve issues. There is an urgent need based on consumer research for help with menopause and reproductive healthcare.”
Kimon Angelides, founder of EosHealth which later became Livongo, started FemTec Health in May 2020 and has since assembled a team of women across healthcare on the company’s executive team, including former Johnson & Johnson division head Capone and Laura Clapper, M.D., FemTec Health chief operating officer with experience at Cigna and Aetna.
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The New York-based company now has offices in seven cities across the world and more than 150 employees.
At launch, the company announced it had raised $38 million from Unilever Ventures, e.Ventures, Viking Global, Trinity Capital and Longmont Capital.
“For too long, women’s healthcare has been at the back of the line. Many of the so-called ‘solutions’ are borrowed from general medicine or men’s health research,” Angelides said. “A lot less time and funding has gone into figuring out a holistic approach to meeting women’s needs. We have to set out to fix the one-size-fits-all approach to women’s health.”
The startup also announced an exclusive partnership last week with online pharmacy GeniusRx to give Awesome Woman members access to on-demand prescription delivery.
The company promised more products to come this year, including science-backed beauty products and women’s health tests.
Direct-to-consumer startups have accelerated in popularity in recent years, with 24% of total digital health funding last year going to D2C-only players.
Forty-three percent of companies that banked venture capital last year targeted consumers as at least one of their customer segments, according to Rock Health.
FemTec Health continues to work with employers, health plans and providers on top of its consumer-centric offerings.