Healthtech startup Apricity has just secured €17million to grow its virtual fertility clinic. The UK-based company is aiming to become Europe’s leading fertility player with its solution that enhances patient experiences.
Approximately one out of every six couples in the United Kingdom have a difficult time conceiving due to natural reasons. Fertility treatments can also cause stress, anxiety and an unsupportive experience. These treatments are often considered impersonal and hard to access by patients in clinics. The UK based firm intends to change this by making fertility treatments more supportive and accessible.
The Funding
Apricity is a healthtech startup that announced the completion of a Series B funding round. This raised $17 million and was led by the Swiss investor MTIP. Barcelona-based Iris Ventures was also a participant in the funding round. Apricity plans to use this money to expand its virtual fertility clinic across Europe.
CEO and founder Caroline Noublanche praised the partnership between Iris Ventures and MTIP. She said both partners demonstrated a solid understanding of the healthcare sector and great insight into the consumer market. Furthermore, she believed the partnership would help Apricity grow and support more women in Europe with fertility issues. Apricity wanted to provide them with an alternate option that could offer a more stress-free solution.
Additionally, Marc Dietrich of MTIP stated, “Fertility technology is a crucial component of healthcare innovation. We’re thrilled to support Apricity as it leads the field to new levels of greatness.”
Transforming Fertility Care
The startup launched in the UK in 2018. The company’s goal is to provide patients with personalized care that blends tech-based fertility treatments with smooth patient experiences. Because of this, Apricity aims to help more people conceive without requiring them to visit a clinic.
The Virtual Clinics assist patients with every step of their fertility treatment. Their app provides continuous support through personalized programs. The company was the first to develop 3-D reconstruction technology for embryos; it’s used in fertility treatments. Apricity also developed first-of-its-kind AI algorithms that identify the best treatment and embryo for selection.
The UK-based team’s growth has been rapid recently thanks to the increase of telehealth and digital health trends. They reported that their customer base and income has increased by more than 100%.
Christoph Kausch is the Managing Partner at MTIP. He said, “Apricity was one of the first healthcare companies to implement a virtual business model. Its transformational technology has attracted a lot of interest from patients. Apricity focuses on the entire fertility experience, instead of just one part of it.”
Apricity earned a significant portion of their revenue from their B2B services. This included major companies, banks and tech firms. Some of their biggest clients were signed on as users of its services. These included Reward Gateway, AXA and large corporations. Additionally, the young company acquired Madrid-based Woom’s period-tracking app in May 2019.
The company will use the new funds to further develop their technology, grow their customer base, and expand their services across Europe. This year they plan to open offices in Spain and increase the availability of at-home ultrasound scans. They also plan to open offices in Germany and Italy by the end of 2018.
Iris Ventures’ Managing Partner and Founder Montse Suarez believes Apricity’s success is inevitable due to their focus on the modern consumer. According to Suarez, Apricity uses patient-centric technology to improve the lives of fertility patients in a manner no other company has achieved. Suarez went on to say that their future success will be exported to other European countries, such as Spain. In addition to praising Apricity, Suarez credited the company’s co-founder Caroline Barber for her dedication to improving fertility care.
