Fertility startup Kindbody adds another $25M in funding

This follows a $100 million investment the company raised in March

Venture funding of fertility-focused technology is on the rise: the $854.5 million in 2022 was more than double the $305.7 million raised in 2017, and more than 6x the $134 million raised in 2012.

One fertility company that has found success is Kindbody, which recently raised a $100 million round of funding, and has now announced the addition of another $25 million to that total from Morgan Health, the JPMorgan Chase & Co. business unit focused on improving the quality, equity and affordability of employer-sponsored health care. This brings the company's funding raised since its founding in 2018 to over $300 million.

Along with the funding, Dr. Cheryl Pegus, a Managing Director with Morgan Health Ventures, has joined the Board of Directors at Kindbody.

Kindbody was founded by Joanne Schneider, who has since gone on to found maternity startup Oula, and Gina Bartasi, the founder and former CEO at fertility benefits company Progyny. It offers a suite of services at its tech-enabled clinics, including fertility consultation, egg freezing, IVF, IUI, donor services, embryo banking, and embryo storage. Additionally, it offers coaching appointments such as nutrition counseling and therapy sessions.  

The company launched its first clinic in August of 2018 in New York City, and it now owns and operates 32 clinics nationwide in markets that include San Francisco, Los Angeles, Arkansas, Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Portland, Princeton, Silicon Valley, St. Louis, Washington, D.C, while also offering virtual visits. It plans to open another ten clinics in the coming year, including in Bethesda and Newport Beach. 

In 2019, Kindbody launched its employer solution, allowing self-insured employers to purchase fertility benefits directly; as the direct provider of clinical care, Kindbody says it "is uniquely positioned to provide a seamless continuum of care, decrease cost, improve patient experience, and deliver better health outcomes." So far, it has been able to save employers them 25% to 30% by contracting directly with them.

The company has been growing fast: in the last year, it added 42 large employer clients, including Walmart, and it bought Vios Fertility Institute, which allowed it to more than double its national clinic footprint, while also turning it into the second femtech company to gain unicorn status, after Maven, a provider of virtual care for women and families, raised $110 million for a $1 billion valuation in 2021.

Currently, Kindbody today is the fertility benefits provider for 112 companies, covering more than 2.4 million lives, with clients that  include Walmart, Medtronic, Lyft and GEICO.

The company also made made three acquisitions in 2022, including Vios, as well as genomics company Phosphorus Labs, adding genetic testing and carrier screening to its end-to-end care delivery model; and Alternative Reproductive Resources, a gestational surrogacy agency.

“Only three things matter in healthcare: cost, experience, and outcomes, and only Kindbody, as the provider of care, can effectuate change in all three,” Bartasi said in a statement. 

“Our partnership with Morgan Health will fuel Kindbody’s continued growth allowing us to expand into geographies where the need for high-quality fertility care is in the greatest demand, so that more people can access the essential care they need to become parents. I’ve followed JPMorgan Chase and the Morgan Health team since inception, and I’m honored to have them on our cap table and Cheryl’s expertise in the Boardroom.”

(Image source: kindbody.com)