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Women ’s health and its startups build up connected breast pump , period tracker , and other apps and hardware designed for women have collectively pulled in more than $ 5 billion in funding in the last five years , but the market is rigorous , and now , two of the trailblazers in the outer space are coming together as consolidation beckons .
Willow , the San Francisco startup that made its name with wearable white meat pumps , is acquiringElvie , which set forth with a chic Kegel trainer before lucubrate to other products for new mothers , including its own tit pumps and most of late , a bassinet .
footing of the deal have not been give away but we understand that it ’s come as Elvie enters administration . The London startup promote more than $ 186 million over the last 12 years with investors , includingOctopus Ventures , BlackRock , and Blume Equity , among others . Its last rating was $ 241 million , per data from PitchBook .
The companies have been in conversation for some sentence , after Willow approached Elvie to buy it . But as talks shape up , Elvie also approached the end of its runway .
“ The dealing is assume shape after many months of alternative expectation , ” Willow CEO Sarah O’Leary said in an consultation .
We understand Willow is taking on the existing job , including its products and team . There are presently 170 mass wreak across London and Bristol , although some of those are already wreak out their notice time period and wo n’t be come in on to Willow .
For its part , Willow has raise around $ 254 million in a compounding of equity and debt with investors , include the likes ofNEA and Meritech . Its valuation , per PitchBook , had risen to as much as $ 256 million in 2021 ( a high-pitched water line for venture funding in general ) but had drop in 2024 when the company elevate a compounding of equity and debt .
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O’Leary , who step into the chief executive officer role at the conclusion of 2023 , declined to annotate on its current valuation but said that the fellowship may be looking to raise more later on this year .
Elvie ’s tip into failure speak to some of the wider challenges in the world of adult female ’s wellness , which is estimated to be a $ 60 billion grocery store this year but has faced a turn of headwinds . The market place since 2021 has continued to be challenging for recent - level startup , specially those that are not focused almost solely on AI . There are not a band of exit opportunities for women ’s health stage business at the minute . Plus , as O’Leary points out , the market ( eyeing that $ 60 billion figure , no doubt ) has been flooded with a plethora of cheaper products .
Cheaper is one job , but so is the fact that there are just a lot of alike product in the market . Elvie has sued at least one company for patent infraction in the past ( unsuccessfully ) , and interestingly it was also the subject of a letters patent suit itself — filed by Willow . An acquisition put that fighting to rest .
Therecent drama with 23andMealso highlights some of the fully grown issues with managing substance abuser datum , specially health datum , when thing go awry with the business organisation . And that is perhaps even more the lawsuit with women ’s wellness and reproductive businesses in the current political climate . And , as ever , hardware — or at least the power to sprain hardware startups into profitable businesses — remains hard .
Willow ’s hope is that its acquisition of Elvie marks the starting of some all-embracing consolidation and Willow ’s own endeavour to build out a wider political platform : If exit opportunities are few and far between , then make your own platform and become the consolidator .
Women ’s wellness as a category really arose over the years as it became , thanks to the swarm , smartphones and innovations in big data point analytics , easier - to - build apps to engage with the market , and hardware image found via crowdfunding platforms to gauge consumer interest . These products also came out of a more sceptered demographic demanding tech to meeting their own needs . Now Willow ’s challenge — and chance — will be to see if it can convert that into profit over metre .
“ We want to show that femtech products are not only cracking history , but outstanding businesses , ” she tell .
