Ava, a medical technology company focused on innovations in women’s reproductive health and maker of the popular cycle tracking Ava bracelet, today announced it has raised $30 million in a strategic Series B funding round. The majority of Ava’s new financing came from existing investors, with prominent European VC firms btov and SVC also joining the round.
Ava also announced today that its cycle-tracking sensor bracelet, which precisely detects the 5.3-day fertile window in a woman’s cycle in real time, has officially reached a milestone of 10,000 pregnancies among users since launching in July 2016.
According to Ava Co-Founder Pascal Koenig, Ava will use the new funds for further product research and development to enhance the existing product and create new applications that empower women to take control of their reproductive health via data insights and science.
“Ava’s long-term vision is to accompany women through all stages of their reproductive life by providing data-driven, clinically proven technology that will make a woman’s life easier, healthier and better — be it when they just want to understand their body, while they are trying to prevent pregnancy, trying to get pregnant, are pregnant or entering menopause,” Koenig explained.
Ava continues to invest heavily in clinical trials with the University Hospital of Zurich under the direction of Prof. Brigitte Leeners to study applications of the Ava technology among women trying to get pregnant, suffering from fertility challenges, and to understand complications during pregnancy. Last year, Ava also hired its first Chief Medical Officer, renowned Bayer Schering veteran Dr. Maureen Cronin, to help shepherd the company through clinical and regulatory processes involved in new product development, particularly in the area of contraceptives.
“It’s exciting to work with a company that is literally reshaping the way we think about menstrual cycles, hormones and women’s health,” said Prof. Leeners. “Combining the best in science, data insights and technology is not only helping to create families, but improving women’s lives around the world.”
What is Ava?
Ava is a cycle-tracking sensor bracelet that monitors a woman’s fertility or pregnancy in real time. Ava measures nine physiological parameters including pulse rate, breathing rate, heart rate variability, and temperature. Because Ava measures physiological parameters that are directly impacted by the reproductive hormones estradiol and progesterone, it can detect a five-day fertile window in a woman’s cycle in real-time.
Users simply wear the Ava bracelet at night and sync it with the Ava app in the morning, avoiding the hassles, mess and invasiveness of other fertility tracking methods like ovulation strips and BBT thermometers. Regulated as a class 1 medical device by the FDA, the Ava bracelet was proven in a recently concluded clinical study at the University Hospital of Zurich to detect an average of 5.3 fertile days per cycle—in real time—with 89 percent accuracy.