London IVF Insurance Startup Gaia Raises $20M
Gaia, the fertility care startup, has closed on a 14-million-pound ($20 million) Series A funding round, the London-based company announced Monday (Feb. 14).
Founded in 2019 to make in vitro fertilization (IVF) more affordable, Gaia said it will use the funding to scale its operations and expand globally, targeting markets including the United States.
The funding was led by Atomico, a European venture capital firm headquartered in London. In its announcement, Atomico said fertility treatment is a complex, painful and emotionally challenging process. It may not only seem like finding care is an isolating and daunting task, but societal expectations still dictate the topic is largely taboo.
Gaia said it uses predictive tech to create IVF insurance products that remove the financial uncertainty from procedures and allow more people to become parents.
The average cost for an IVF treatment course in the U.K. is 15,000 pounds ($20,000), while in the U.S. it is $50,000.
“If you do not have a live birth or the rounds [of fertility treatment] that we predict, you end up paying a fraction of the cost,” CEO and founder Nader AlSalim said in a statement. “If you do have a baby, you pay back on monthly instalments.”
Gaia’s announcement comes less than a month after digital healthcare firm Babylon acquired DayToDay Health, giving Babylon members access to DayToDay’s digital-first, medical-related programs and services.
Read more: Babylon Buys DayToDay Health to Boost Medical Assistance
Babylon’s members will have access to programs and clinical services before and after scheduled surgeries, major events such as childbirth, and when chronic conditions have been diagnosed.
The company said there is a lack of support for people during the recovery periods following a hospital stay, and DayToDay’s services help with that by providing patients with targeted education, communication and clinical care support.