Seattle startup adyn raised a $2.5 million seed round co-led by Lux Capital and M13. The company plans to launch its flagship birth control optimization test later this year and currently has a waitlist for early access.
Adyn’s test analyzes hormone levels to identify potential side effects for women — from acne to blood clots — caused by different methods of birth control. The flagship product for consumers will be an at-home test kit; users receive data and personalized recommendations through adyn’s platform and telemedicine appointments. The company then sends prescriptions directly to customers.
The startup is led by founder Elizabeth Ruzzo, who came up with the idea for adyn after she changed her birth control prescription and “was thrown into suicidal ideation.”
“Luckily, I recognized this was due to the change in medication,” said Ruzzo, who has a Ph.D in genetics and genomics from Duke University.
The company says 52% of women try four or more methods of birth control before finding one that works.
Other participants in the seed round include Y Combinator, Ascend.VC, and Madrona Venture Group’s Pioneer Fund, an angel investor program that operates as a feeder system for the firm. Individual investors such as 23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki and Ashley Mayer of Glossier also participated.
Investors are pouring more cash into women’s digital health startups, driven in part by the pandemic and acceleration of digital health services, Bloomberg reported Monday.
“Every incentive you could possibly want to serve the well being and health of the female identifying population, it’s acutely there,” said Julie Sandler, a managing director at Pioneer Square Labs, on a recent GeekWire Studios podcast episode of 2025: Tomorrow, Today. “When you’ve got an area like that, that has just been so historically, repeatedly and sustainably underserved, and under-invested over generations, that creates opportunity.”
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April 20, 2021 at 04:24AM
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Seattle startup adyn raises $2.5M from 23andMe CEO and others for birth control prescription test - GeekWire
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