CNBC Disruptor 50

21. Maven Clinic

Founders: Kate Ryder (CEO)
Launched: 2014
Headquarters: New York City
Funding:
$291.9 million
Valuation: $1.3 billion
Key technologies:
N/A
Industry:
Health care
Previous appearances on Disruptor 50 List: 1 (No. 19 in 2022)

Persephone Kavallines

Maven Clinic, the largest women's and family health platform, was already at the center of a female health tech boom as the first female-focused health start-up valued at over $1 billion when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last June.

Just a month after being named to the 2022 CNBC Disruptor list in May, Maven was about to experience a new, though not entirely unexpected, wave of growth in the wake of the momentous court decision.

Maven Clinic founder and CEO Kate Ryder told CNBC that the company saw a 67% month-over-month increase in opportunities from companies looking for travel benefits, as well as other health-care support for pregnant women, after the Supreme Court decision. And Maven was ready to scale up, taking the pulse of the nation's shifting politics as far back as SB-8 in Texas in 2021, which banned virtually all abortions and health care relating to abortions after six weeks.

A recent Maven survey of HR managers and employees found that 71% of companies are adding or planning to add reproductive health benefits as a result of the SCOTUS decision.

By late 2022, Maven's continued success led to more money coming into the firm, with a $90 million round of capital in November pushing its valuation higher, with CVS Health Ventures and Intermountain Health's VC arm among the investors. Existing investors have been notable for their celebrity status, including Oprah Winfrey, Mindy Kaling, Natalie Portman, and Reese Witherspoon.

Female health tech — also referred to as femtech — has been gaining traction. The femtech industry will be worth an estimated $1.186 trillion by 2027, according to forecasts by the non-profit organization FemTech focus.

While the current political battle over reproductive rights has highlighted the critical nature of providing access to health care — and the pandemic before that had proved that virtual care was part of the answer — the value proposition for Maven started well before the Supreme Court's reversal, and ranges from fertility and pregnancy to postpartum care and menopause.

Maven has pointed to many of the stark statistics revealing the lack of access to women's health across the U.S. Roughly half of U.S. counties are without a single OB-GYN. The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate in the industrialized world. There are persistent racial disparities across fertility, maternity, and pediatric care. And there has been a lack of financial support for LGBTQ+ family building.

The need to provide better women's and family health has attracted many top-tier corporations to Maven, including Microsoft, SoFi, L'Oreal, Snap, Snowflake, Bumble and Boston Scientific. In all, Maven says it has "15 million lives under management" and members in 175-plus nations, covering over 30 specialties and 30 languages.

After the $90 million funding last November, Ryder said in a blog post, "We're not putting this capital aside for a rainy day."

Global expansion and Medicaid expansion are two areas that Maven has been prioritizing with the recent funding. In March, Maven acquired the London-based digital health company Naytal for growth in its largest market outside the U.S., the U.K., as well as across Europe.

Maven sees many demographics that its approach cuts across: new parents navigating return-to-office, same-sex couples seeking adoption, women suffering from fertility issues, and companies that increasingly want to meet those needs through employee benefit programs. And last, but not least — though often not associated with the company — men. Women make the decisions in many households, and as a result, Maven's family health model has a member base that has been as high as 40% male.

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