Europe’s $30bn ‘sextech’ industry — made up of sex toys, apps and services — is being boosted by those with idle hands and minds.
I have written many words about the taint bandaid, but here I am, writing a few more. It’s technically a wearable patch designed by Morari Medical that’s meant to zap your netherbits with some gentle electroneurostimulation. To help with premature ejaculation. We saw this last year, but back then it was literally a bandaid on a smooth Ken doll mannequin. This year it is real, the design has been updated, Bluetooth has been added, and real people have used it. Morari Medical is aggressively aiming to bring this to market by the end of this year. Count this as one of the more memorable devices to ever come out of CES.
Peppy is a London-based startup founded in 2018 offering its users health advice about various issues like fertility, mental health and parenthood. The menopause support and treatment from practitioners via phone consultations is the one that caught our eye though. Funding: €2m (New to our 2020 list)
Kandy Therapeutics is developing a non-hormonal treatment for menopause symptoms. The company was founded in the UK in 2017 and raised £25m in 2018. It was bought by global pharmaceutical company Bayer in August.
Elvie is a UK-based maker of a connected breastfeeding pump and a pelvic floor trainer. Having raised a whopping €45m since 2013, it is one of the most successful femtech startups over the past decade. It has also done wonders for starting a more open conversation about pelvic floor training.
LactApp is a breastfeeding startup founded in Spain in 2016, providing information and a community helping women deal with problems around breastfeeding. Amazingly, it’s used by one out of four breastfeeding mothers in Spain, according to the company. Since last year, it has quadrupled its revenue and is now looking to raise more money.
New kid on the block Coroflo is a breastfeeding startup founded in Dublin 2016. It has developed a breastfeeding monitor in a nipple shield that shows how much milk the baby is drinking. The startup has raised €3.2m in total and its product is soon on sale in Ireland. (New to our 2020 list)
Velmio is a Tallinn-based app helping pregnant women through their pregnancy. Instead of having generic content, it is generating information based on the users’ own data. Velmio says it will get better over time as it analyses lifestyle data from a diverse range of pregnant women and is just about to launch its product. (New to our 2020 list)
Callaly is a UK subscription service of tailored organic period products. It was founded in 2014 and has raised €7.3m in total. It has also developed its own product: a “tampliner”, which is a tampon and a liner in one. (New to our 2020 list)
Freda also brings feminine hygiene products directly to your doorstep. Started in 2017 in London, Freda is a subscription service that delivers organic menstrual-hygiene products across Europe.
Fempo was founded in 2017 in France and has developed period underwear, similar to American startup Thinx. No need for tampons or pads! The startup has managed to attract the Paris-based investor and startup support network The Family as investors. (New to our 2020 list)
It’s not just apps that are on the up amid the coronavirus outbreak. In Italy, the epicentre of the European pandemic, sex-toy company MySecretCase doubled its sales in the days following the government lockdown.
“The obligation to remain within our home walls has pushed the whole country to find strategies to enjoy the quarantine, both alone and as couples,” says founder Norma Rossetti. “There is a strong desire to be together, to connect, to make love, to discover oneself.”
Amorana, a Swiss retailer founded in Zurich in 2014, sells sex toys and accessories to customers across Germany, France and the UK.
Its cofounder Alan Frei says site visits soared by 123% in March (compared to the same month last year) and translated to a 79% increase in sales. “These are difficult times for many people,” says Frei. “But it is a good time for people to explore their sexuality.”
Amorana’s most popular lockdown purchase, the Womanizer, is itself an innovative piece of European engineering. Developed by founder Michael Lenke in Metten, Germany in 2013, this is the first sex toy to use so-called “Pleasure Air Technology” for arousal. It’s now sold in more than 40 countries worldwide.
Even long-established brands, like Sweden’s Lelo (founded in Stockholm in 2002) have been surprised by the surge of interest (site traffic increased by 48%, sales by 56%). “That amount of traffic is 7.7% higher even than the recent Christmas period, which is generally our busiest trading period,” says Lelo brand manager Stuart Nugent.
In addition to growing trade, traffic to the Lelo blog Volonté has increased by 55%. “People aren’t simply shopping for sex toys at Lelo. They’re also looking for information, and stimulation, tips and tricks to try while they’re housebound,” says Nugent.
Kheiron Medical Technologies is a UK medtech startup that helps radiologists detect breast cancer earlier using deep learning (AI). Launched in 2016, it has raised €32m from Atomico, Hoxton Ventures, Greycroft Partners, Connect Ventures and others. (New to our 2020 list)
Lattice Medical is a French startup that uses bio-engineering to treat breast cancer survivors. ‘Matisse’ breast implants consist of 3D printed biomaterials and allow a natural reconstruction of the breast. Started in October 2017, Lattice Medical has raised a total of €2.3m to date. (New to our 2020 list)
MobileODT is an Israeli-based startup founded in 2012. It has developed a “handheld smartphone AI device to spot cervical cancer”. The company has raised $26m to date from a number of biotech investors. (New to our 2020 list)
Spain’s Emjoy, an erotic audio guide app, has seen an 45% spike in downloads since confinement started and a 160% increase in usage, according to the company.
“Social distancing can be quite challenging for our health, especially when it comes to our natural human need for touch. Self-isolation can be a great opportunity to reconnect and explore our bodies,” says Emjoy cofounder and chief executive Andrea Oliver.
The subscription-based startup provides both practical informative audio sessions and erotic audio content and closed a €1m round last year through venture capital firm Nauta Capital.
Similar app businesses Ferly (a London business sprung out of the Zinc ‘tech for good’ acceleration in 2018) and Beducated (a Munich-based startup launched in 2018) have also seen spikes in usage and downloads.
With universities shut, students have proved particularly keen on the Beducated app, which provides online courses with the tagline “Sexual Happiness is Trainable”. There has been 189% more activity, according to the company. Behaviour has also shifted towards “binge-watching”, with course completion 57% higher in March than February.
Clue is a Berlin-based menstrual tracking app which started way back in 2012. Its founder Ida Tin was the first to coin the term “femtech” back in 2016 and her company has raised €27.4m to date. The startup is not only an early femtech pioneer, but also does a good job of showcasing academic research and promoting conversations about female health on its website.
Ava, which was founded in 2014 in Switzerland, has raised a massive €42m to date. Its multi-sensor bracelet allows women to predict fertile days while they are sleeping. No more temperature testing or counting days. If Ava could use the same technique as a contraceptive, then it would become a real competitor to the next company on our list…
Natural Cycles is still the only mobile application cleared for marketing as a certified contraceptive in Europe. The company helps women track body temperature to predict when they are the most fertile and not. Founded in Sweden 2013, it has had some problems, but it now boasts 1.5m users worldwide with the UK as its biggest market followed by the US and Sweden. Funding to date: €34m.
Inne, which was founded in Germany in 2016, could also become a real competitor to Natural Cycles with a slightly different approach to the same problem. Instead of finding out your most fertile days by taking your temperature, with Inne you do a saliva test. The startup has had some tailwinds lately and raised €8.8m from Blossom Capital among others. (New on our 2020 list… see our 2019 femtech list here.)
Grace Health is a Swedish period and fertility tracker for women in emerging markets. It has recently added a digital women’s health clinic to it. So far it has 700,000 users in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya. Founded in late 2017, it has attracted well-known angel investors such as Cherry Ventures’ Sophia Bendz, Blossom Capital’s Louise Samet and most recently Vostok New Ventures for a total of €2.3m.
Juno Bio is a biotechnology startup founded in 2018 and based in London. It uses machine learning and bioinformatics to analyse and predict vaginal microbiomes’ impact on female fertility. It has won funding from Ada Ventures and Entrepreneur First. (New to our 2020 list)
Cirqle is a Danish startup that has created a non-hormonal contraceptive for women. Oui is a capsule that after insertion provides effective birth control for up to 24 hours. Founded in 2018, it has raised a total of €1.6m for pre-clinical development. (New to our 2020 list)
Pexxi is a UK startup that can tell you which hormonal contraceptive will work for you. Founded in 2018 it has raised a pre-seed round from angel investors including Cambridge Angels. (New to our 2020 list)
Non-tech sexual wellness startups are seeing a surge in interest too. Hanx, a UK “vegan” condom brand founded in 2017, has seen a 117% increase in web sales during the pandemic, according to cofounder Farah Kabir .
“Our average basket value for the month is up by 39%, which suggests people are bulk buying and in the hope to avoid a corona baby boom,” says Kabir. “There has also been news about shortages and lack of access to hormonal contraceptives like the pill, including the emergency contraceptive pill, which could be another reason we are seeing a spike.”
Elsewhere, an Israeli startup called Aquafit has developed a gel stick for women to use to help alleviate painful intercourse.
Cofounder Rebecca Sternberg says the company initially delayed its product line launch because of the coronavirus outbreak, but it now expects to benefit from growing interest in sexual wellness. “We will leverage these shifts to get intimate wellness products and services directly to women,” she says.
https://gizmodo.com/these-are-the-wearables-that-stood-out-at-ces-2021-1846053707