Mixing machine learning with fertility technology could be a science fiction plot. It can also be a company. Felicia von Reden started Ovom Care in 2023 to build software to make the often strenuous IVF process more efficient and more affordable. Ovom uses artificial intelligence to help doctors determine the right medication and dosage for each patient, and even identify the most viable eggs and sperm in a patient's body. “What makes this company unique is that we have two parts: technical innovation with AI and data, and medical care at the clinic,” she said. “Only if you bring the two together can you develop innovation that brings that value to the patient.” Valued at $22 million, Ovom has brought in $8 million in funding to develop the technology.
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00:00You have $8 million in funding. What has that funding journey looked like from your end?
00:04We have seen an incredible amount of support because this topic, like two or three years ago,
00:09was still not that big of a topic of fertility. So really in the last couple of years it has been
00:15increasing. But everyone is seeing at this point that we need to do something in that space because
00:20fertility rates are declining all across the globe. We see people getting or people struggling
00:26with fertility more and more. Right now we have the amount of people which are not able to access
00:32fertility care is more than 95% of people which are actually infertile. So there is a huge demand.
00:38Demand is not the question for this industry. The question is rather, especially for investors,
00:43how do you drive the change? How are you the change driver of that industry? And then going back to what
00:48I mentioned earlier is by combining the technology component by also being close to the patient
00:53and really delivering the value that we create on the technology innovation side of things
00:57directly to the patient and by that iterating super fast and moving forward.
01:01And are investors understanding this? I feel like especially in speaking with female founders
01:06surrounding female issues, a lot of times investors are men. Has this been a hurdle to get them to
01:14understand the importance of it or has it been pretty well received? I think we've been pretty lucky that we
01:21really identified investors in our close ecosystem which A understand the topic but also B understand
01:27the importance of that. So we didn't receive much pushback in terms of this wouldn't be a huge topic
01:34because it is. Interestingly, fertility is not just a female issue, it is also a male issue.
01:38Totally. So the topic of family building is equally relevant for both sides. So that one we have
01:44been quite lucky and have very understanding and very bullish investors on the topic on our side.
01:51We'll see you next time.
01:57We'll see you next time.