Elvie raises £58m to scale Femtech innovation – TechSPARK.co
Elvie, the revolutionary global health and lifestyle brand developing iconic products for women, has raised a £58m ($80m) investment. The funding round was led by BGF, with further investment from BlackRock Private Equity Partners, Hiro Capital and Westerly Winds. Alsol existing investors Octopus Ventures and IPGL reinvested.
Founded in 2013 by Tania Boler, Elvie brings together a team of world-class engineers, designers and business minds. Elvie opened its tech and product hub in Bristol in 2019
Elvie’s products include Elvie Trainer, a Kegel trainer to strengthen pelvic floors and Elvie Pump, a silent wearable breast pump. In October 2020, the company brought to market two new breastfeeding products, Elvie Catch and Elvie Curve.
Since the launch of Elvie Pump on the catwalk of London Fashion Week in September 2018, Elvie has experienced hyper-growth. The business grew 6x in 2019, almost doubled in 2020 – and is on track to double again in 2021. The company launched in10 new markets in the last year and continues to see rapid sales growth in the US.
The funds are being invested in three key areas: R&D of new best-in-class products and services for women, expansion into new and existing markets, and strengthening Elvie’s operations for the next phase of high-speed growth.
Elvie raises £58m but has barely scratched the surface of what is possible for women’s tech
Tania Boler, CEO and Founder of Elvie, said. “Elvie has already revolutionized every category it has entered – but we know that we have barely scratched the surface of what is possible for women’s tech. This further investment, alongside the wealth of expertise our new Board members bring, place Elvie in pole position to capitalise on the $50 billion femtech opportunity – and that’s only the beginning. We won’t stop until we have fulfilled our ambition to create the go-to destination for women’s health at all life-stages.”
To bolster the existing senior team investors Daina Spedding, BGF, and Persefoni Noulika, BlackRock, will join the Elvie board. This follows the recent hire of Sarah Highfield, who joined as COO/CFO and was previously CFO of Costa Coffee.
Daina Spedding, investor at BGF, said. “BGF is delighted to lead this funding round into Elvie, which we regard as the best-in-class innovator in the femtech sector with strong underlying market dynamics and truly global reach. As an all-female BGF deal team, and leading investor in female-led scaleups, we admire Elvie’s vision, strong track record and R&D capability which have brought a tangible positive impact on women’s lives. We are very excited to back Tania and her exceptional team to supercharge new product innovation and continued growth worldwide.”