Imagine an app that can help you not get pregnant, monitor your ovulation cycle and let you know when you’re most fertile. Natural Cycles, a clinically tested fertility app does exactly that and has been clinically proven to be as effective as the contraceptive pill at preventing pregnancies. Launched in 2014, the Swedish company with a 12 member team has raised $6 million Series A in funding from Bonnier Media Growth, the venture arm of the Swedish media business and existing investors Sunstone and E-ventures. Earlier they had raised $1.5 million in seed last year.
The new capital will be used to make the team bigger, expand the company internationally and invest in clinical studies. The medical world has begun to endorse the app and Kristina Gemzell, a leading Swedish researcher in the field of contraception sits on the advisory board of the company.
Natural Cycles was founded by wife and husband physicists, Dr Elina Berglund and Dr Raoul Scherwitzl. Elina started the company together with her husband after being part of the team of researchers that discovered the Higgs boson at CERN. The app is a subscription based service and measures body temperature to keep track of fertility windows. Natural Cycles claim to have over 100,000 active users in 161 countries and reported revenues of $2M in 2015, its first full year of trading.
Elina Berglund, CTO & Co-Founder of Natural Cycles says, “We have been able to demonstrate the past two years that our app is something that women want and need. Natural Cycles is a healthy business – women pay for the app, they use it practically every day and most importantly, they love it. It is truly an honour to have been able to improve so many women’s lives.”
