Flo Health Secures $7M in Series A Funding to Advance AI-Powered Menstrual Cycle Prediction Platform

On October 12, 2018, VCBeat (WeChat ID: VCbeat) learned that women’s health startup Flo Health had secured an additional $7 million in funding, completing a total Series A round of $12 million. This financing round valued Flo Health at $200 million. The round was led by Mangrove Capital Partners, with participation from Haxus and existing investor Flint Capital.

Previously, in August 2017, Flo Health secured a $5 million Series A funding round co-led by Flint Capital and Natalia Vodianova. To date, the company has raised a total of $13 million. Natalia Vodianova, a Russian supermodel, joined Flo’s board of directors during the Series A round. Flo intends to use these funds to accelerate product improvements and user growth initiatives, expand its team, and establish new research collaborations with associations and medical universities, thereby advancing women’s health.

Flo is an AI-powered women’s health product launched by Flo Health in October 2015, offering solutions for every stage of a woman’s life—from menarche and menstrual cycle tracking to preconception care, pregnancy, new motherhood, and finally menopause.

For a long time, menstruation has been one of the most important yet taboo topics among women. However, many gynecological conditions can be reflected through menstrual cycles and associated symptoms. Flo is the first software to leverage AI for precise prediction of menstrual cycles. Users can track over 50 parameters—including physical activity, hydration levels, vaginal discharge, contraceptive use, mood, pain, and sexual activity—enabling the platform to deliver highly personalized content and services through data science and AI technologies.

Currently, Flo offers its app in 20 languages on iOS and Android, with over 60 million downloads and more than 22 million monthly active users. It is the most-downloaded health and fitness application on the Apple App Store in the United States, with users in the U.S. and Europe accounting for 60% of its user base. In January 2018, Flo was named the “world’s most popular health and fitness app” and became a partner of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in the field of reproductive health. By October, Flo users in more than 30 countries worldwide had incorporated the app into their daily routines. The Flo Health team comprises over 100 experts, 70% of whom are women. In a statement, the company said its ultimate goal is to build the world’s leading women’s health platform, serving over 100 million users.

Flo Health Team (Image from the official website)

Yuri Gurski, Founder and President of Flo Health, stated, “Flo leverages AI to analyze and predict menstrual cycles. Machine learning has improved prediction accuracy by 54.2%, reducing the prediction error from 5.6 days to 2.6 days. The more symptoms users log, the more personalized services Flo provides to women. We have also launched a Quora-style Q&A feature within Flo, enabling users to anonymously discuss their most private concerns with experts and other users. This service has yielded remarkable results, demonstrating that Flo can help build a robust community for women’s health among like-minded individuals.”

Other menstrual and ovulation tracking applications include Glow, headquartered in San Francisco and founded by a man (PayPal co-founder Max Levchin), as well as Clue, which was founded by women, and Natural Cycles, based in Berlin. Recently, Clue announced that it had become the first app certified in the European Union as a contraceptive method.

Flo Health, founded in 2016 and headquartered in California, USA, is dedicated to developing AI-powered women’s health products tailored to the needs of women across different ages and life stages. Flo Health places a high priority on the security of women’s health information, aiming to build the only trusted and private platform for women’s health.