Bloomlife Secures $4M Series B Funding to Advance Prenatal Monitoring Platform and Pursue FDA Clearance

Fertility monitoring has emerged as a popular focus in digital health in recent years; however, most fertility-tracking apps lack clinical validation and are therefore unable to demonstrate their reliability. In response, several digital health companies have pivoted their strategies by upgrading to medical-grade sensors. They aim to deliver high-quality information to pregnant women and clinicians by combining data collection from wearable devices with advanced algorithmic analysis. Bloomlife is one such company.

Bloomlife, a startup specializing in female fertility testing, has secured $4 million in Series B funding. The round was led by venture capital firms Marc Benioff and Efficient Capacity, with participation from LanzaTech Ventures, The Chernin Group, Kapor Capital, Act One Ventures, and others. Following this financing, Bloomlife will focus on optimizing and upgrading its existing monitoring services and seek FDA 510(k) clearance to complete its product commercialization strategy.

Eric Dy, the founder and CEO of Bloomlife, has a background in biomedical engineering and previously worked at the European company IMEC, where he met Bloomlife’s other co-founder, Julien. At IMEC, Julien led R&D in mobile health, developing advanced devices for the consumer healthcare market.

Two Founders:Eric Dy (left) andJulien Penders (right)

Julien Penders, Chief Operating Officer and co-founder of Bloomlife, stated that they have observed significant changes in the healthcare system and believe there is substantial growth potential for wearable smart monitors. The inspiration struck when Julien’s wife became pregnant: pregnancy monitoring is a universal concern, yet hospital systems have remained virtually unchanged for nearly 40 years. With growing demand for better solutions, this market offers considerable room for expansion.

Bloomlife, founded in 2014 and headquartered in San Francisco, California, has a workforce of 11–50 employees. The company is dedicated to integrating wearable pregnancy monitors with data analytics technologies to provide prenatal data services for expectant mothers.

The company’s core product is Belli, a sensor worn on the pregnant woman’s abdomen via an adhesive patch to monitor uterine contractions and transmit data such as duration and frequency to a companion app. Unlike traditional ultrasound technology, Belli employs passive, non-invasive electronic monitoring. Clinical validation has demonstrated that it causes no harm to either the mother or the fetus. Expectant mothers can now rent the device for $29 per month.

Belli is extremely easy to use; simply apply it to the abdomen, and the data can be viewed via the app.

Currently, Belli only offers uterine contraction monitoring. Following the financing round, Bloomlife plans to expand its pregnancy monitoring services to cover various aspects of maternal health, including fetal movement and fetal heart rate, through software and algorithm upgrades. Bloomlife’s ultimate goal is to develop products capable of predicting pregnancy complications.

Bloomlife stated that its plan is to launch more precise, clinical-grade products for data collection, based on which it will analyze whether there are any abnormal data during pregnancy, so as to identify which data are associated with pregnancy complications.Bloomlife isSubmit the technical report to the FDA for certification, thereby securing FDA-approved medical reimbursement and making the product accessible to pregnant women who cannot afford high equipment costs.

Bloomlife’s direct competitors are the Israeli company The Nuvo Group and the UK-based Monica Healthcare, the latter of which announced a strategic partnership with Philips in January this year.Clinical pregnancy monitoring products are increasingly attracting the attention of clinicians and consumers, offering substantial commercial potential.

Bloomlife also has a group of strategic partners in specialized fields, including the Preterm Birth Initiative research institute at the University of California, San Francisco, and Stanford’s research team.

Later this year, Bloomlife plans to phase out its legacy products and launch a next-generation lineup. The company is currently collaborating with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and another major organization (yet to be announced) on clinical studies. In addition, Bloomlife is in the process of building a dedicated team focused on women’s health and prenatal care.

At the Splash Health event organized by Vator in February, Bloomlife won an Excellence Award for its unique technology that monitors uterine contractions, fetal movement, and fetal heart rate.Due to the development of Belli, the company also won the Extreme Tech Challenge Technology Award,Company CEOEric Dy’s Contributions to Improving Maternal and Infant HealthPrenatal care products are highly promising.