UK startup Elvie, which develops women’s health products including a breast pump and pelvic floor trainer, has raised £9.6m, according to Companies House filings taken from Beauhurst.
The round, which Elvie confirmed to Sifted, was raised from existing investors.
Since launching in 2013, the startup has now picked up $136m, from backers including BlackRock, Octopus Ventures and the Business Growth Fund.
“This small internal raise will support continued innovation and development of Elvie’s smarter technology products, consolidating Elvie’s presence in its key markets, and strengthening the operations and infrastructure,” an Elvie spokesperson tells Sifted.
Europe’s best-funded femtech
Elvie is Europe’s best-funded femtech startup, with period app Flo being the next-best-funded company in the sector, having bagged $76.4m, according to data from Dealroom.
It has also managed to get its pelvic floor trainer reimbursed by the UK’s NHS — meaning that the public health service pays for it to be given as a treatment to patients — a feat few healtech startups have managed.
It expanded to the US market — considered the holy grail for many European healthtechs — in 2019, before launching in China and other European countries like Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.
Elvie raised a £70.7m Series C in 2021 — it’s last publicly announced round — before quietly picking up another £18.5m from internal investors in 2022.
That year, Elvie’s rate of revenue growth slowed, according to the company’s latest annual accounts. In 2022, Elvie’s turnovers hit £78m, up from £65m in 2021 and £37m in 2020. Losses rose from £22m in 2021 to £29m in 2022.
The 2022 filings say that Elvie moved to “restructure” the business as it pushed towards profitability that year. That involved the company pulling out of China to focus on North America and Europe, as well as making layoffs.
