Good morning, Broadsheet readers! A new study found that women's medical 'pink tax' is real, former Tinder CEO Renate Nyborg is developing a new AI app, and GV invests in a menopause startup. Have an excellent Wednesday.
- Impactful investment. For three years, GV, Alphabet's venture capital arm formerly known as Google Ventures, has been looking at the menopause space. The firm has deployed almost $150 million in the women's health category, says general partner Frédérique Dame. But it hadn't found the right startup working on meeting the needs of women experiencing menopause—until now.
GV is leading a $25 million funding round in Midi Health, a virtual clinic focused on menopause care that founder and CEO Joanna Strober launched last year, Fortune is the first to report.
Strober previously founded a company called Kurbo Health that aimed to address childhood obesity. She sold the business to Weight Watchers in 2018. Her interest in the menopause space began eight years ago when, at 47, she started having trouble sleeping, which contributed to brain fog and other symptoms. She sought out treatment and eventually found the right solution—but the hormone specialist she saw was cash-only and expensive. Strober, based in Palo Alto, began to think about how to scale the high-quality care she found to women all over the country.
Midi connects patients with medical professionals for live virtual visits. They treat menopause-related symptoms including brain fog, mood changes, and joint pain, as well as offer care for cancer patients affected by similar symptoms because of their treatments. With the new funding, it will expand from accepting insurance in 13 U.S. states to all 50 states. Midi is available through employers' health care packages but also directly to patients.
There's been a lot of interest in the menopause space over the past few years—from science-driven companies to celebrity brands. Founders and investors have simultaneously identified an untapped market, but have come up with many different ways to capitalize on that market. "A lot of companies started looking at it like a product opportunity," says Strober. "What we really wanted to do was create a care company rather than a product company."
GV's investors think that Midi has potential to help address some large-scale societal problems, like growing OB/GYN care deserts in areas where anti-abortion legislation has made it difficult for physicians to continue practicing.
The investors were also impressed by Midi's team. "This is a team who's seasoned. These are not 30-year-olds," says executive venture partner Cathy Friedman. "It's very important to have a subset of the team to have lived it," she adds about menopause. "To have a bunch of 20-year-olds focused on menopause, you're probably not going to understand all the nuance in it."
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
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