In recent years, the focus on career and delayed marriage age some women to consider retaining their fertility by freezing eggs.
But the steep costs of the procedure, estimated at $ 10,000 to $ 15,000 For each attempt, many women cannot afford it during their most fertile years: 20s and early thirty.
CuteA startup founded by former Uber director Lauren Makler and Health Tech Angel Investor Halle Tecco, offers women without a precious egg freezing in exchange for donating half of the collected eggs to those who cannot get pregnant.
The three-year startup has just collected a series A-round of $ 7.25 million, led by the following companies and offline companies, with participation of initialized, Gaingels and various other investors. This financing round brings the total financing of Cofertility to $ 16 million.
The idea is born from Makler’s fertility and health zipper. A diagnosis of 2018 of a rare abdominal disease led to several operations that threatened the loss of her ovaries.
In such situations, doctors sometimes suggest that freezing eggs for young women who want children, but that was not an option for Makler.
So she started to learn as much as possible about egg donation.
Makler knew that donors were compensated for their eggs, but she was shocked to learn how expensive the eggs could be. If she wanted an egg from a Jewish donor that fits her background, it would cost more. The price rose further when she was looking for an egg from a well -trained woman.
“It felt a bit like peak prices for egg donors who felt Icky,” she said, referring to Uber’s approach for charging journeys during peakdemand.
Fortunately, Makler conceived a child naturally, but that experience led them to build a company that fits young women who want to keep their fertility with people who need a donor.
Although the concept of sharing eggs is not new, Makler claims that Wijk is the only company that offers eggs on a scale through its “Split” program.
“At any time we have hundreds of donors available to intended parents,” said Makler, adding that most clinics will only have a handful of donors, which will probably not result in a competition.
Makler says that the egg donors of the Cofertility come from different backgrounds and that about 55% of them graduated.
The intended parents cover the egg -up costs and the coordination costs of the Cofertility, comparable to standard egg donation. However, they do not have to compensate the donor, which reduces their out-of-pocket costs.
Although Makler does not call randomness a marketplace, she agrees that it works as one and that her company solves a major structural problem.
“The big vision and the goal is to remove the taboo of egg donation,” she said, “there is no shame in how you become a parent. That will be with the help of a donor who is also interested in freezing her own eggs is a really exciting option.”
