| Last week, women’s health unicorn Maven Clinic announced a new cycle tracking tool and male fertility testing as part of its women and family health virtual clinic. |
| Of course, Maven, the $1.7 billion startup that works with employers to offer fertility and family benefits, is not the first to launch a cycle tracking tool — there are plenty of consumer apps out there that do the same thing. |
| But this summer, there's been a noticeable number of reproductive and women's health companies that are expanding the services they offer: Tia Health, for instance, partnered with Talkspace for mental health services, while TwentyEight Health and Carrot added weight care services. |
| Maven CEO Kate Ryder said adding the cycle tracker and male fertility testing has to do with needing more data. She said she’s focused on looking at what will change in the next three years, and the role AI will play in sifting through information. |
| “If you think about where the market's going to be in three years from now, it's going to look completely different,” Ryder told me. For Maven, that means building for a future in which AI is involved in reading diagnostics and imaging, as well as replacing a lot of the administrative tasks in healthcare. |
| To confront that AI-embedded future, datapoints like ones you might get from a cycle-tracker are key. |
| “An ovulation tracker, in the context of a larger platform, is just another input that becomes important to give a full view on someone's health, and then help them action on it,” Ryder said. Ideally with more data, people looking to have a baby will be able to do it without using interventions like IVF — or if they do need fertility care, they come armed with more data. |
| Because it’s faster now to build features like a cycle tracker than it used to be — and it can be done in-house, rather than via acquisition — the goal for Maven is to be “complete specialty for women’s and family health and that front virtual door,” she said. |
| In this age of AI, I expect we’ll see more moves to be comprehensive like this from health tech companies. |
| - Lydia |
