Caroline Mitterdorfer’s fertility journey began with an early-stage cancer diagnosis at age 27. She told TechCrunch that her diagnosis made her realize how little she knew about her health and her fertility. She dove into researching the space and became a self-described fertility advocate.
Through that work, Mitterdorfer noticed that it took a long time for doctors to diagnose fertility issues. She co-founded Levy Health to help speed up the process.
San Francisco-based Levy Health built a clinical decision support platform to help physicians and fertility specialists diagnose women with fertility issues earlier. The platform has users fill out a whole host of questions, like how long they’ve been trying to get pregnant and whether they track ovulation, and it has them submit necessary lab work before an appointment with a fertility specialist.
Levy Health’s software analyzes a patient’s questionnaire, biomarkers, and labs and narrows down a list of 110 potential diagnoses to a few potential conditions a patient might have. It presents this information, and potential treatment options, to doctors before they see their patient. While physicians review everything before it is presented to patients, Mitterdorfer said that this process has led to a 50% reduction in time to diagnosis.
Mitterdorfer said that while clinical decision support platforms aren’t new, they are to the fertility space. Part of the reason it can take so long for women to get diagnosed is that they are talking about fertility issues with their OB-GYN or primary care provider, who aren’t necessarily equipped with the proper knowledge on endocrine disorders like infertility, she said.
“We truly believe we can change how women get access to an early diagnosis by empowering the diagnoser,” Mitterdorfer said. “Fertility clinics, they have a huge problem: There is more demand than supply, and a lot of innovation is in the IVF lab, not as much in funneling patients through.”
Through her fertility advocacy, Mitterdorfer met her co-founders Silvia Hecher, CPO, who’s held numerous roles in fertility clinics and companies, and Dr. Theresa Vilsmaier, founding physician focused on gynecology.
The trio launched the company in 2022 in Germany. Despite getting regulatory approval in Europe, Mitterdorfer said that they quickly realized that the European market wasn’t aligned with the company because Levy Health didn’t want to pass any of the costs on to consumers. So the company packed up and moved to the U.S. where it is based now.
Levy Health launched in the U.S. in 2023. The company has landed six B2B customers, including Progyny, a fertility benefits company; Boston IVF, a chain of fertility clinics; and Everie, an egg donation organization.
“The biggest challenge of a company in a healthcare space is finding the first five customers,” Mitterdorfer said. “Word of mouth in healthcare is significant. One of our first companies being Progyny helps build that trust and validation.”
Levy Health just raised a $4.5 million seed round led by XYZ Venture Capital with participation from Atlantic Labs and Possible Ventures. Mitterdorfer said that the company will use the funds to continue building the team and technology but also to help fund clinical studies related to areas like fertility and egg freezing.
“We are focusing on publishing a clinical study over the next six months for clinical support for women to freeze their eggs, validating our KPIs,” Mitterdorfer said. “It’s a lot about trust, also a lot of, ‘Do you really provide the value proposition that you are trying to deliver?’”
Fertility health as a market has continued to gain momentum. The U.S. fertility market was valued at $6.19 billion in 2023, according to Precedence Research, and is expected to grow 63% by 2033.
There are numerous companies approaching the problem from various angles. Carrot is a fertility-focused employee benefit provider that has raised $114 million in venture capital. Mira is an at-home hormone testing kit that has raised $4.3 million in VC. Pozitivf is a chain of fertility clinics that has raised $20 million.
“For me, it is just critical to know that what we are building is helping, at the end of the day, hopefully millions of women getting an early diagnosis,” Mitterdorfer said.
