Our investment in Vira

We’re very proud to announce our investment in Vira Health, a London based startup bringing us personalized menopause care.

Vira Health has recently launched its first product, Stella, an app for menopause relief which provides 12-week menopause treatment plans, content and virtual events such as yoga classes or a Q&A with a gynecologist.

Central to Stella’s proposition is that:

1. it is evidence-based

2. widely relevant for women alongside or instead of HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy — currently one of the main pharmaceutical solutions to menopause, albeit used by only a minority of women)

3. can operate at scale using virtual support from experts supported by a data-driven backend, and

4. offers support across a woman’s multiple menopause pain points.

Menopause affects a huge percentage of the population: 13m women in the UK alone, 31m in the US, over 1bn globally. Menopause occurs between 45 and 55 years of age, as a woman’s oestrogen levels decline. Common symptoms include hot flashes, night sweats, vaginal dryness and insomnia. Most women experience symptoms over the span of 2–5 years, however some will experience them for much longer (source). After menopause, women become at increased risk for osteoporosis, heart disease and cognitive decline (source).

Menopause is understudied, and as a result often misdiagnosed and mismanaged. Most medical schools and residency programs don’t teach aspiring physicians about menopause. Mostly, the courses are elective. A search on ClinicalTrials.gov for menopause yields ~1,500 results vs ~75,000 for cancer. A Yale Uni review of insurance claims from more than 500k women in various stages of menopause states that while 60% of women with significant menopausal symptoms seek medical attention, nearly three-quarters of them are left untreated.

Current solutions are failing women massively. If the solutions available were good enough, we wouldn’t see so many women struggling, especially at work. A survey last year showed that 63% of women said their working life had been negatively affected by symptoms. The result of this was: 41% reported making more mistakes, 40% reported losing interest in their jobs, 29% significantly lost self-confidence at work, 24% called in sick as a result, 11% said they forewent the opportunity of promotion, and 8% said menopause played a part in them resigning. Menopausal age women make up 20% of the workforce in the UK and US. These statistics strongly suggest that the care they have is not working for them. Moreover, a recent survey by AARP recorded over 90% of women wanting less invasive, tech-based solutions (including apps) to help manage their menopause(source) — which is exactly what Stella is offering.

We’re incredibly proud to partner with the exceptional Founders of Vira Health: Andrea Berchowitz spent 10 years in McKinsey’s public sector practice, working on a range of women’s health topics, and led Middle East operations for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and Dr Rebecca Love , a Gates Cambridge Scholar with a background and publications in population health analytics and data science.

And do check out Andrea’s TED Talk on how to create a menopause friendly work culture that supports gender equity and diversity retention in the workplace.