femtech:brief #12: Breastfeeding innovators
ππ½ππ½ Hello and welcome to the 12th edition of femtech:brief. We hope you enjoyed last weekβs edition! This week is all about breastfeeding and innovations in that space.
The American Academy of Pediatrics encourages mothers to breastfeed their children for at least 1 year. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that barriers in breastfeeding result in 60% of mothers not breastfeeding for as long as they intend to, some reasons being difficulty lactating or the baby latching, sickness, or lack of support from work. This has opened doors for many startups focusing on breast milk and enabling women to take control of their nursing journey. Letβs explore them this week.
Startups to look out for
A Singapore based startup, TurtleTree argues its advantages lie in its ability to mimic ingredients found in breast milk, including HMOs Lactoferrin, and Alpha-Lactalbumin; source a variety of mammalian cells; and its unique βB2B2Cβ business model that will allow it to scale faster than competitors in the same space. The company recently raised 30M in series A to expedite full commercialization.
Milkstrip - Real-time breast milk diagnostics
MilkStrip provides breast milk diagnostic kits that deliver real-time results at home, without the need and long delay of lab work. For more information, visit the website at milkstrip.com.
βWhen we started Helaina, there was a lot of technology going into a lot of industries, but feeding babies had not advanced too much,β Katz told TechCrunch
Helaina is a startup that provides parents with more cost-friendly food options, while also supporting them as they examine their choices.
Helainaβs latest round brings it closer to market with human milk-equivalent baby formula.
Bobbie
βThe world of infant formula involves a lagging product. People are seeking out products you yourself had in the 1980s. The science has changed, and baby food is changing, and infant formula needs to catch up.β - Laura Modi, Founder of Bobbie
Bobbie, a San Francisco-based infant formula company, raised $15 million in Series A funding led by VMG to develop its formula, modeled after breast milk. Its formula meets EU nutritional standards for fundamental ingredients and also complies with all applicable U.S. Food and Drug Administration nutritional standards for infant formula.
Mymilk labs
MyLee by MyMilk labs is a milk sensing device for assessing your breastfeeding progress and help you be proactive and achieve good milk supply. MyLee provides personalised insights on breastfeeding journey.
Built for breastfeeding moms on the go with their mamava pods, the mamava mobile app also helps moms find lactation pods around them. Bluetooth enabled unlock mechanism for easy use and intentionally designed with comfort at the forefront.
Startup of the week
Breastmilk without breasts? Read about the early stage startup disrupting the multibillion-dollar infant milk formula industry
The female-founded biotech developing lab-grown breastmilk, recently received backing from Bill Gates. Biomilq is driven by the notion of disrupting the multibillion-dollar infant milk formula industry within the next four years.
Early results spell trouble for the $45-billion dollar infant formula industry.
Read how personal experience led to innovation: When Leila Strickland was a new mom, she struggled to breastfeed her son, who was born prematurely. He wouldnβt latch properly, and her body wasnβt producing enough milk. While discouraging, her experience is commonβstudies suggest that many people stop breastfeeding before they wish to, while others are biologically incapable of feeding an infant on their milk alone. Strickland, who has a PhD in cell biology, wondered if something other than infant formula could help in these moments. She started growing the cells that orchestrate the production of breast milk, human mammary epithelial cells, in a small lab in North Carolina to see if she could get human breast milk to appear without a breast. Read more
π‘ Interesting fact
Moms can now get their breast milk home from anywhere in the world thanks to Milk Stork.
Milk Stork offers breast milk shipping services:
Easy refrigerated and frozen options
Domestic and international shipping
Preferred pricing on expedited shipping
Freeze-dry frozen breast milk
They actually helped parents get 21 gallons of breast milk back from the Tokyo Olympics!
ποΈ Bonus Read
βI want to give my child the bestβ: the race to grow human breast milk in a lab
Thought up by a tired new mother, and now backed by Bill Gates, manufactured human milk sounds like the stuff of science fiction. But just how liberating will it be? Read the story here.
Thatβs all for this weekβs edition βΊοΈ