Elvie, a revolutionary global health and lifestyle brand developing iconic products for women, recently announced a $80M (£58m) Series C funding. The funding round was led by BGF, with further investment from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock Private Equity Partners, and a consortium including Hiro Capital and Westerly Winds, plus existing investors Octopus Ventures and IPGL.
The lifestyle brand that women deserve
CEO Tania Boler founded Elvie in 2013. The lifestyle brand brings together a team of world-class engineers, designers and business minds to develop extraordinary products that improve women’s lives. The products revolutionize categories that had been overlooked for many years, including breast pumps and pelvic floor health. Elvie’s products include Elvie Trainer, an award-winning app-connected Kegel trainer that helps women strengthen their pelvic floor. The company also offers Elvie Pump, the world’s first silent wearable breast pump. In October 2020, the company brought to market two new breastfeeding products, Elvie Catch and Elvie Curve.
Since the launch of Elvie Pump on the catwalk of London Fashion Week in September 2018, Elvie has experienced hyper-growth. The business grew 6x in 2019 and almost doubled in 2020, despite COVID. Moreover, it is on track to double again in 2021. The company launched 10 new markets across EU and Asia in the last 12 months. Meanwhile, it continues to see rapid sales growth in the US, the world’s biggest breast pump market.
Elvie Pump has assumed the number one position in its category in the US and UK. Elvie will continue to drive its leadership in the breast pump category. It will simultaneously expand its product portfolio into other key life stages. The goal is to become a global platform for all women’s health needs.
Innovation, expansion and strength
Elvie will use the Series C funds to invest in three key areas: innovation and the development of new best-in-class products and services for women, continued expansion into new and existing markets and strengthening Elvie’s operations and infrastructure ready for the next phase of high-speed growth.
The femtech industry will likely become a $50 billion market by 2025.
“Elvie has already revolutionized every category it has entered – but we know that we have barely scratched the surface of what is possible for women’s tech. This further investment, alongside the wealth of expertise our new Board members bring, place Elvie in pole position to capitalize on the $50 billion femtech opportunity – and that’s only the beginning,” said Tania Boler, CEO and Founder of Elvie. “We won’t stop until we have fulfilled our ambition to create the go-to destination for women’s health at all life stages; providing sophisticated, accurate and personalized solutions.”
Investors Daina Spedding, BGF, and Persefoni Noulika, BlackRock, will join the Elvie board. This move will bolster the existing senior team in the fast-growing femtech market. Elvie recently hired Sarah Highfield, who joined as COO and CFO in September 2020. Highfield was previously CFO of Costa Coffee.
A lifestyle brand that makes an impact
“BGF is delighted to lead this funding round into Elvie, which we regard as the best-in-class innovator in the femtech sector with strong underlying market dynamics and truly global reach. As an all-female BGF deal team, and leading investor in female-led scaleups, we admire Elvie’s vision, strong track record and R&D capability which have brought a tangible positive impact on women’s lives,” Daina Spedding, investor at BGF, said. “We are very excited to back Tania and her exceptional team to supercharge new product innovation and continued growth worldwide.”
“Elvie has established itself as a brand innovator within the women’s health and wellness space and has already commercialized two breakthrough, patented and FDA-approved devices,” Persefoni Noulika, Director, BlackRock Private Equity Partners, said. “We are pleased to support Tania and Elvie’s management team and help continue the company’s strong growth momentum.”
“We are delighted to be investing in Elvie in partnership with Westerly Winds, alongside BlackRock and BGF. Tania is an extraordinary, passionate entrepreneur who has built one of the world’s leading femtech innovators,” Cherry Freeman, General Partner at Hiro Capital, said. “Hiro invests in brilliant, ethical creators building the next generation of games, fitness technology and digital wellness – Tania’s vision is a perfect fit with our values as a fund.”
“We see tremendous opportunity in bringing a female-centric approach to innovation and technology to address women’s health and wellness,” Edward Van Cutsem, Founding Partner of Westerly Winds, said. “Elvie’s track record is impressive and we’re excited to back Tania and the broader team in this exciting new chapter.”
To continue Elvie’s ascendancy, there will be a very exciting addition to the portfolio coming later this year.
For more information, visit www.elvie.com.
About Elvie
Founded in 2013, Elvie is a British brand developing smarter technology for women. CEO Tania Boler founded the company after realizing the lack of support for new mums. She brought together a team of world-class engineers, designers and business minds to redesign the existing unattractive and outdated medical devices in women’s health into sleek consumer products that women can use at home.
Elvie now has four products on the market. The first to launch, Elvie Trainer, is an award-winning Kegel trainer and app. Its second product, Elvie Pump, is the world’s first silent, wearable breast pump.
The newest additions to the line-up are Elvie Curve and Elvie Catch; both enhancing the Elvie breastfeeding range. Elvie Curve is a wearable, silicone breast pump that uses natural suction to enable comfort. Elvie Catch is a set of two secure milk collection cups to catch leaks and collect additional milk.
For more information visit elvie.com.
About BGF
Beginning in 2011, BGF has invested over £2.5bn in more than 400 companies. It is the most active growth capital investor in the UK. BGF is a minority, non-controlling equity partner with a patient outlook on investments, based on shared long-term goals with the management teams it backs. BGF invests in growing businesses in the UK and Ireland through its network of 16 offices. In 2018, Canada launched its equivalent – the Canadian Business Growth Fund. In 2020, Australia did the same. Both are based on BGF’s approach and funding model. See: www.bgf.co.uk.
Part of BGF’s investment in Elvie comes from its recently launched UK Enterprise Fund. The fund was established alongside Coutts to provide private clients with access to privately held, disruptive and diverse companies which are revolutionizing their industries.
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