A reproductive health start-up run by one of Britain’s most prominent venture capitalists has swooped on one of its peers amid growing demand from large companies for the provision of fertility and other sexual health-related benefits to their workforces.
Sky News understands that Fertifa, which is run by Eileen Burbidge, one of Britain’s most prominent venture capitalists, has agreed a deal to buy Juniper, a two-year-old London-based company which provides reproductive health insurance.
Sources said the deal – worth an undisclosed sum – would be announced publicly on Thursday.
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It will provide fresh evidence of the accelerating consolidation of an area of healthcare which has gained increasing prominence as part of companies’ employee benefits packages in recent years.
Fertifa counts Meta – the owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – among its clients, along with other blue-chip businesses such as the private equity firm Hg Capital, H&M, Lululemon, MoFo, Space NK and Virgin Group.
The start-up raised £5m in funding from investors including Notion Capital, Triple Point Ventures and Speedinvest two years ago, following an initial pre-seed round led by Passion Capital.
Fertifa is the exclusive provider of the insurer Aviva UK’s family planning and fertility benefit for many of its healthcare schemes.
The start-up’s offering is based on a per-employee, per-month pricing model, and offers reimbursement administration by charging a 5% fee on transaction volumes.
It has also broadened its services in recent years by adding men’s health, neurodiversity support and a payment plan allowing employees to avoid up-front costs.
Juniper, which was founded by Ambra Zhang and Max Bacon, was set up to address a gap in the private medical insurance (PMI) market by focusing on reproductive health coverage.
It also raised funding from external investors, including Insurtech Gateway and 2100.
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