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Australian women’s health startup Ovum has backed up a $1.7 million pre-seed round a year ago with $4 million in seed funding to address what it sees as a “trillion-dollar women’s health gap”.
The latest seed round has been struck at triple the earlier valuation, pricing Ovum's total capital at $18 million.
The round was led by Admiralty Capital Group with participation from Antler, Giant Leap, Aviron Investments, Foggy Valley Aotearoa, Brisbane Angels, and Think & Grow.
LaunchVic also increased its investment through The Alice Anderson Fund.
Founded by Dr Ariella Heffernan-Marks, the Melbourne-based Ovum is building what it describes as the first-ever AI infrastructure for women's health, with anonymous consent at the forefront.
Heffernan-Marks founded Ovum after seeing firsthand how “broken” the healthcare system is for women.
While battling chronic migraines in her third year of medical school, she was dismissed and told her pain was just anxiety.
That experience led to the creation of Ovum: a women’s health journal that combines technology and clinical research "to make women’s health actionable and equitable".
“I’ve sat on both sides of the desk, as a patient and as a doctor, and that’s why this mission matters so much to me,” says Heffernan-Marks.
“For too long, women have had to navigate healthcare systems that were not designed around their lived experiences or backed by sufficient female health data.
“Ovum exists to help women better understand their bodies, advocate for themselves with confidence, and contribute to research that improves care for future generations.
“This raise allows us to scale that mission responsibly by getting Ovum into the hands of more women and continuing to build a trusted platform grounded in clinical integrity, privacy and consent.”
Ovum's specialised AI captures symptoms, lifestyle, biometrics, every stage of reproductive health, medications, appointments and medical reports into one longitudinal memory.
Surfacing patterns over time, Ovum generates health summaries and appointment-ready questions that help women advocate in clinical settings and close the gender health gap.
Since launching in August last year, Ovum has grown 30 per cent month-on-month with more than 20,000 downloads, 60,000 women’s health data insights captured and more than 113,000 AI health conversations from women aged 15 to 84.
Ovum says the latest funding will support team growth and the continued expansion of its longitudinal women’s health data set.
While awareness of women’s health inequity is growing, Ovum says its broader impact on workforce participation, productivity and GDP remains significantly under-discussed in Australian business and policy conversations.
The company says its business momentum proves how women’s health has been “historically underserved”.
“The most compelling companies are often built around problems society has learned to tolerate but should never have accepted,” says Amanda Andriano, founding partner of lead seed-round investor Admiralty Capital Group.
“The gender health gap is one of those problems. Ovum combines mission, market timing and technical capability with an exceptional founder uniquely positioned to lead this movement, and we believe that creates the foundation for a company of global significance.”
Ovum has already built traction at an enterprise level signing Medibank, Australia’s largest private health insurance provider, pre-product.
Since then, Ovum has landed partnerships with Fernwood Fitness, Sweat, Menopause Friendly Australia, and a pilot with Australian Red Cross Lifeblood, to extend its mission to address the $150 billion in annual productivity lost due to women reducing or leaving work for health purposes.
Earlier this year, Ovum launched clinical trials with St George Hospital and the Royal Hospital for Women, the first in the country to assess AI as a preventative health tool designed specifically for women.
The research focuses on understanding how women currently manage their health, the digital tools they rely on, and how AI may support greater health confidence, self-advocacy and continuity of care.
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