SA国际传媒

, a perinatal nutrition and education startup, has raised $5.8 million in Seed funding to expand its offerings to address stress, sleep and fertility issues, the company told SA国际传媒 News.

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The Los Angeles-based company will also use the money to fund new clinical research on nutrition during pregnancy, which it says will demonstrate how well鈥攐r not鈥攚omen鈥檚 needs are being met with existing nutrition supplement options on the market.

鈥淲omen are feeling really under-supported in this life stage,鈥� , co-founder of Needed, told SA国际传媒 News. 鈥淢ost women see an OB-GYN as their primary care provider, and an OB-GYN often, while well-meaning, isn鈥檛 trained in nutrition and they don’t have a fluency of what the options are for supporting women from a natural and preventative perspective. That is why we created Needed.鈥�

The round was led by Boston-based , which focuses on health care startups, especially those founded by women and people of color, as well as Portola Valley, California-based , specializing in beauty and wellness investments. Southern California-based and Salt Lake City-based also jumped into the round.

Arianne Kidder, principal at Seae, said the firm was motivated to lead the round because the current 鈥減erinatal nutrition paradigm is broken.鈥�

While most women trying to get pregnant take prenatal supplements, many are deficient in important nutrients and some struggle to get face time with their doctors, she said in a statement to SA国际传媒 News. 鈥淣eeded is an innovator of change, education and advocacy in perinatal care and nutrition,鈥� Kidder added.

Indeed, confirms that while about 70 percent of expecting mothers in the U.S. take prenatal suplements, many of the 1,003 pregnant women who participated in the study were deficient in key vitamins. Meanwhile, researchers say almost all of the moms ate too much sodium and were at risk of ingesting more folic acid and iron than they needed.

That鈥檚 the kind of imbalance Needed鈥檚 founders said they are trying to address with the company鈥檚 supplements, educational content and growing practitioner referral program.

Sawaya and co-founder , both grads, said they created Needed in 2017 because they were left wanting for more information and quality nutrition supplements in their own individual pregnancy journeys. The company鈥檚 first line of nutrition products launched in late 2020, then last month it launched its men鈥檚 line of supplements.

鈥淢en have been in the plan for a long time, since men are half the equation in terms of a healthy embryo and a healthy pregnancy for their semen quality,鈥� Woodbury said. 鈥淚 think folks are increasingly understanding sort of the [issues] around the health of male sperm 鈥� and I think bringing them back front and center, so they’re part of the equation, is hugely important.鈥�

Sawaya and Woodbury said they hope their newest formulations to help with stress, sleep and fertility will be ready to launch by the end of the year, assuming supply chain issues don鈥檛 delay the release, an issue Needed and many organizations have struggled with over the past year.

Despite the supply hiccups, the company has generated more than $1 million in revenue and accumulated more than 10,000 customers since its launch. Although U.S. births declined during the pandemic, Woodbury said business has grown consistently in that time and shows no signs of slowing.

Needed is one of a growing number of venture-backed startups working on improving fertility care and access, an issue that has become top-of-mind for many amid a dip in U.S. birthrates during the pandemic. SA国际传媒 data shows at least $176 million was invested in fertility startups this year through mid-October, up 89 percent compared to 2020.

Needed’s founders hope their research–a clinical study pushed forward with money from their latest funding round–will help spread the word to more expectant parents, doctors, insurers and even employers that perinatal supplements deserve a closer look.

鈥淎nother use of this raise is to enhance the clinical validation, the need for better support for women,鈥� Sawaya said. 鈥淲e hope that with time, that opens up the conversation around what health insurance should be covering, or what employers should be covering on behalf of their employees. Since keeping women in the workforce is so important, the way a woman feels during pregnancy and after pregnancy is such a driving force behind whether she is likely to return to work.鈥�

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