List
7 Startups You Can Expect Help From When You're Expecting
From an app providing nutritional recommendations during pregnancy to an at-home ultrasound device, below are seven startups trying to make pregnancy just a little bit easier
From an app providing nutritional recommendations during pregnancy to an at-home ultrasound device, below are seven Israel-based startups trying to make pregnancy just a little easier.
Pregnant mother (illustration). Photo: Shutterstock Nuvo
Founded: 2007
Funding to date: $30 million
Based in: Tel Aviv
Nuvo Inc. develops a belt-like device that offers pregnant women non-invasive fetal and maternal monitoring from the comfort of their home. Called Invu, Nuvo’s monitoring belt measures certain indicators of fetal and maternal wellbeing using central and acoustic sensors, including fetal movements, fetal heart rate, and maternal heart rate. Nuvo’s device is sold strictly to medical practitioners and offered to expecting mothers on loan by prescription. The patient receives information from the device directly to her phone and a more comprehensive report is sent to her physician. Nuvo’s business model is to charge insurers per report issued.
GynIsUs
Founded: 2016
Funding to date: bootstrapped
Based in: Tel Aviv
GynIsUs Ltd. develops wearable devices that help reduce and prevent possible pregnancy-related complications. Using artificial intelligence, the company’s technology aggregates patients' data, whether relating to the mother, such as preeclampsia, or relating to the fetus such as severe fetal growth restriction or macrosomia, and provides forecasts in real-time. By doing so, the company enables physicians to predict possible complications during pregnancy and offer personalized, preventive care, accordingly.
Nine Plus Life
Founded: 2017
Funding to date: undisclosed
Based in: Netanya
9 Plus Life Ltd. develops an app and mobile service that connects pregnant women with a doula. The app lets users chat with a doula around the clock as well as physical escort during and after the birth.
OB-Tools
Founded: 2003
Funding to date: undisclosed
Based in: Nesher
OB-Tools Ltd. develops technology designed to monitor uterine contractions. The company’s non-invasive device is designed to help maternal-fetal medicine specialists and obstetricians identify, measure, and evaluate uterine contractions and fetal heart rates throughout pregnancy and labor. Using a sensor placed on the pregnant woman’s abdomen, the company’s TrueLabor System helps doctors and nurses distinguish between true and false labor signs. The company’s fetal heart rate monitoring unit received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval in 2015.
PregnanTech
Founded: 2017
Funding to date: undisclosed
Based in: Tel Aviv
PregnanTech Ltd. develops a small, disposable device designed to maintain the natural resistance of the cervix in order to prevent preterm birth. Called Lioness, it is a disposable silicone device placed in the vagina and secured high around the uterine cervix. The device behaves like a shock absorber, allowing transient shortening and dilation of the cervix during contractions and restoring the cervix to its initial state when contractions subside. The device is inserted by a physician during an outpatient visit and removed at term.
PulseNmore
Founded: 2014
Funding to date: undisclosed
Based in: Omer
PulseNmore Ltd. develops a handheld ultrasound device that allows pregnant women to perform ultrasound tests on their unborn babies at home. The device syncs with the mother’s smartphone, displaying the images on the screen, and sends them to her healthcare provider for analysis.
Nutrino
Founded: 2011
Funding to date: $10 million
Based in: Tel Aviv
Nutrino Inc.’s software collects data on users' health and eating habits, creating a personal nutritional profile and offering personalized dietary recommendations. In 2015, Nutrino and IBM launched an IBM Watson-powered app designed to provide pregnancy nutrition recommendations for expecting mothers.
