Natural Cycles raises $55M
Natural Cycles, a digital health company focused on women’s health, closed a $55 million Series C funding round.
Asset management company Lauxera Capital Partners led the round. Point72 Private Investments, a firm led by New York Mets owner Steve Cohen, also participated. Within the $55 million, Natural Cycles is also receiving a revolving debt facility for an unspecified amount from J.P. Morgan.
Read more: What Waystar's IPO means for digital health
Natural Cycles, which was founded in 2013, sells a digital form of hormone-free birth control and other digital health products directly to women. The company said in a release the round would help it accelerate commercial efforts, develop new products and invest in healthcare reimbursement automation.
Fertility and birth control-focused startups have seen increased investment from venture capital firms in recent years, although those in the industry say the sector is still largely underfunded.
Natural Cycles' total funding is $100 million with this latest round.
Rhea secures $10M from Thiel, others
Rhea, a reproductive health startup, secured $10 million in funding.
Thiel Capital, a venture capital firm led by former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel, led the round. Venture capital firms LifeX Ventures, Blue Lion Global and FJ Labs also participated.
Rhea connects patients with fertility care at fully owned and partner in-person clinics primarily in Asia. It also has a joint venture with the Houston-based Baylor College of Medicine, a health sciences university located within the Texas Medical Center. The additional funding will be used to expand Rhea’s footprint and service offerings in new markets.
The company also acquired fertility artificial intelligence company Embryonics for an undisclosed price.
The latest round follows a $20 million round in June 2023 and brings the company’s total funding to $30 million.
Data privacy company Transcend gets $40M
Transcend, a data privacy platform that works with healthcare companies, raised $40 million in a Series B funding round.
Investment firm StepStone Group led the round. Other investors were venture capital firms HighlandX, Accel, Index Ventures and Script Capital.
Transcend has a platform that classifies and organizations personal data, including personally identifiable health information and supports the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act requirements.
The round brings the company’s total raised to nearly $90 million.
The funding comes as health system cybersecurity executives are looking at their biggest points of weakness in the aftermath of large-scale breaches at St. Louis-based health system Ascension, UnitedHealth Group's Change Healthcare and Chicago-based Lurie Children's Hospital.
Plenful nabs $17M
Plenful, a healthcare workflow automation company, announced it closed a $17 million Series A funding round.
Venture capital firm TQ Ventures led the round. Venture capital firms Bessemer Venture Partners and Susa Ventures also participated.
The company works with health systems and pharmacies to automate processes around medication referrals, 340B auditing and pharmacy revenue cycle. Plenful said it would use the round to continue building its platform and expand the use of automation and large language models.
The funding brings the company’s total raised to $26 million.
