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Flo, an app that tracks women’s health from periods to pregnancy, announced today funding of $5 million. The round was led by returning investor Flint Capital, with participation from model and activist Natalia Vodianova and other angel investors.
Women can download the app on both iOS and Android for free and start logging in their menstrual cycles and symptoms. “Currently, there are over 50 symptoms to track, and this number is likely to double in the future,” wrote Flo founder and president Yuri Gurski, in an email to VentureBeat. “Users can keep track of their sexual activity, sports, water intake, vaginal discharge, contraception, moods, pains, and much more.”
Above: Flo app
Gurski, who funded startups like MSQRD and Prisma through his investment firm Haxus Venture Fund, founded Flo in 2015 in Minsk, Belarus.
The app employs neural networks to analyze and predict menstrual cycles. “The use of machine learning increased predictions accuracy by 54.2 percent, with the prediction error reduced from 5.6 to 2.6 days,” wrote Gurski. “The more symptoms are logged, the more unique patterns the algorithm is likely to find in a woman’s cycle.”
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Today, Flo claims to have 10 million monthly active users (MAU) and counts approximately 100,000 women getting pregnant each month using the app.
One feature Gurski is particularly proud of is what he calls the network of “digital sisterhood.” “We’ve recently launched a Quora-style Q&A service within Flo, where users can discuss their most burning intimate issues with experts and other users, anonymously,” he wrote. “We are seeing amazing results; it is truly a strong community of like-minded peers.”
Other period and ovulation tracking apps include San Francisco’s Glow, which was also founded by a man (PayPal cofounder Max Levchin), and the female-led Clue, which was founded in Berlin. Sweden-based Natural Cycles, another active player in the market, recently announced being the first app to be certified as a method of contraception by the EU.
For now, Flo fuels its growth with investor money, having raised a total of $6 million to date. The startup is, however, exploring new ways to monetize, Gurski said. “A good example might be paid DNA tests which could provide a user with more personalized content and health insights,” he wrote. “This is something still to be tested.”
Today’s fresh injection of capital will be used to further develop Flo’s AI technology and expand into the U.S. market. The startup is in the process of opening an office in San Francisco and currently has a little over 30 employees.
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