When Joanna Strober was around 47, she stopped sleeping. While sleep loss is a common symptom of perimenopause, she first had to go to multiple providers, including driving 45 minutes from San Francisco to pay $750 out of pocket, to get that diagnosis and proper treatment.
“That feeling of wow, I’ve really suffered needlessly for the past year really stuck with me,” Strober said on a recent episode of The TechCrunch podcast found. “I started talking to all my friends and trying to figure out what was going on with them and what became clear is that perimenopause and menopause is this big thing. He kind of hits women like a ton of bricks. There are many different symptoms of this and there are very few providers who are trained to care for this population.”
This realization is what inspired Strober to launch Midi Health, a telehealth platform designed to serve midlife women by connecting them with providers trained in menopause and menopause symptoms and treatments.
Despite her “aha” moment, Strober explained why she couldn’t launch the startup right away. He said Midi couldn’t exist if the US government hadn’t changed its rules about telehealth and where people could access care during the pandemic. Because of the changes surrounding digital health, Strober said the company was able to launch its platform that offered care to women as opposed to women having to find in-person care.
“Understanding that this problem that’s been around for a long time could finally be addressed using telehealth was a very exciting revelation,” Strober said. “And that’s why I wanted to start this company.”
Midi operates a little differently than many of the other digital health companies that have started in the post-pandemic wave, Strober said. She said Midi was not created to be a digital avenue for users to receive one-time care or treatment as quickly as possible like many other companies of the same era, but rather to be a platform where women build long-term relationships with providers who make them feel conspicuous.
This approach is also why Strober believes Midi has been able to continue to grow and raise VC capital as VCs have become less interested in the category. The company recently raised a $60 million Series B round led by Emerson Collective with participation from Google Ventures, SteelSky Ventures and Muse Capital, among others. This round brings the company’s total funding to $99 million.
Digital health startups to raise $13.2 billion globally in 2023, according to CB Insights data. This marks a 48% decrease from 2022, to $25.5 billion, and a 75% decrease from 2021, when a record $52.7 billion was invested.
“I think very few telehealth companies haven’t thought about that long-term customer relationship,” Strober said. “We see ourselves as creating a trusted brand in the healthcare sector. So our brand is specialized care for women. We need to provide you with this amazing care so that you come back to us again and again and again. That’s what women do.”
Midi isn’t Strober’s first digital health startup, and she talked about how her previous experience building Kurbo Health, a startup focused on childhood obesity before digital health was even a thing, influenced her choices in building it Midi. She also talked about how her previous life as a venture capitalist also played a role in how she approached the business.
With this latest round of funding, Midi looks forward to expanding care into perimenopause and menopausal areas, including topics such as sexual wellness, hair and skin care, and access to testosterone.
“People keep asking, you know, when do you leave perimenopause and menopause?” Strober said. “But perimenopause and menopause is a big market. So we’re working hard to understand what women’s health needs are during this time of their lives and how we can respond appropriately to those concerns.”
