Add HerMD to the short list of the region’s top fundraisers of 2023. The Greater Cincinnati-based health care startup, which centers on women’s sexual health and menopause, has officially closed an oversubscribed $18 million Series A-1 round.
The funds will further accelerate its growth, the team said. The Series A-1 is considered a bridge round and serves as extension of the company’s $10 million raise announced in March 2022.
HerMD will use the funds to add to its team and expand its physical footprint – a number of new brick-and-mortar locations are in the works. The startup also recently launched an education platform to better train its providers in the areas of menopause and sexual health.
The round was led by existing investor, San Francisco-headquartered Jazz Venture Partners, with participation from B-Flexion and Amboy Street Ventures. It brings HerMD’s total funding to just under $30 million, good enough for No. 22 on a list of the region’s best-funded startups, according to Business Courier research.
“Our goal is to change women’s health care and eradicate a lot of the barriers that surround it,” Komel Caruso, a co-founder and HerMD’s chief growth officer, told me. “There’s still too much shame and stigma that prevails.”
Currently, HerMD has 80 employees and four brick-and-mortar locations, including two offices in the region, one in Symmes Township on East Kemper Road, and another in Crescent Springs.
Both counts will increase.
On the hiring front, HerMD will boost its team in the new markets. It recently hired a vice president operations to support market growth, and other roles to come will range from clinical staff to those in patient/customer experience.
The company will open a New Jersey office Aug. 7. That location joins other outposts in Franklin, Tenn., and most recently, Carmel, Ind.
Next, it will likely target a second office in the Nashville market, given current demand, Caruso said. HerMD is also considering Atlanta and wants to plant deeper roots in New Jersey, too.
The location coming soon in Millburn, N.J., which is considered part of the New York City metro area, already has 1,000 patients in the waiting list, she said.
Nashville and Carmel opened with around 500 patients waitlisted, respectively.
“There’s just an incredible demand,” Caruso said.
On the education front, HerMD will look to fill a major gap, she added. An estimated 1.1 billion women will reach menopause by 2025, yet only 20% of care providers nationwide are trained in menopause and sexual health care.
HerMD University is a proprietary education platform/training system developed from learnings from the practice and the latest research from groups like NAMS, the North American Menopause Society; ISSWSH, the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health; and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. It will be offered solely to its internal providers.
The first integration is already live. HerMD said it will continue to invest in the university offerings with the raise.
“HerMD’s traction and growth is no surprise,” Carli Sapir, a founding partner of Amboy Street Ventures, said in a news release. “They’re delivering an outstanding standard of menopause and sexual healthcare – two spaces that are underserved.”
HerMD was founded by Dr. Somi Javaid, who serves as the company’s chief medical officer, in 2015 offering mental health and sexual wellness services, aesthetics and more. All appointments last between 20 and 60 minutes and medical services are insurance- and Medicare-based.
The company has treated patients from 35 states and three countries. It also offers a virtual mental health offering in California.
Javaid said she was driven to the health care field after nearly losing her own mother to misdiagnosis. Her mom suffered from cardiovascular disease, yet her symptoms were consistently dismissed.
“At HerMD, we’re dismantling the status quo, which hasn’t worked for patients or providers for a very long time,” Javaid said. “I founded HerMD because I knew we could fix the current model and construct a better (one) for women that is specifically designed for the issues they face.”
So far this year, funding rounds have been few and far between for Cincinnati startups. Only Electrada has raised more capital. It received $22 million in additional funds from famed investment group BlackRock in mid-May. Electrada said the money will help it expand its footprint in the electric vehicle charging space.
