Dr. Somi Javaid was nearly four years into her journey with HerMD before she realized she wanted to expand the concept. The Greater Cincinnati-based health care startup now has an influx of $10 million in venture capital to help bring that vision into fruition.
For Javaid, an OB-GYN, founder and chief medical officer of HerMD, which operates two local centers dedicated solely to women’s sexual health and menopause services, the goal has always been to eliminate disparities and reduce the stigma surrounding women's health care.
The round, a Series A, led by San Francisco-headquartered Jazz Venture Partners, will allow HerMD to do that on a broader scale. HerMD is the firm’s first Cincinnati-based investment. The funds specifically will help build out its telehealth network and open new brick-and-mortar centers in several states.
The raise has also allowed the company to expand its leadership team. Kathy McAleer joined the company as CEO in January from Portland-based Zoom+Care, an on-demand health care provider.
McAleer said HerMD is looking to expand telehealth first in surrounding states like Tennessee, Illinois and Michigan. The goal is to “get into as many as we can as fast as possible,” she said. The company then plans to open 10 physical centers over the next 18 months, with a heavy focus initially on the East Coast. McAleer declined to elaborate further, but said at least one location has been secured.
'It's time'
Javaid opened the first HerMD in 2015 in Symmes Township — and added a second location in Crescent Springs in 2021. She said she was driven to the health care field after nearly losing her own mother to misdiagnosis. Javaid said she suffered from cardiovascular disease, yet her symptoms were consistently dismissed.
“They said it was too much caffeine, or too much stress. Watching this firsthand, I decided I wanted to go into women's health, but I got my first job and realized our system was so broken," she said. "You can't be an advocate when you're trying to see 50 patients a day. So just shy of my 40th birthday, I bought a building and opened a practice to deliver health care the way I know women deserve it.”
HerMD is currently a team of 30, the company’s headcount will likely expand five-fold with 10 additional locations and beyond. Services include gynecology, with an on-site surgical center; sexual health; menopause; and aesthetics like Botox.
The practice offers longer appointment types, so providers can spend more time with patients without feeling frenzied or rushed. Unlike concierge-type practices that also promise the same, HerMD accepts all major medical insurance plans and Medicare. The company also aims to push innovation in the space (there are currently 26 FDA-approved drugs for male sexual dysfunction, while only two for women, the company touts). It was one of the first practices in Ohio to offer Sonata, a new technology that uses radio frequency and ultrasound to locate and obliterate fibroids, which disproportionately affect minority women, Javaid said.
Komel Caruso, HerMD’s chief growth officer, said 43% of women experience some kind of issue with sexual health and wellness, yet only about a third of OB-GYN’s are trained in the area. In terms of menopausal women, there's around 50 million in the U.S. Many, she said, are desperate for the kind of care HerMD is offering.
“It's 2022. It’s time,” she said. “They can't access this type of care anywhere else, unfortunately. We've worked really hard to give women a place that's beautiful, and it feels safe and comfortable because they're talking with us about such sensitive topics."
HerMD will expand its reach in a hub-and-spoke-like fashion. Its telehealth states will surround the new brick-and-mortar locations, so providers can filter patients to those centers if they require an exam, a surgery, a sonogram, or any diagnostic testing, Javaid said.
Currently, women routinely travel from out of state to the company’s two locations in the region. That tally is at more than 30 states and counting.
Kathy Lai, chief strategy officer for HerMD, said those patients helped drive the decision to fundraise — even though HerMD admittedly faced an uphill climb.
Less than 2% of venture capital went to women in 2021, the smallest share since 2016, per data from PitchBook. That percentage is even lower if the founders are minority as are all members of HerMD’s founding team.
“The VC decision was a tough one for us,” Lai said. “We knew it would open the door, having another partner with a seat at the table, but we were also worried about how a very male-dominated community would receive an idea like HerMD that's trying to improve women's sexual health care. But we just knew we couldn't expand fast enough (otherwise). ... Any other path would have slowed us down.”
