Women’s health care startup Gabbi raised $4.4 million from investors as it gears up to launch its product next year as an employer health benefit.
Gabbi built a risk assessment model to help women better understand their risks of breast cancer and then formulate action plans that can be taken to their health care provider. The product has users answer questions about their risk and includes expanded and weighted questions about ethnic and age factors and other social determinants of health. It then compares answers across existing risk models from a huge amount of insurance claims data.
The company also helps support people through the process of advocating for themselves and finding community.
This round was led by Bread and Butter Ventures and included Female Founders Fund, WR Hambrecht, Phoenix Rising, Claridge Venture Advisors VC, Coyote Ventures and Gaingels. Angel investors David Kidder, Sarah Jones Simmer and Naseem Sayani also participated.
“(Gabbi’s) unique approach of leveraging data to predict risk and ultimately empower women to have more ownership of their health outcomes is transformative,” said Mary Grove, general partner at Bread and Butter Ventures in a written statement. “Gabbi's laser focus on women age 21-49 who are historically not included in these screenings changes the access game for all.”
Last year the company completed a pilot program with a major national insurer. Now it is ready to bring its product to the wider market. Next year, the company intends to launch with employers who will offer the product as an employee benefit.
This capital will be used to fund hiring to support that and product development.
Gabbi’s founder and CEO Kaitlin Christine started the company as a result of her own experience. Her mother, for whom Gabbi is named, died of breast cancer in 2013. At age 22, when she saw similar symptoms in herself, Christine had to fight to get tests that found she carried the gene that increases her risk for breast cancer and treatment for the lumps she found. At 24, she decided to have a double mastectomy. While in surgery doctors found cancer.
“Just as streaming platforms have paired user specific behaviors, hyper personalization, and a vast library of media content (data) to deliver a 100% unique user by user experience, Gabbi is, for the first time in the health care space, pairing individual women's input with vast amounts of clinical data and tested medical standards to deliver more accurate risk profiles for women of all ages and races in the comfort and intimacy of their own home,” Christine said in a written statement.
