Yesterday, our newest portfolio company Stork Club announced their Series Seed fundraise in conjunction with the official launch of the product. You can read more details about the financing and company here and on their website. The launch of Stork Club was also covered by Business Insider and Crunchbase. Bowery Capital led a Seed round of funding in the business, along side Slow Ventures and several angel investors. Below lays out some more information and specifics on the round and our investment rationale.
Who?
Stork Club is founded by Jeni Mayorskaya, a serial entrepreneur who felt the pain and lack of transparency within the fertility space and decided to do something to change it. Prior to founding Stork Club, Jeni co-founded Bookmate, a e-library and self-publishing platform in Russia and subsequently founded Mnemonic, an on demand labor force in Singapore. Jeni has held a variety of roles including COO, Head of Product, and Head of Marketing – a truly well rounded background with the combination of skills and motivation that we look for in a founder. We first got introduced to Jeni through a friend of the firm and active angel investor in San Francisco.
What?
Stork Club helps self-insured employers compete for diverse top talent while lowering their #1 healthcare spend — maternity care costs ($130B per year). The company provides high-performance flexible parental and fertility benefits to help employers attract and retain talent while reducing their overall birth-related healthcare costs and improving clinical outcomes (e.g., fewer multiple births, lower NICU spend, fewer unnecessary C-sections, faster return to work after birth). Trusted by Inception (largest fertility network in the US), Airtable, People.ai, Lookout, Planet, and other happy customers.
Why?
Jeni Mayorskaya began researching the healthcare insurance market in her mid-twenties, after she was diagnosed with two reproductive disorders, and forced to navigate the expensive world of fertility treatment. It became clear to Jeni that the fertility industry was confusing and wildly expensive both for consumers and businesses. A whopping $129 billion in maternity healthcare costs are hitting companies, who often pay for employee health costs directly from their balance sheets. As a thesis driven b2b investor we had spent a lot of time thinking through this theme and the thesis around spend shifts in medium and large companies towards these benefits. So, Jeni founded Stork Club to provide coverage for all stages of the family-planning journey, while lowering costs for employers by up to $3 million. We were happy to back here and are excited to begin the journey.
Where?
Stork Club is based in San Francisco, CA.
If you liked “Announcing Our Investment In Stork Club” and want to read more content from the Bowery Capital Team, check out other relevant posts from the Bowery Capital Blog.
