In recent years, focusing on occupation and delaying marriage age has prompted some women to consider retaining their fertility through freezing.
But the steep cost of the process, Estimated from $10,000 to $15,000 Every attempt means that many women can’t afford it in their fertile years: their 20s and 30s.
JointA startup founded by former Uber executive Lauren Makler and Health Tech Angel Investor Halle Tecco, provides women with cost-free egg freezes in exchange for donating half of the eggs to people who cannot conceive.
The three-year-old startup has just raised $7.25 million in Series A funding led by the next venture and offline venture capital, initialization, involvement of Gaingels and several other investors. This financing brings Cofertility’s total funding to $16 million.
The idea of common ground stems from Makler’s fertility and health panic. The diagnosis of rare abdominal disease in 2018 has resulted in multiple surgeries threatening ovarian loss.
In this case, doctors sometimes recommend freezing eggs for young women who want to have children, but this is not Markler’s choice.
So she began to learn about donations as much as she could.
Makler knew the donor was compensated for the eggs, but she was shocked to learn that the eggs were expensive. If she wanted the Jewish donor’s eggs to match the background, it would cost more. If she seeks eggs from educated women, the price will be further raised.
“It feels like a surge pricing for egg donors, which is strange to me,” she said.
Fortunately, Markle ended up thinking of a child naturally, but the experience led her to build a business that matched young women who wanted to stay fertile with those who needed to donate eggs.
While the concept of egg sharing is nothing new, Markler claims Cofertility is the only company to offer eggs through its “split” program.
“At any given time, we have hundreds of donors available for intentional parents,” Makler said, adding that most clinics have only a few donors, which is unlikely to lead to competitions.
Cofertility’s egg donors come from different backgrounds, with about 55% of them having graduate degrees, Makler said.
Booked parents cover egg retrieval costs and auxiliary coordination fees, similar to standard egg donations. However, they do not have to compensate donors, thus reducing out-of-pocket costs.
Although Makler doesn’t want to call Cofertolity a market, she agrees that it works like a market, and her company is solving a major structural problem.
“The huge vision and goal is to eliminate the taboos of egg donation, but you will be a part of your parents. With the help of the donor, he is also interested in freezing his own eggs, which is a very exciting option,” she said.
