Dutch Femtech Start-Up Offers Couples A ‘Little Help’ With Conceiving
Executive Summary
Dutch femtech start-up Rosesta Medical is offering European couples struggling to conceive a cheaper, more discreet fertility aid than the competition.
“A little help making a little miracle” is the tagline for Dutch consumer healthcare start-up Rosesta Medical BV’s new FERTI•LILY Conception Cup.
A European Union CE-marked medical device, FERTI•LILY – which was first launched throughout Scandinavia in June and is currently being rolled out in the UK, Spain, France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland – increased the odds of successful conception by keeping as much sperm as possible near the opening of the uterus after sexual intercourse, Rosesta explained.
“Developed to increase the odds of conception without getting in the way of intimacy, FERTI•LILY Conception Cup can be easily used at home to give couples greater control over their fertility,” commented Rosesta’s chief executive officer and founder Robert Stal.
Designed in collaboration with Rosesta’s chief science adviser and fertility expert Dr Maarten Wiegerick, Stal told HBW Insight that FERTI•LILY came out of his own first-hand experience of conception problems.
“It is getting harder and harder for couples to conceive nowadays,” he reflected. “Couples are delaying having a baby until they have a good education, a steady job, and/or a steady relationship.”
“In the past 25 years,” he continued, “the percentage of women over the age of 30 having babies has doubled, but with age also comes complications,” Stal continued. “After the age of 35 women have a 50% lower chance of conception every time they try, and the sperm count of men decreases by 35% by the time they reach 30.”
“FERTI•LILY was created to try to help couples tilt the odds back in their favour,” he insisted.
Asked what made FERTI•LILY unique in a European market that already had established brands like the Stork Home Conception Device, Stal said that Rosesta’s product was designed “not to interfere with intercourse.”
“Unlike the Stork kit, the user does not need to use a condom or insert the cup with an uncomfortable device,” he explained. “We have redefined the conception cup technology to make it easy to use at home, comfortably, without getting in the way of intimacy.”
FERTI•LILY was also much cheaper than the Stork kit, Stal added, with the former costing just under £2 ($2.42) per use compared with almost £100 per use in the case of the latter.
Rosesta had already undertaken research that showed up to 70% of couples sampled were willing to use FERTI•LILY, Stal explained. Extrapolated more widely, he said that this meant FERTI•LILY had a potential European market of up to 3.5m couples, a market larger than that for ovulation tests globally.
With patents pending on its new femtech product, Stal revealed that Rosesta last week signed a partnership agreement in the UK with Ardo medical Ltd to launch FERTI•LILY in Autumn, where it will be available initially in Walgreen Boots Alliance’s Boots Pharmacy stores.
The UK launch would be supported by a “heavy investment” in online and social media marketing, which Stal said was aimed at introducing the new brand to an “online-active target group.”
“We have recently completely redesigned our website – www.fertilily.com – to be able to reach the digital generation currently trying to conceive,” he added.
Going forward, Stal said that the firm was “actively looking” for partners in Italy, Poland and Central Eastern Europe.