Why Maven Clinic is the highest-valued startup in women’s health
Why Maven Clinic is the highest-valued startup in women’s health Amy Farley
Maven Clinic is No. 30 on Fast Company’s list of the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2023. Explore the full list of companies that are reshaping industries and culture.
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, employers now serve as a backstop for abortion access in this country. Maven Clinic is a virtual healthcare provider with a focus on women’s health, offering everything from OB/GYN care to egg freezing and lactation consultations. Today, it’s also helping the companies that offer its services as an employee benefit to navigate the new landscape for reproductive care. The month after the ruling, Maven saw a 67% bump in companies looking to add reproductive health benefits, and founder and CEO Kate Ryder conducted online workshops for hundreds of human resources leaders on how to upgrade their offers. The company’s three-year-old Maven Wallet app helps to reimburse patients if they need to travel out of state for care and speeds reimbursement from employer-allocated funds. Maven also created a Pregnancy Options program that can connect patients to people trained to guide them through their choices.
At the same time, Maven has been expanding beyond employers to work directly with insurers. It now serves Medicaid patients in Arkansas, with plans to roll out to more states in 2023. Ryder sees Maven’s focus on delivering better outcomes for Medicaid patients as particularly important right now. “States that have restricted access to [abortion] care [are] now faced with larger populations of pregnant women who are high risk,” she says. “That’s going to cost a lot more money for these states, which didn’t necessarily have a lot of money to spend on Medicaid populations in the first place.”
Maven is also changing the definition of women’s healthcare. It recently added menopause benefits to its portfolio, which Ryder calls “a major part of women’s reproductive health.” The company announced a $90 million Series E in November, bringing its valuation to $1.35 billion, making it the highest-valued startup in women’s health. Its services, which are offered by companies such as AT&T and Microsoft, are available to more than 15 million members in more than 175 countries.
Maven is one of a handful of companies that are stepping in to address the needs of underserved patients. Read our full report on how these healthcare innovators are changing the system.