When accounting for IVF, genetic testing, donor services, and reproductive tissue storage, the fertility market in the US is estimated to be more than $8B. One in six struggle to conceive and the journey can be isolating and lonely with feelings of panic and anxiety, especially when often the only other person you can confide in is your partner. Dandi is on a mission to bring humanity to fertility care with its at-home IVF injections and virtual care platform. The company’s signature product is the Dandi IVF Care Kit which brings comfort to patients during the daunting and most common part of the process – self-injections. Featuring a compression belt that offers both integrated cooling and numbing, patients can administer injections with peace of mind. Complementing the product side is a virtual care team of registered fertility nurses who are available on demand to provide much-needed support for fertility patients as they continue their fertility journeys. Dandi spent two years working with hundreds of fertility clinicians and patients to develop its patient-centered resources.
AlleyWatch caught up with Dandi CEO and Cofounder Jake Kent to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, recent round of funding, and much, much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Dandi raised $1.3M in pre-seed funding, to bring much-needed innovation to the IVF category – providing revolutionary at-home care and digital support for every step of the fertility journey. The round was led by Tiferes Ventures, with additional investments from Ruttenberg Gordon Investments; Winklevoss Capital; and the WeWork Alumni Fund.
Tell us about the product or service that Dandi offers.
Dandi is reimagining the fertility care experience with an innovative platform to support fertility patients every step of their journey. Dandi’s unique offering compliments medical treatments with purpose-built physical products to bring comfort to painful IVF injections, alongside on-demand virtual care led by registered nurses and fertility experts.
Before Dandi, the at-home IVF injection process could feel traumatizing, leaving patients vulnerable, confused, frustrated, and lonely. Patients have been forced to self-administer painful and complicated injections, with little guidance and no products built specifically for this distressing experience. Beyond the pain and distress of injections, little support has existed to guide patients through the toughest moments of their fertility struggles – almost all of which happen outside the clinic. As a result, patients often rely on Google, Reddit, and Facebook groups for information that is neither personalized to their journey nor medically credible.
The brand’s hero, the Dandi IVF Care Kit, represents a breakthrough in at-home IVF support, reducing physical discomfort and simplifying the complex injection process. Dandi spent two years collaborating with leading fertility specialists and hundreds of patients to design a patent-pending line of products that will transform the way patients are cared for during some of their most vulnerable moments.
But, Dandi’s care extends far beyond products, as the IVF Care Kit integrates with a virtual care platform, led by registered fertility nurses licensed to provide care in all 50 states. Dandi’s mission is to provide digital support that is personalized, medically-credible, and available on-demand at the hours patients need it most. Dandi’s commitment to innovation, patient-centered design, and medical credibility places it at the vanguard of fertility care, offering hope and empowerment to those navigating the challenges of fertility struggle.
What inspired the start of Dandi?
Despite the alarming statistic that 1 in 6 people globally are currently impacted by infertility, there is still a lack of collective awareness. As a result, a majority of the population is unaware of the ways in which millions of people are struggling behind closed doors, often suffering in silence. During Covid, I witnessed first-hand the traumatic and life-altering impact fertility struggles can bring about, while I was living with a family member going through IVF.
I wanted to support my family, but for one of the first times in my life, I genuinely didn’t know how. The gap between those who are living this nightmare, and those who are not, became abundantly clear. I spent the better part of the next year listening to and learning from as many fertility patients as I could. After connecting with hundreds of women, it became undeniably clear that there was a very consistent set of pain points being experienced by this patient population, and a real opportunity to develop tailored solutions to start to improve the fertility care experience. We began our journey to create the first line of products built specifically for the IVF injection experience.
During this time, I was connected with Leyla Bilali (cofounder), a registered nurse and fertility specialist with over a decade of clinical experience. Leyla worked as a fertility nurse at RMA of NY, where she quickly realized that even the best fertility clinics were not built to provide the personalized care that her patients so badly needed. In response, she founded Fertility Together, a fertility concierge startup where she and her team of nurses provided medically credible coaching, guidance, and support in the moments patients needed it most. Leyla’s approach to personalized, on-demand care was the perfect complement to our innovative product line.
Dandi is the culmination of more than two years of development to build the fertility support system that should have existed long ago. For the first time, millions of people struggling will have a consumer brand in which they can feel seen and heard. We have exciting plans to expand our physical product line and digital health platform, creating a new chapter in fertility care and women’s health.
How is Dandi different?
Dandi is the first and only consumer brand to develop tailored solutions for a reimagined fertility care experience. Fertility clinics exist to bring about a singular outcome: pregnancy. But most are high-volume and were never built to provide the personalized support needed during the care journey, most of which happens outside the clinic. In the 45+ years since IVF was developed, there has been little to no innovation to help support the physical, mental, and emotional journey endured by millions impacted by fertility struggles. With so much at stake, fertility patients can lean on Dandi for guidance, care, and reassurance every step of their fertility journey.
What market does Dandi target and how big is it?
1 in 6 people are impacted by infertility, globally. This equates to roughly 64 million couples globally, or 13 million couples in the US that are unable to conceive after 12 months of unprotected sex. But beyond infertility, there are many other cohorts that are fueling demand for IVF treatment. Egg freezing is rapidly growing as a means of fertility preservation, especially as more women opt to work later and delay family-building. Same-sex couples looking to build families, those pursuing surrogacy, and carriers of certain genetic traits are also contributing to the rise of IVF demand. It is projected that the market for fertility services will be worth $20B over the next few years and Dandi will show up to support people every step of their fertility journey – from the earliest moments of finding understanding their fertility outlook and finding the right clinic – to the toughest moments of treatment – and everything in between.
What’s your business model?
Dandi’s offers customers critically needed products and complementary virtual care services to better support patients along their fertility journeys. Dandi sits at the intersection of direct-to-consumer and B2B channel partners. Dandi offers customers the ability to interact with the brand directly through its own properties – website, social media channels, content library, and community platform. Dandi has built a large community of fertility patients, advocates, doctors, and experts who are a big part of its organic reach. Dandi is also partnered with some of the largest fertility clinics and pharmacies, who will be leveraging Dandi’s innovative care solutions for an improved patient experience. Dandi is also piloting several B2B solutions with its partners to create operational efficiencies in their patient care models.
How are you preparing for a potential economic slowdown?
Unfortunately, demand for IVF does not appear to be slowing down as more people are forced to rely on it to bring a child into the world. As accessibility to IVF fast grows due to a rise in employment benefits, financing solutions, and even AI support in the industry, we see the market continuing to soar, even in an economic downturn. With a single cycle of IVF costing $15k-$30k, Dandi has positioned its care solutions as relatively low-cost offerings that can have an outsized impact with so much at stake.
What was the funding process like?
From day 1, our north star was to align with partners who understood the importance of Danid’s mission. So much of fertility struggles are kept behind closed doors, meaning many investors simply did not understand the gravity of this human problem. We are proud to say that over 70% of our funding ended up coming from investors personally impacted by fertility struggles, which provided us with not just capital, but partners that brought deep empathy and passion for improving the lives of millions enduring difficult paths to parenthood.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Fertility struggles are the biggest problem you might never hear about. Almost 20% of the population is impacted, yet almost 100% of the experience happens behind closed doors. This dynamic creates a massive knowledge gap, which at times, made raising capital challenging. Additionally, we happened to be raising as the markets saw a huge pullback in venture funding. We turned this headwind into a tailwind – channeling our energy to managing every dollar meticulously with laser focus on an expedited path to profitability.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
Our raise was as much about forging connection over a deeply challenging human experience, as it was anything else. For investors who understood this experience firsthand, saw the opportunity to support the first consumer brand that could forge a deep emotional connection with millions of people enduring some of their most vulnerable moments. Establishing that deep brand trust leads to significant expansion opportunities, both for physical products and digital care solutions. Investors were excited by the opportunity to help women earlier in their fertility journeys (before they are up to IVF) as well as growing with them well beyond fertility struggles (into pregnancy, post-partum, and family building).
Our team was also a big part of the investment story. We worked with leading fertility clinicians to ensure the medical efficacy of everything we built, as well as world-class product designers who helped us to put user experience at the heart of everything we did.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Over the first 6 months, we will prioritize continuing to listen and learn from our passionate community of patients, advocates, and brand ambassadors. Staying close to the patient experience is what will allow us to deliver the highest-impact experience and develop Dandi into a trusted and beloved consumer brand. At the same time, we aim to double our B2B footprint, expand our product offering, grow our community, and introduce several new interactive learning resources.
What advice can you offer companies in New York that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
Spend every dollar under the assumption you might not raise another. Capital markets can shift, fast, and when they do, the pendulum can swing fast. Hope for the best, but always plan for the worst. And when times get difficult, remember that some of the world’s greatest companies were forged through difficult macro environments.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
Whereas we launch with an acute focus on transforming the IVF injection experience (through offering tailored products + personalized care services), we quickly expand into a more holistic, integrative offering. We have plans to expand our virtual care with a wide range of fertility experts that can support patients in all the areas we know there is demand, but today are quite fragmented (i.e. diet, nutrition, mental health, surrogacy, etc). We have some exciting digital and physical products in the pipeline.
What’s your favorite restaurant in the city?
I’m an old soul, so old-school Italian is generally my go-to. Toss-up between Primola and Campagnola.
