When Joanna Strober was around 47 years old, she stopped sleeping. Although sleep loss is a common symptom of perimenopause, she first had to go to several providers, including driving 45 minutes from San Francisco to pay $750 out of pocket, in order to get this diagnosis and appropriate treatment.
“That feeling of wow, I really suffered unnecessarily over the last year really stuck with me,” Strober said on a recent episode of Found Podcast from TechCrunch. “I started talking to all my friends and trying to understand what was going on with them and what became clear was that perimenopause and menopause are very important. It hits women like a pile of bricks. There are many different symptoms and very few providers are trained to care for this population.
It was this realization that inspired Strober to launch Midi Health, a telehealth platform designed to serve women in quarantine by connecting them with providers trained in perimenopause and menopause symptoms and treatments.
Despite her “aha” moment, Strober explained why she couldn’t launch the startup right away. She said Midi could not have existed if the U.S. government had not changed its rules regarding telehealth and access to care during the pandemic. Because of the changes surrounding digital health, Strober said the company was able to launch its platform that brought care to women rather than requiring women to find care in person.
“Understanding that this problem that had existed for a long time and could finally be solved through telehealth was a very exciting revelation,” Strober said. “And that’s why I wanted to start this company.”
Midi operates a little differently than most other digital health companies created in the post-pandemic surge, Strober said. She said Midi was not designed to be a digital platform for users to get timely care or treatment as quickly as possible like many other companies of the same era, but rather to be a platform where women build long-term relationships with providers that make them feel seen.
This approach also explains why Strober believes Midi has been able to continue to grow and raise venture capital funds, as venture capital firms have become less and less interested in this category. The company recently raised a $60 million Series B round led by Emerson Collective with participation from Google Ventures, SteelSky Ventures, and Muse Capital, among others. This funding round brings the company’s total funding to $99 million.
Digital health startups raised $13.2 billion globally in 2023, according to CB Insights data. This represents a 48% decrease from 2022, to $25.5 billion, and a 75% decrease from 2021, when a record $52.7 billion was invested.
“I think too few telehealth companies haven’t thought about that long-term customer relationship,” Strober said. “We see ourselves as building a trusted brand in healthcare. Our brand is therefore expert care for women. We must provide you with incredible care so that you come back to us again and again. That’s what women do.
Midi is not Strober’s first digital health startup and she explained how her past experience building Kurbo Health, a startup focused on childhood obesity before digital health was even a thing, influenced her choice in the creation of Midi. She also explained how her past life as a venture capitalist also played a role in how she approached the business.
With this latest round of funding, Midi hopes to expand care in the areas of perimenopause and menopause, including sexual wellness, hair and skin care, and access to testosterone.
“People keep asking, you know, when do you exit perimenopause and menopause?” » said Strober. “But perimenopause and menopause is a big market. So we’re working a lot to understand what are the health needs of women during this time of their lives and how can we appropriately address those concerns.
