Why we invested: Hesta Health
Examining our impact investment thesis for Hesta Health
Hesta Health was founded with an audacious aim, to create a new benchmark in women’s health, delivering exceptional care at every life-stage.
Hesta Health first product is focused on delivering comprehensive clinical care that helps new mothers and birthing parents recover from birth, physically and emotionally. Hesta is focused on the two years after childbirth as they represent a critical window to intervene not just to support immediate recovery from birth but to deliver better lifelong health outcomes.
Women spend approximately 25% more of their lives in ill health than men, creating a healthcare gap that limits potential, drives inequality, and reflects a system that hasn't been built with half of the world's population in mind. This gap represents a $1 trillion annual lost economic opportunity globally, with 75 million years of life lost every year (McKinsey).
We believe there are a number of factors that point to a market that is ripe for a new offering:
Average age of giving birth continues to rise: In 2022, the mean age a women in the UK gave birth for the first time was 29.2 and 30.9 overall. Complications in birth for both the women and the child increase with age, leading to increased need for postpartum support.
Increased acceptance and ability to pay: Average median income is 30% higher for 30-39 vs 20-29, enabling increased out of pocket spend as the mean age of parents increases. Alongside this, the increased demand is not being met by the NHS leading to higher out of pocket spend, this is most stark in the fertility market where IVF cycles overall have increased c29% since 2012 whilst NHS funded cycles have reduced by 15%.
Gaps in existing provision: The UK provides lower levels of postpartum support than other developed markets, for example the Netherlands and France. Eka ran a proprietary survey of 1,000 women and found that 72% of surveyed women would like to have received further support postpartum, in particular in areas which encompass a more holistic definition of health such as sleep and fatigue and where the NHS provides little to no support.
For all the talk of the market opportunity and impact scale - our primary reason for investing is the team.
The combination of Dr Sujitha and Amanda are a killer combination to tackle this market, combining strong relevant domain expertise (Dr Sujitha as a OBGYN Doctor and long term influencer focused on improving women’s health and Amanda’s commercial experience, including as CCO of Babylon) combined with crazy level of ambition, network and outright EQ and IQ.
The prize is improving the lives of the 51% of people on this planet who are currently underserved.
It’s Day 1 - we can’t wait to see the impact Hesta is going to achieve at scale
Excited to be on this journey with an awesome group of co-investors in Blue Lion, Ascension, Samos and many more!