Business overview
Elvie, the revolutionary global health and lifestyle brand developing iconic products for women, has completed a £58m ($80m) investment. The funding round was led by BGF, with further investment from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock Private Equity Partners and a consortium including Hiro Capital and Westerly Winds, plus existing investors Octopus Ventures and IPGL.
Founded in 2013 by CEO Tania Boler, Elvie brings together a team of world-class engineers, designers and business minds to develop extraordinary products that improve women’s lives – revolutionising categories which had been overlooked for many years, including breast pumps and pelvic floor health.
Elvie’s products include Elvie Trainer, an award-winning app-connected Kegel trainer that helps women strengthen their pelvic floor and Elvie Pump, the world’s first silent wearable breast pump. In October 2020, the company brought to market two new breastfeeding products, Elvie Catch and Elvie Curve.
Since the launch of Elvie Pump on the catwalk of London Fashion Week in September 2018, Elvie has experienced hyper-growth. The business grew 6x in 2019, almost doubled in 2020 despite widespread Covid disruption – and is on track to double again in 2021. The company launched 10 new markets across EU and Asia in the last 12 months and continues to see rapid sales growth in the US, the world’s biggest breast pump market.
The funds will be used to invest in three key areas: innovation and the development of new best-in-class products and services for women, continued expansion into new and existing markets, and strengthening Elvie’s operations and infrastructure ready for the next phase of high-speed growth.
The femtech industry is expected to become a $50 billion market by 2025 (Frost and Sullivan).
Dan (Jonas) and the team at Azets delivered high quality financial due diligence in a short space of time, quickly addressing the key issues and validating the key metrics. I look forward to working with them again
Perspectives
Tania Boler, CEO and Founder of Elvie, said: “Elvie has already revolutionised every category it has entered – but we know that we have barely scratched the surface of what is possible for women’s tech. This further investment, alongside the wealth of expertise our new Board members bring, place Elvie in pole position to capitalise on the $50 billion femtech opportunity – and that’s only the beginning.”
Daina Spedding, investor at BGF, said: “BGF is delighted to lead this funding round into Elvie, which we regard as the best-in-class innovator in the femtech sector with strong underlying market dynamics and truly global reach. As an all-female BGF deal team, and leading investor in female-led scaleups, we admire Elvie’s vision, strong track record and R&D capability which have brought a tangible positive impact on women’s lives. We are very excited to back Tania and her exceptional team to supercharge new product innovation and continued growth worldwide.”
