The smart health connected fertility tracker launches in beta

Femtech startup Lady Technologies has just unveiled Kegg, a fertility tracer designed to measure hormonal changes in a woman’s cervical fluid to help her determine the chances of conception on any given day.

Kegg is shaped like an egg, the end of which has a gold-plated steel cap and ring, as well as a silicone tail to house the bluetooth radio. This is what makes it possible to interact with the companion application. It also serves as a trainer smart health connected to the pelvic floor (the “k” in kegg stands for “Kegels”); inspired by the playbook of Elvie, British pioneer of female technology.

Kegg offers a daily Review

Kegg uses a technology called impedance to detect electrolyte levels in a woman’s cervical fluid; in order to detect the hormonal change from estrogen dominance to progesterone that accompanies ovulation. This is done via a daily Review which is said to take only two minutes (if you also use it for the optional Kegal exercises, it would take a little longer).

“An electrical pulse of one minute at a specific frequency is emitted by the gold-plated electrodes on the barrel and received by the other; this is then reversed. By detecting the changing trends in impedance, we are able to detect the hormonal change and make a prediction to the user. Here is what explains Kristina Cahojova, CEO and founder of Femtech Lady Technologies. “Since every woman’s fluids are slightly different, the keg must register at least one fertile window to provide personalized predictions.”

“We have many patents on the underlying design of the keg and key aspects of how it works,” she adds.

Kegg was unveiled on the TechCrunch Disrupt SF stage in 2018. Today, its beta version is marketed for $ 275.

The company also announced a fundraiser of $ 1.5 million. It was carried out with investors such as Crescent Ridge Partners, SOSV, Texas Halo Fund, Fermata Fund and MegaForce; as well as a few unnamed angel investors.

Kegg was funded by a majority of women

“We are proud that almost half of our investors are women,” notes Ms. Cahojova; whose inspiration for the creation of Kegg was personal, having suffered from irregular menstrual cycles herself.

“I didn’t want to be treated with hormones. When I was talking to fertility instructors or a fertility doctor, all they wanted to know was my cervical fluid patterns. Why ? Because the fertile period is defined only by the presence of fertile cervical fluid. An LH Review [hormone lutéinisante] positive is a good thing; but that will not help you get information to fix your cycles. This is why so many fertility doctors are interested in cervical fluid.

“How the hell are you supposed to be able to objectively follow something so important; and yet private, without the help of technology? I was frustrated and angry because all the companies I spoke to didn’t have a solution and didn’t want to make this product when needed; just because it “should go in the vagina”. So I set out to make a product that would help me and women like me ”.

So far, kegg has struck a chord with American women of childbearing age who are looking to have a child. Ms Cahojova says her start-up created a community of 2,000 women of reproductive age during the kegg beta period.

Towards commercialization in the world

The start-up aims for international expansion, particularly in Asia; with the support of its Japanese market-oriented investor Fermata. Thus, a project to launch kegg in Singapore at the end of October, and in Japan and Canada next year is already on the table.

Although the kegg is primarily focused on fertility monitoring (and a secondary function of a trainer smart health connected to the pelvic floor), Ms. Cahojova is excited to see greater possibilities open for women’s health; which she hopes to see open up to them, because they are able to assimilate and compile more data.

Impedance measurements from Kegg users are uploaded to the cloud for analysis; so that its algorithms can make a personalized fertility prediction. But its website also says it uses “anonymized / pseudonymized” data for research into women’s health.

Cahojova also explains that the device is used by fertility instructors and doctors to help them monitoring their patients. “The beauty of the kegg is that by having a user-friendly, modern device that women love to use, we can get data on changes in vaginal fluids on a large scale. With this data, we also hope to help doctors finally answer their billion dollar question. How can they improve the quality of cervical fluid?

AB SMART HEALTH REVIEW