French Femtech raises €1.6m to address PCOS with AI-driven digital therapeutics

A former Ernst Young (EY) corporate lawyer and founder of the French PCOS blog Les Natives, has raised €1.6 million in seed funding to help women suffering from Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS).

Solence was founded by Clara Stephenson in 2022 with the mission to make personalised and patient-centric care available to all women with PCOS, the most prevalent hormonal condition among women.

Solence’s ultimate vision is to increase healthy life expectancy for women by reducing the burden of chronic conditions with lifestyle-based and AI-powered therapeutics.

 

Stephenson said: “PCOS is one of the great blind spots in women’s healthcare. It’s time to change that.

“Ultimately, our vision is to leverage data and environmental factors to better address chronic hormonal conditions among women, with a focus on prevention and improving their healthy life expectancy.

This first round is a step towards realising this vision. ”

PCOS is a hormonal imbalance originating from the ovaries and the central system, leading to excessive production of testosterone, irregular periods, infertility and metabolic syndrome.

Up to 20 per cent of women globally suffer from the condition, but some 85 per cent don’t receive the support they need.

Symptoms of PCOS vary from weight gain, irregular periods, excessive hair growth, painful stomach cramps, as well as struggles with mental health.

Over 85 per cent experience markedly reduced quality of life, and half of them say that it makes work difficult.

Routine PCOS care relies massively on pharmacotherapy, while evidence-based guidelines recommend lifestyle and behavioural interventions as top priority treatment with clinically proven therapeutic benefits.

To address these gaps, Solence provides digital-led PCOS care tailored to every woman’s high heterogeneity of PCOS expressions, while harnessing data insights to reshape the way PCOS healthcare is delivered.

The funding will be allocated towards deepening product functionality and expanding the team.

Throughout her burgeoning legal career,  Stephenson suffered from PCOS.

Despite showing what she describes as ‘textbook’ symptoms of the condition, it remained undiagnosed for some 10 years until investigations into her struggling to conceive a child.

Professor Michel Pugeat has been involved in diagnosing and treating PCOS since 2003 and is a member of Solence’s scientific committee alongside neuroscience researcher Dr. Nour Mimouni. Pugeat commented:

Pugeat said: “The general public needs information on PCOS, whose multitude of clinical expressions and the complexity of the causes, intertwined with the metabolic state, justify management by all health professionals, but also the search for new innovative and essential therapeutic approaches, such as that of Solence.”