Joyvié has raised £771k to launch reusable incontinence underwear for people with faecal incontinence.
The Sussex-based female-led startup has closed its pre-seed funding round through angel investment and Innovate UK grant funding.
The money will support a direct-to-consumer product launch later in 2026.
It will also fund clinical pilots across care home, hospital and domiciliary settings, strategic partnerships and the company’s first hires.
Zoe Robson, founder and chief executive of Joyvié Health, said: “Products designed for care should never cause harm. That’s not a vision statement. It’s the reason this company exists.”
Joyvié Health is developing reusable underwear for faecal incontinence, a condition in which a person cannot always control bowel movements.
The company says the condition affects an estimated 656m people globally, yet the most common non-invasive solution has changed little in decades.
Non-invasive products are those that do not involve surgery or entering the body.
Joyvié says its patent-pending reusable underwear is a new category in faecal incontinence care.
Where existing non-invasive products trap faeces against the skin, Joyvié says its underwear contains stool in a disposable pouch immediately after excretion.
The company says this is designed to reduce skin contact, preserve dignity and reduce the time and burden of care.
Early testing shows an approximately 90 per cent reduction in stool-to-skin contact and approximately 70 per cent faster changes, according to the company.
Faecal incontinence is often caused by conditions including cancer, dementia, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, spinal injury or ageing.
Multiple sclerosis, often called MS, is a condition that affects the brain and nerves and can cause problems with movement, balance and sensation.
The condition remains heavily under-discussed.
Joyvié says it disproportionately affects women as both patients and caregivers, with an estimated 70 per cent of unpaid caregivers being women.
Despite evidence that women-founded startups deliver stronger returns, they receive only 1 to 2 per cent of venture capital funding globally.
The women’s health sector faces a similar gap, attracting just 2 per cent of healthcare venture capital funding despite serving half the population.
The company said the funding round includes backing from HERmesa Angels, SyndicateRoom and Lavender Ventures, alongside individual angel investors.
Gail Armstrong, of Lavender Ventures, said: “At Lavender Ventures, we are committed to backing founders addressing large, underserved markets with innovative solutions that can meaningfully improve people’s lives.
“We believe the market is ripe for innovation, and Joyvie’s approach has the potential to deliver significant benefits not only for individuals, but also for carers, healthcare systems and the environment.”
Tom Shepherd, senior associate at SyndicateRoom, said: “Three things convinced us: a huge market that VC has typically ignored, an innovative product that demonstrably improves user experience and outcomes, and a strong founder in Zoe who’s driven and won’t take no for an answer.
“Those don’t often come together.”
Joyvié Health was founded by Robson following the death of her father, Fred, in March 2025.
Fred was 77 and had been fit and sharp-minded before receiving a late-stage pancreatic cancer diagnosis on Christmas Eve 2024.
He died 11 weeks later.
During that period, he lost bowel control and had to wear a nappy.
Faeces trapped against the skin can break it down through moisture, pathogens and pH imbalance.
Pathogens are germs such as bacteria or viruses that can cause illness or infection.
Robson said her father’s skin broke down and his dignity went with it, while her mother Ruth carried a burden that was largely invisible to the outside world.
Robson said: “My parents didn’t deserve that.
“They were both at their most vulnerable – and the product meant to help them was making it worse.
“The skin breakdown, the shame, the loss of dignity, the weight on my mum. It wasn’t from lack of care. It’s a design failure.”
She added: “All nappies work by trapping faeces against the skin and hoping for the best. Hope belongs to families, not product engineering.”
Pilot programmes will begin soon to gather data on performance, health economics and usability across care home, hospital and domiciliary settings.
The company said published white papers will follow.
Dr Ashish Sinha, colorectal surgeon at St Mark’s National Bowel Hospital, said: “Faecal incontinence is subjective and chronically underreported – we’ve never truly understood the scale of the problem because people are too ashamed to tell us. The clinical gap is real, and it has consequences.
“What Joyvié is building helps address the unmet clinical need and provides a useful adjunct in managing this.”
Robson has been accepted onto the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme on the patient entrepreneur track, cohort 3.
The programme is intended to support market access within institutional healthcare.
Joyvié Health is building its consumer waitlist and inviting charities, patient organisations and healthcare providers to explore how it can support the people they serve.
