Future Fertility Raises Series A to Progress First-In-Class AI-Enabled Fertility Solutions to Improve IVF Outcomes

(US and Canada) Future Fertility, a Toronto-based fertility technology company developing AI-enabled and non-invasive fertility solutions to optimize clinical decision making in fertility care and in vitro fertilization (IVF), announced on January 6 that it has successfully raised a Series A financing round. The investment was led by M Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, a global fertility leader, with participation from Whitecap Venture Partners.

Future Fertility was co-founded in 2017 by Dr. Dan Nayot, internationally renowned and practicing reproductive endocrinologist. The company's mission is to harness the power of AI to improve fertility care and IVF outcomes, lower its costs, and alleviate emotional stress of the patient journey. IVF is expensive, costing an average of US$20,000 per treatment cycle, and is fraught with low success rates, with only ~30% of egg retrievals across all age groups resulting in live births. The targeted application of AI in the IVF process also has the potential to deliver new insights contributing to better understanding of mechanisms that underlie fertility pathologies.

Currently, no standardized visual assessment tool exists for embryologists to evaluate the reproductive potential of a mature human egg; the most step-limiting variable in a successful pregnancy. Future Fertility's first non-invasive AI solution can detect features of a human egg that are invisible to the eye and can predict the likelihood of fertilization and embryo (blastocyst) development. The product is already used in a number of innovative clinics around the world and has been consistently shown to be significantly more accurate at predicting egg viability compared to current methods.

Dr. Dan Nayot, co-founder and Chief Medical Officer of Future Fertility, said, "Our technology has been proven to outperform embryologists in predicting the reproductive potential of an egg and can support decision-making in the IVF and egg freezing journeys. Our solutions finally add a significant missing diagnostic parameter to the IVF process, adding transparency to routine sperm and embryo assessment by uniquely addressing egg viability. Creating a validated egg scoring system has been a major challenge in the field and has now been made possible by AI. I am passionate about patient centricity and immensely proud that Future Fertility can address this gap and enable physicians like myself to better treat our patients."

Beyond its flagship egg prediction software product "Violet" developed for patients undergoing oocyte cryopreservation, Future Fertility has additional AI solutions in its pipeline, with the potential to improve key decisions in the 2.5 million IVF cycles each year, for which no non-invasive tools have existed to date.

Therese Liechtenstein, M Ventures, commented, "M Ventures invests in transformational ideas that can have a significant impact on patients needs.  Future Fertility offers unique solutions in the growing AI fertility space, enabling informed decision-making with the aim of revolutionizing the egg freezing and IVF patient journey, and its success rates. We are excited to support the team and progress their innovative solutions platform."

Shayn Diamond, Whitecap Venture Partners, added, "Future Fertility's solutions have the potential to address a significant unmet need. We are thrilled to support Future Fertility  in its mission to leverage cutting-edge AI technology to make IVF more efficient and accessible for patients."

Diana Olusanmi, Chief Executive Officer of Future Fertility, commented, "We are delighted to receive the support of such a prestigious syndicate of investors which will enable us to further develop our ground-breaking technology and to help improve the outcomes of IVF for millions of patients."