Digital health startup Mae now has $1.3M in pre-seed funding thanks to lead investor SteelSky Ventures, a female venture fund. The maternal health platform now has the necessary funds to move forward with their goal of reducing poor maternal health outcomes, specifically tackling the health inequities of Black expectant mothers.
Mae was founded by CEO Maya Hardigan who has a 15-year track record in digital health product innovation, most recently at Pfizer. Hardigan tapped into her network of leading healthcare professionals at large healthcare corporations to develop her startup’s hybrid care offering—addressing access, inclusivity, and whole person medical care.
“We cannot impact maternal health outcomes in the U.S. without focusing our immediate attention on the massive, life-threatening inequities impacting Black mothers and our babies” shared Hardigan. “Mae is reshaping the experience of Black expectant and new mothers by serving as a trusted, culturally relevant resource. As a Black mother, Mae is the resource I wish I’d had during my own pregnancies.”
Poor maternal health outcomes is a major issue in the healthcare industry. It adds billions in healthcare costs to the U.S. healthcare system each year, while taking a heavy emotional and physical toll on women. Unfortunately, there has been a steady rise in maternal deaths in the U.S. in recent years, of which 60% are deemed to be avoidable—motivating Hardigan to undertake this challenge to improve healthcare services.
Most concerning is that Black women die from pregnancy related causes at rate 3-4 times higher than other women. While multiple initiatives are now in place to lower this rate, Black women do not have ready access to this standard of care. Those initiatives include fully continuous pregnancy support, symptom education and screening, and timely intervention that prevent complications and reduce maternal deaths. This gap deepens inequities in maternal care outcomes for Black women.
Hardigan named her digital healthcare startup company after Dr. May Edward Chinn who was the first African-American woman to graduate from what is now NYU School of Medicine, in 1926. Unable to practice at local hospitals due to discriminatory restrictions placed on her, she opened a private practice that focused on Black patients in Harlem who could not receive care elsewhere.
Where Dr. Chinn practiced one-on-one with patients, Mae’s digital health platform’s virtual care has the potential to reach thousands of Black expectant mothers, providing them with critical resources to drive positive pregnancy outcomes. Working in concert with healthcare payers and states, Hardigan is ambitious that her work like Dr. Chinn’s will impact the health of Black women, specifically in the area of the disparities in maternal health outcomes for expectant mothers across the country.
The company’s most recent funding round included Avestria Ventures, MBX Capital, Rhia Ventures, and the Social Starts Health and Happiness Fund. Three of the most prominent venture capital funds in the women’s health space participated in the funding.
Hardigan believes the pre-seed funding reflects a commitment to and belief in Mae’s innovative delivery model that will contribute to the work being done by medical professionals.
“Black maternal healthcare is a national crisis,” remarked Maria Velissaris, Founding Partner at SteelSky Ventures. “While structural and systemic bias continue to plague our healthcare system, solutions like Mae are vital to empower women to access, educate and advocate their way to better outcomes.”
Hardigan is also encouraged by the growing focus on maternal health inequities. Over the past few months the American Rescue Plan Act, has spurred twenty states to expand their Medicaid postpartum coverage period from sixty days to up to six to twelve months. This action is expected to reduce coverage gaps and improve outcomes for the over 40% of U.S. births covered under Medicaid.
The role of doulas, trained professionals who provide continuous physical, emotional and informational support to a mother before, during and shortly after childbirth, is gaining greater recognition and support. Since 2019, seventeen states have proposed a bill or other state action towards Medicaid doula coverage, with commercial insurance plans also expanding coverage to doulas, midwives, and other birthing support experts.
These initiatives are based on doulas showing they reduce the odds of non-indicated cesarean-section deliveries, which are a major driver of childbirth-related healthcare costs in the U.S. They also provide critical emotional support for a woman’s mental health that leads to more satisfying pregnancy experiences.
Mae’s digital health platform pairs the doulas model of support with health tracking tools that provide the earliest identification of pregnancy risk-factors, and curated, culturally-specific educational and lifestyle resources, available on demand for users.
Funding of the digital health startup has placed the Mae team on a path to achieve its long-term product vision of becoming the go-to value-based, supplemental care approach to improve care for Black pregnant women.
Read about Melinda French Gates Initiatives that includes Funding for Women’s Health
