Male fertility start-up closes £2.5m funding round

ExSeed Health, a male fertility start-up, has closed a £2.5 million seed extension round, led by Ascension and with participation from Trifork, Hambro Perks, and R42 Group. 

The investment will drive further European expansion and is a step forward in ExSeed’s mission to tackle rising male infertility.

This is the latest investment from the Ascension Life Fund, a specialist healthtech fund and brings the total Seed-stage investment in ExSeed to more than £5 million. The investment comes after ExSeed has maintained average month-on-month sales growth rates of more than 20% in 2021 and quadrupled their sales since December 2020 thanks to equal growth in DTC and BTB. They also have an undisclosed partnership with a large fertility industry player.

British Standards Institute (BSI) approved ExSeed’s smartphone-based sperm testing kit last year, clinically validating it as an in vitro diagnostic medical device. Successful CE certification of ExSeed’s device highlighted huge steps being made in the at-home health tech sector, validating it for use across the European Economic Area and guaranteeing patients over 95% accuracy, bringing it in line with accuracy offered by traditional fertility clinics. The at-home test doesn’t require users to attend a doctors surgery, clinic, or hospital facility and it comes with a lifestyle intervention program.

Morten G. Ulsted, co-founder and CEO of ExSeed, said: “This funding round is critically important for us and our mission to improve the treatment paradigm for male infertility and tackle the social stigma often attached. By allowing men to test, and potentially improve their fertility, in the comfort of their own home, ExSeed is helping to break taboos and raise awareness around male infertility. Moving forward, we see plenty of opportunities to work with relevant healthcare partners throughout Europe and beyond, like the NHS and private fertility clinics, with an ExSeed test being the first step on a patient’s wider fertility journey.”

Dominic Perks, co-founder and CEO at Hambro Perks, says: “Our investment in ExSeed demonstrates our ongoing confidence in the future of health tech. Male infertility is a growing problem that affects millions of men around the world, but remains largely taboo. We hope that ExSeed’s vision and mission to tackle this problem will improve the lives of millions of couples who struggle to conceive every year. We look forward to helping ExSeed continue to expand and working with the team to build this truly innovative health-tech platform.”

According to the NHS, infertility affects 3.5 million people in the UK alone. Some of the largest contributing factors to declining fertility rates include the modern western diet, typified by a high intake of calories, processed meat and dairy, added fat, and sugary snacks; alongside other modern vices including smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, a sedentary lifestyle, and pollution.

ExSeed’s testing kit marries the powerful camera capabilities of modern smartphones with sophisticated, cloud-based analysis, providing patients with a live view of their sperm sample directly on their screen and highly accurate quantitative analysis of their sperm concentration and motility in just 3-5 minutes. The results are paired with additional behavioural and diet data to generate a bespoke lifestyle program that helps would-be dads improve their sperm quality over a 90-day period.

Each kit arrives with at least two tests, meaning users can track and improve their results over a number of testing cycles, while the ExSeed app, available on iOS and Android, presents the opportunity to discuss the results and ongoing concerns with professional fertility doctors with exportable reports. A local clinic recommendation is then issued, should it be needed or requested.

With teams in both London and Copenhagen, ExSeed has a research-led approach and works alongside leading bodies within the medical community, including partnering with several leading institutions, such as the European Sperm Bank, the University of Copenhagen, and a range of clinics.