Cofertility raises $7.25m Series A to expand zero cost egg freezing model
Meeting rising demand in the fertility industry
A startup that helps women freeze their eggs for free when donating half has announced a $7.25 million Series A funding round to support its expansion and growth in response to rising demand in the fertility industry.
Founded in 2021 and led by Lauren Makler and Halle Tecco, Cofertility has now raised a total of $16 million in funding, driven by a mission to make egg freezing more accessible and egg donation less transactional.
This Series A was led by Next Ventures and Offline Ventures, with additional support from Initialized, Arkitekt, Foreground, Gratitude Railroad, How Women Invest, Gaingels and Everywhere VC.
Mel Strong, General Partner at Next Ventures said:
"The donor egg market has long been constrained by structural inefficiencies—limited donor availability, opaque matching processes and a transactional system that prioritizes financial incentives.”
“At Next Ventures, we’re focused on empowering people to live more capable lives through whole-person care solutions, and we’re proud to support Cofertility’s unique model of integrating egg freezing with an innovative egg-sharing approach, expanding donor access, increasing quality/diversity and aligning incentives in a way that benefits both donors and intended parents."
Innovative models
Through its Split program, Cofertility enables women to freeze their eggs for free when they donate half of the eggs retrieved to people who cannot otherwise conceive. This creates a mutually beneficial model that tackles key challenges in fertility care, including the prohibitive cost of egg freezing, the lack of diversity amongst egg donors, and the outdated, transactional nature of traditional egg donation.
“As a rapidly growing, female-founded organization, we have always been committed to making fertility care more equitable,” said Lauren Makler, CEO and cofounder of Cofertility.
“By raising smart capital from experienced industry partners, we are strengthening our commitment to scale our core mission. This funding will allow us to expand our offerings, enhance our technology and reach even more people who need these services."
The funding will be primarily used towards the further development of Cofertilty’s proprietary, user-friendly technology platform, a custom-built egg donor database that streamlines the entire egg donation process, from recruitment and matching to cycle coordination. Already this technology has helped improve the Cofertility experience for its members.
Funding will be used towards scaling the team to meet growing demand, strengthening partnerships with healthcare providers to make affordable fertility care more widely available, and investing in advocacy work like Cofertility’s recent Level the Playing Field campaign which united influential voices like Cofertility investor Maria Sharapova alongside other Olympians and professional athletes including Ashlyn Harris, Alysia Montaño, Carly Patterson, Missy Franklin and more to raise awareness for the challenges women athletes face when planning and building their families.
“Cofertility is challenging outdated norms and creating a new model centered on optionality,” said Brit Morin, Founding Partner at Offline Ventures.
“At Offline, we back companies that don’t just improve industries, they redefine them, and Cofertility is truly flipping the script on traditional fertility options. We’re proud to continue supporting their mission to bring innovative solutions to this long-overdue space.”