Oxford-based birthtech startup PeriPear has raised £1.2m across an oversubscribed pre-seed round and grant funding from Innovate UK, as it prepares to take its birth injury prevention device into first-in-human trials in Singapore.
PeriPear is developing a wearable device designed to help prevent tearing during vaginal birth. The device applies a warm compress to the perineum - the area between the vaginal opening and anus - during the pushing stage of labour, automating an intervention that currently has to be delivered manually by a midwife or clinician.
PeriPear was co-founded by former NHS midwife Nina van Schaick, who spent 14 years working in maternity care, and healthtech founder Eviatar Natan. The idea grew out of Nina’s experience of seeing the impact of perineal injuries in clinical practice.
“PeriPear is the answer to years of professional frustration for me as a midwife on the frontlines of birth,” she said.
“We have had compelling clinical evidence for use of warm compresses on the perineum during second stage of labour reducing tearing, pain and episiotomy rates, but are still expecting midwives and clinicians to improvise to apply this in practice.”
The oversubscribed pre-seed round was led by HERmesa, with participation from Zinc, SyndicateRoom Access - a data-driven super angel fund, Mint, InvestinWomen and Femtech Lab in partnership with Joanne Invests - marking the first investment from the latter’s new syndicate. More than 90% of its existing investors also backed the round, alongside angel investors Andrea Sinclair and Lavender Ventures’ Gail Armstrong.
“PeriPear is building something that truly must exist. Founders with conviction, a product that addresses a real and meaningful need, and consistent, disciplined progress that compounds over time,” said Gail Armstrong.
A common birth injury
Up to nine in 10 first-time mothers who give birth vaginally experience a tear, graze or episiotomy, according to the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. It is slightly less common for anyone who has had a vaginal birth before. Most tears are minor, but around 6% of first-time mothers experience a deeper third- or fourth-degree tear involving the anal sphincter.
While many women recover well, more serious perineal injuries can have longer-term consequences including persistent pain, urinary or bowel problems and pain during sex. PeriPear’s focus is on prevention - making an existing evidence-based intervention easier to deliver consistently at the point when injury occurs.
While warm compresses are already recommended as one way of reducing the severity of tearing, they currently rely on a midwife or clinician manually holding a warm pad or gauze against the perineum as the baby is born. In busy maternity settings, delivery can depend on staffing, timing and whether a clinician has the time and hands available. PeriPear is designed to automate that process.
“Clinicians do not have anything to offer currently beyond the reassurance that they will do their best with their experience, or use an episiotomy [a controlled cutting technique] to prevent a severe tear,” explained Nina.
“That’s cold comfort if it’s your perineum they are talking about or your episiotomy scar that interrupts pleasure for you for the rest of your life!”
Singapore and US first on route to market
With the fresh funding, PeriPear is targeting its first human trial in Singapore in the second half of 2027, working with the National University Health System. It plans to pursue Singapore and the US ahead of wider NHS adoption, where Nina says the route from testing a new device to getting it into routine use can take longer.
“We didn’t choose international first because we don’t believe in the NHS, quite the opposite,” she said.
“But the honest answer is that speed to patients has driven our sequencing, not preference.”
PeriPear is now pursuing funding for large scale UK trials to support adoption in the NHS working with Warwick Clinical Trials Unit and other NHS partners. The startup is also continuing R&D work with UK manufacturers while building the foundations for clinical pilots in Singapore and the US.
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