Holland & Barrett acquires femtech start-up Parla

Holland & Barrett has made public the acquisition of the femtech start-up Parla, aiming to offer personalised wellness solutions and services across a range of underserved healthcare topics.

Parla is the first-ever virtual support system to improve women’s mental wellness after pregnancy loss and beyond. It provides a safe space supporting ongoing informed conversation and scientific insights around women’s health and fertility experiences. 

Co-founded by Lina Chan with her husband Tyler Christie and Rose Acton in 2018, Parla’s mission is to break down the taboo surrounding women’s health issues and enable access to trusted and holistic support. 

The company offers holistic, personalised care for a range of challenges including endometriosis, PCOS and pregnancy loss. Through its online programmes, participants join cohort-based learning programmes, which help bring together women who may have been through similar experiences and connect them with experts in fertility, psychology, nutrition and wellbeing. 

“Our vision is to transform the wellness of 100m people by 2025, helping them achieve their personal wellness goals,” says Tamara Rajah, Holland & Barrett chief business and science officer. “This ambition takes us beyond our current retail business to offer a suite of different personalised diagnostics, services and solutions.  

“Parla aims to tackle major underserved wellness needs that impact tens of millions of women around the world. What stood out for Holland & Barrett is their focus on making these taboo topics more socialised, and their novel cohort-based model to address mental wellness through conversation, community and expert support. Holland & Barrett has been offering women advice on menopause and women’s health for over 50 years, so this is a natural extension of our business.”

Lina Chan, founder of Parla, explains that: “Parla was inspired by my own experience with pregnancy loss and trouble conceiving. I always felt on the back foot.

“One in ten women in the UK currently suffer with endometriosis and PCOS, and one in five pregnancies end in miscarriage. I wanted to build something that helps women feel in control of their journey through these challenging experiences. Parla’s research found that cohort based learning is a particularly powerful support method when it comes to tackling taboo health areas as it combines access to expert coaching with peer support.

“We also offer at-home hormone testing, health quizzes and the opportunity to access personalised health insights,” Chan continues. “Our programmes are also supported by an app designed to help customers adopt the lifestyle interventions taught in each programme.”

Parla is officially launching the start of its next endometriosis programme by supporting the UK premiere of Below the Belt, a new US documentary about the injustices impacting women’s health. Directed by Shannon Cohn and Executive Produced by Hillary Clinton, the film reveals how millions of people with endometriosis are sidelined and silenced.

The screening in London on June 8 will be followed by a live panel discussion with some of the biggest names in UK medicine and media – Candice Brathwaite, Pippa Vosper, Dr Anita Mitra aka Gynae Geek, Dr Nighat Arif, Lina Chan from Parla and Shannon Cohn will be exploring how storytelling, femtech innovation and community can help break the silence and improve healthcare outcomes for all.