Femtech founders win bursary for AI-powered menstrual app

Female-founded app, Hormonious Flo, has been awarded a £5,000 bursary, as part of Starling Bank’s Take Flight campaign for small businesses.

Alexis Abayomi, a self-taught app developer, teamed up with menstrual-health coach and psychology student Sasha Cayward to develop an app that helps women to track their menstrual cycle symptoms like period pain or acne and eliminate them through a holistic wellness approach.

The femtech startup is on a mission to arm the 90 per cent of women that experience hormonal imbalances with the knowledge, tools, and guidance required to have symptom-free periods.

Unlike previously-developed period trackers, this app offers personalised content on nutrition, fitness, lifestyle and mindset, both co-founders stressing the importance of working with one’s own body and life instead of having a “one size fits all approach” that permeates the wellness industry.

Entrepreneur and TV personality Carol Vorderman was joined by other founders on the judging panel in naming Hormonious Flo a winner, after Alexis and Sasha impressed them all with the app’s ambitious growth model.

With the aim to widen its network of doctors, personal trainers, hormone specialists and nutritionists, the two founders hope to become the number one NHS-recommended app for menstrual health-related symptoms.

“The female body has long been mis-understood, but the femtech revolution has empowered women with invaluable tools,” says Abayomi.

“When we started out in femtech, we realised that most apps out there focus on fertility and period tracking. There was a gap in the market for an app that helps women feel good in their bodies every day,” she adds.

“Women and menstruators were tracking their symptoms, but there was nothing to help them alleviate these problems they were having. I built the first iteration of Hormonious Flo in 2020, which was a big success and with the bursary from Starling, we’ll hire the developer and marketing talent so that we can bring the app to the masses.”

The prize money was one of ten offered by Starling to celebrate its Take Flight Initiative – a support package for UK small businesses. In addition to the £50,000 total fund, Starling’s team of expert entrepreneurs assembled to offer small businesses the advice they wished they’d known when starting out.

Carol Vorderman, pilot and founder of The Maths Factor says that: “What struck me most when judging this competition is how much creativity, tenacity and drive exists within Starling Bank’s business customers. Every entry was brilliant in its own way, but our ten winners impressed us with their unique business models, ambitious growth plans, and sense of purpose.

“I wish them all the best for 2022 and beyond and I hope the Take Flight bursary helps them to reach new heights this year.”

The app is available is App Store and Google Play.