Entrepreneur
‘Patients don’t have a voice’: how this start-up wants to redefine OB/GYN care
The term “gynaecologist” often carries an ominous stigma, conjuring images of awkward visits, cringe-worthy conversations and an overall less-than-pleasant experience within the office walls.
Many patients dread the invasive procedures and often leave with unanswered questions. The data confirms this.
According to a 2020 report published in the Commonwealth Fund, 75 per cent of women in the US are dissatisfied with their OB/GYN care.
In a study of 11 high-income countries, including the UK, Germany and France, American women reported the least positive patient experiences. They were also less likely to rate their quality of care as excellent or very good compared to women in all other countries studied.
Accessibility is also an issue. The average wait time for an OB/GYN appointment is 31.4 days, a 19 per cent increase from 2017.
Tara Raffi, an ex-McKinsey from California, waited six weeks to get an appointment. When she did get to the doctor, she waited over an hour for a five-minute visit and she walked out of the room with no answers. She would go on to see four more OB/GYNs about her recurrent UTIs.
“It exposed for me a fundamental flaw in the US healthcare system, which allows big healthcare players to make decisions and where patients don’t really have a voice,” she says.
“Nobody was building for the patient.”
Wanting to make a change, Raffi and her childhood friend, Carly Allen, launched Almond, a full-service OB/GYN care provider that combines traditional western medicine and integrative medicine to deliver better outcomes to patients and reduce the amount of time it takes to get their problems resolved.
“I left McKinsey and started Almond because I wanted to make it easy to get great OB/GYN care,” the founder explains.
“Our aim is to modernise the full-service experience and provide care differently.”
Their holistic approach is a big part of that. According to Raffi, the current patient experience is incomplete and, while traditional western medicine is great in some cases, it is not great for more complicated, socially involved care journeys.
“A great example is in pregnancy care, where women [in the current healthcare system] end up feeling like they’re not getting what they need and they don’t know why,” she says.
“Integrative medicine solutions, however, present a lot of solutions for some of the deepest, most painful moments in the pregnancy journey. At Almond, we are trying to integrate midwives, doulas and lactation support into the Almond experience so that women can have access to all the support they need.
“We believe that by being a source that brings together medical doctors and different types of practitioners to give a truly holistic view, we can bridge that gap for millions of women.”
Accessibility is also a big differentiator, says the entrepreneur, who believes everyone should find a provider they could talk to when they need to.
“Having that accessibility and convenience of booking care sends a message that we care about you. It’s what, I think, tells patients that their health is important to us.”
Currently, Almond charges users a US$250 annual subscription fee and bills insurance for the visit and labs. The subscription gives patients access to the company’s platform, care team and personalised plans.
Prior to their appointment, women have to fill out a health questionnaire and detail the reasons for their visit. They have the possibility of scheduling next-day telehealth appointments and message their care team whenever they need to.
With more than 130 million American women in need of better OB/GYN care, Raffi says the opportunity for growth is huge.
“We’ve started with our first location in Los Angeles, but we’re looking to expand this year,” she says smiling. “Seeing that we’re able to make even just a small difference for patients makes it all worth it.”
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Juno Bio has secured US$3.8m to expand its diagnostics platform for vaginal health and reproductive care.
The funding round was led by Ada Ventures, with participation from Artesian, Entrepreneur First and Illumina Accelerator.
The women’s health startup said the seed funding will support the launch of its first CLIA-certified sequencing laboratory in Oakland, California, and a new clinical vaginal microbiome and STI test for healthcare providers.
CLIA certification refers to US laboratory standards for testing human samples used in diagnosis, prevention or treatment decisions.
Dr Leighton Turner, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Juno Bio, said: “The vaginal microbiome is still one of the least understood systems in the body at a clinical scale.
“With our lab, we’re starting to build a measurement standard that clinicians can actually use.
“We believe the level of detail from this kind of testing can meaningfully improve how vaginal healthcare is provided.”
The company is developing precision diagnostics for vaginal health, where patients can experience recurring symptoms, inconsistent diagnoses and treatments based on trial and error.
Juno Bio said bringing testing in-house gives it greater control over the process, from sample handling to results, while allowing it to refine its technology and build what it says is one of the largest datasets focused on the vaginal microbiome.
The vaginal microbiome is the community of bacteria and fungi that naturally live in the vagina. Changes in this balance can be linked to infections, symptoms and wider reproductive health issues.
Juno Bio’s newly launched clinical test examines the wider vaginal microbiome and screens for four common sexually transmitted infections, or STIs.
Rather than looking for a single cause, the test is intended to give clinicians a broader picture of what may be contributing to symptoms.
Juno Bio says this matters because multiple infections can occur at the same time and microbiome changes may be linked to fertility, menopause or recurrent infections.
Dr Anna Powell of Johns Hopkins said: “Vaginal microbiome testing has the potential to significantly reshape how we understand and manage vaginal health, particularly for patients with recurrent or unexplained symptoms.
“While the field is still evolving, advances in sequencing and data interpretation are moving us closer to a future where more personalised, microbiome-informed care can complement existing diagnostic approaches.”
Check Warner, co-founding partner at Ada Ventures, added: “Juno Bio is setting a new standard for how vaginal health is understood and managed.
“What they’ve built at this stage, with this level of capital efficiency, is exceptional.
“We’re proud to support the team as they scale their clinical infrastructure and continue leading innovation in this critically underserved category.”
Women’s health companies raised a record $1.55 billion in disclosed equity in 2025, up 41 per cent year on year, according to W Group’s first Global Women’s Health Investment Report, The Road to the Era of Scale.
The report tracks over 500 funding stories and 164 equity rounds across 15 categories and 30+ countries.
Eighty-five companies raised equity in 2025, the highest single-year count on record. But according to the report, the headline figure isn’t the most significant one.
The bigger shift is in where that capital went and how concentrated it was at the top compared to the year before.
The report also points to a brand new investment category that didn’t exist twelve months ago.
SheMed closed a $50 million Series A this year to build a women-specific GLP-1 and metabolic health platform, the first dedicated raise of its kind.
Alongside the momentum, the report identifies one structural risk that could determine whether 2025’s growth holds: a bottleneck at Series A that’s leaving a number of promising seed-stage companies stuck.
Molly Taylor, head of content at W Group, said: “2025 was the biggest year women’s health has ever had, and the most important finding isn’t the headline number.
“It’s that the money has stopped pooling at the top.
“Capital is reaching more companies, more categories and more countries than ever before. The Era of Scale is real. It’s just not finished, and the Series A gap is where it could stall.
“Closing that gap is the highest-leverage move this ecosystem can make in 2026.”
Read the full report: https://wplatform.co/forms/womens-health-equity-funding-trends-report-2026?utm_source=advocacy&utm_medium=ext_email&utm_campaign=2026-q3-health-report-femtech-world
Onto Health has acquired Levy Health, a fertility software company providing precision diagnostics and patient intake for reproductive medicine.
The acquisition, fuelled by Onto Health’s US$20m Series A fundraise in April, supports its plan to build scalable, tech-enabled infrastructure for reproductive medicine.
Onto founder Roohi Jeelani, MD, called it the first of several moves in the company’s expansion strategy in a LinkedIn post, adding that there was “more coming soon”.
She said: “This isn’t just an acquisition, it’s proof of how we’re building Onto: physician-led, tech-enabled, and built to scale without losing the personal touch fertility patients deserve.”
Headquartered in Chicago, Onto Health combines evidence-based fertility care with artificial intelligence-driven diagnostics, clinical automation and longevity science.
AI-driven diagnostics use software to analyse patient information and support clinical decision-making, rather than replace clinicians.
Levy Health, founded in Berlin with US offices in San Francisco, helps medical providers identify endocrine disorders more quickly and helps clinics streamline fertility workups.
Endocrine disorders affect the body’s hormone system, which can influence ovulation, menstrual cycles and fertility.
Co-founder Caroline Mitterdorfer said joining Onto would expand Levy Health’s fertility care tools to more clinics and patients, helping physicians focus on patient care.
Onto opened its first clinic in Chicago in February, with plans for three more in the greater Chicago area.
The company said in April that it would use its new funding, led by Artis and Humania, to support additional operations in the US and expand into the Gulf Cooperation Council.
The Gulf Cooperation Council includes six Arab states bordering the Persian Gulf.
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