Women’s sexual wellness app aims to raise $2M seed round.
By Kevin Cummings – NTX Inno Staff Writer
September 02, 2021, 10:39am CDT.
About four years ago, Lyndsey Harper left her practice as an OB/GYN to launch women’s sexual wellness app Rosy, which has helped more than 100,000 women across the country. And Harper is looking to increase that number.
The Dallas-based company is in the process of raising a $2 million seed round, of which Harper said Rosy has closed on $1.35 million. The effort is being led by Austin early-stage venture capital firm True Wealth Ventures, which Harper said has been a goal investor since she heard general partners Sara Brand and Kerry Rupp speak at Dallas Startup Week in 2018. California investment fund Portfolia is participating in the raise.
“We’re doing some really exciting product development with the product itself to increase the value that we’re bringing to women everywhere,” Harper, Rosy’s founder and CEO, said. “Then, of course, we’re working on growing the message to our users, to our healthcare provider partners across the country.”
With part of the seed round secured, that brings Rosy’s total to more than $2 million since launching the app on Valentine’s Day 2019. Last February, the company landed $1 million in funding from investors, including Joyance Partners, Social Starts, Alex Snodgrass (founder of Defined Dish) and James Beshara (founder and CEO of Tilt).
Rosy uses a multi-disciplinary approach based on medical and psychological best practices to offer customized educational videos, self-help psychology classes, erotic short stories, and community chat groups. The company also offers a specialized telehealth service to address sexual issues and, like many in the industry, has seen growth during the pandemic. Without disclosing specifics, Harper said Rosy’s revenue has increased 55% each quarter over the last year, all without a sales team. The company’s product is also being recommended by 6% of OB/GYNs across the country.
“We have to scale the business… and also the level of sophistication that we’re able to offer for our users, and that requires someone with a wide and deep knowledge to oversee all of those more sophisticated architecture and plans for growth,” Harper said.
Harper attributes the company’s growth to the rise of digital health tools amid the pandemic, which she said is helping to relieve some of the inequities in health care services. She added that as data and technology continue to be implemented in the industry, personalized health care drives consumer choices and patient outcomes.
“Being in digital health that confers such a jumpstart to everything that we were working on before,” Harper said. “There’s been an opportunity during the pandemic for women to work on things that they may not have been as focused on beforehand in terms of personal growth and health care opportunities.”
With the newest funding, Rosy is looking to develop its product further while building out its five-person full-time team. It recently brought on its first remote and male employee, Austin-based CTO Mark Zepeda, as it looks to scale its product offering over the next 18 months. Harper said the company is planning to add new hires to its engineering and design teams. The funding will also help the company create research into sexual health issues.
“We’re really excited to continue generating original research about the difference that Rosy itself, as an intervention, can have in the lives of women, and how they not only can utilize those benefits, but other people in terms of insurers and employers can also see benefits,” Harper said. “We’re excited to continue to contribute that original research and show sex is important to not just men, but to everybody, and how when we improve the health care of women, we improve the health care of everyone.”
