When Joanna Strober was about 47 years old, she stopped sleeping. Although insomnia is a common symptom of perimenopause, to get this diagnosis and the right treatment, she first had to go to multiple providers, including driving 45 minutes out of San Francisco to pay $750 out of pocket.
“That feeling of wow, I’ve really suffered unnecessarily over the last year has really stayed with me,” Strober said on a recent episode of TechCrunch’s Found podcast. “I started talking to all my friends and understanding what was going on with them and I realized that perimenopause and menopause is a big deal. It hits women like a ton of bricks. There are many different symptoms and there are very few providers trained to care for this population.”
This realization inspired Strober to launch Midi Health, a telehealth platform designed to support midlife women by connecting them with providers trained in perimenopause and menopause symptoms and treatments.
Despite her aha moment, Strober explained why she couldn’t launch the startup right away. She said Midi could not have existed if the U.S. government had not changed its rules on telehealth and people’s access to medical care during the pandemic. Because of the changes in digital health, Strober said the company was able to launch its platform that enables women’s care, rather than requiring women to seek in-person care.
“Understanding that this problem has been around for a long time and could finally be addressed using telemedicine was a very exciting discovery,” Strober said. “And that’s why I wanted to start this company.”
Midi operates a little differently than many other digital health companies founded in the post-pandemic wave, Strober said. She said Midi was not designed, like many other companies of the same era, as a digital pathway for users to receive one-time care or treatment as quickly as possible, but rather as a platform for women to build long-term relationships with providers who can give them that Make you feel seen.
This approach is also why Strober believes Midi has been able to continue to grow and raise VC funding as VCs are less interested in this category. The company recently closed a $60 million Series B round led by Emerson Collective with participation from Google Ventures, SteelSky Ventures and Muse Capital, among others. This round brings the company’s total funding to $99 million.
The digital health startup raised $13.2 billion globally in 2023, according to data from CB Insights. This represents a 48% decline from 2022 ($25.5 billion) and a 75% decline from 2021, when a record $52.7 billion was invested.
“I think too few telemedicine companies haven’t thought about this long-term customer relationship,” Strober said. “We see ourselves as building a trusted healthcare brand. That’s why our brand stands for competent care for women. We need to give you that great care so you come back to us again and again. That’s what women do.”
Midi isn’t Strober’s first digital health startup, and she talked about how her previous experiences building Kurbo Health, a startup focused on childhood obesity before digital health even existed, influenced her decisions in building Midi. She also talked about how her previous life as a venture capitalist also played a role in how she approached the company.
With this latest round of funding, Midi looks forward to expanding care in areas that fall under perimenopause and menopause, including things like sexual wellness, hair and skin care, and access to testosterone.
“People keep asking, ‘When do you come out of perimenopause and menopause?’” Strober said. “But perimenopause and menopause is a big market. That’s why we are working hard to understand the health needs of women at this stage of life and how we can appropriately address these concerns.”