Future Family raises $9M to make fertility treatments more accessible and expand its clinic network – TechCrunch

Future Family, a company we’ve written about a few times over the years, makes fertility treatments more accessible. They pre-negotiate terms with fertility clinics to ensure there are no surprise fees, convert the often substantial upfront costs into a monthly payment plan and give each user a dedicated Fertility Coach to help them navigate their journey.

This morning the company is announcing that it has raised a $9 million round of funding as it expands the network of clinics it works with.

The company last raised $10 million in a Series A back in 2018, and they’re positioning this round as an extension of that — a “Series A-1”, as they’re calling it — rather than a whole new round.

As I’ve written before, Future Family was inspired by founder Claire Tomkins’ own experiences:

Future Family was born out of Claire Tomkins’ own experiences with the complexities and costs of fertility treatments. After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on treatments involved with having her first child (with much of the cost coming as a surprise only revealed once the process had begun), Claire set out to build a better way. Future Family partners with clinics to work out all the pricing ahead of time and pays the bill upfront, ensuring there are no billing surprises down the road.

Image Credits: Claire Tomkins, Future FamilyClaire tells me that, as it did for just about everyone, 2020 brought a whole new set of challenges for the company. In the early days of the pandemic, as a million questions about COVID-19 emerged, many fertility clinics closed their doors. And even as the clinics began reopening, with little certainty about where things might be in nine months, many patients understandably held off.

“It was definitely a tough year,” she says, “but I think we’re emerging in a good place.”

2021 is already looking like a different story, Claire tells me. “People had to sit on the sidelines,” she says. “People who have wanted to go forward with treatment, and now have waited 12 or more months… it’s gotten very busy.” According to their numbers, Claire expects the second half of 2021 to hit “record levels of activity.”

To help with the sudden spike in demand, the company is adding more fertility clinics to its network, including CCRM — a fertility group with locations in Minneapolis, Houston, Denver, San Francisco and a number of other major metros.