Femtech Startup Privy Partners With Target for Nationwide Launch of Innovative Bladder Leakage Product

StartUp Health welcomes to the family Evi Heilbrunn, CEO of Privy, who’s giving below-the-waist feminine care the 21st century upgrade it deserves.

The Challenge

In 1985, a landmark report on women’s health by the Public Health Service Task Force offered this conclusion: “The historical lack of research focus on women’s health concerns has compromised the quality of health information available to women as well as the health care they receive.”

We’ve come a long way since 1985, with medical and technological advancements that have transformed the way we understand and address women’s health needs. However, much of the progress has been focused on reproductive health. When it comes to issues that affect a woman’s lifestyle — issues that may not be life-threatening but are certainly life-altering — progress has been stalled or non-existent.

“Women can be mothers. But they have issues and bodies separate from that experience,” says Evi Heilbrunn, CEO of Privy. “Unfortunately, there is a lack of education and a culture of shame that has stifled innovation for household issues that are in the underwear of women across the globe — from periods, to bladder leaks, UTIs, and yeast infections.”

French WWII nurses invented the modern pad a hundred years ago and the tampon was introduced in 1931, but since then upgrades to the products have been minimal — removing bleach from the products’ ingredients or repackaging the items in new branding schemes. And while the disposable incontinence products market is expected to reach $15 billion by 2025 with one in three women struggling to control bladder leaks when they cough, sneeze, or exercise, innovation is lacking and the bulky products leave much to be desired.

At Privy, Heilbrunn is on a mission to develop the next generation of feminine care products for underserved women’s health issues. And she’s starting with the release of a new product for the 22 million women in the U.S. who experience a form of stress urinary incontinence.

Origin Story

Talking to Heilbrunn, you’d be forgiven for thinking that she’s been at the helm of Privy for years, when in fact it’s been two months. She speaks of the company’s mission and the future of femtech with the passion of someone who has been pursuing her life’s dream.

“In recent years, the venture industry has caught on to the fact that the femcare market is ripe for disruption,” says Heilbrunn. “With Privy, we are joining the small but growing number of femcare companies focused on clinical innovation. I believe our collective mission is extremely powerful and I’m excited to be a part of this movement.”

Heilbrunn has been in the digital health space for over ten years as a leader, advisor, and investor. She’s worked at some of the largest digital health companies and brands including Health, Parents, Shape, MedPageToday, and the U.S. News & World Report flagship Health vertical. She’s developed a knack for uncovering hard, often, underrepresented categories and ideas, and scaling early-stage products for both health consumer and provider audiences.

This year, she made it a personal goal to increase her advising engagements and investments in femtech companies. This summer, Evi became an angel investor for Origin, a startup that focuses on physical therapy needs for women and mothers. From there, and through mutual connections, she was introduced to Privy’s founder, Thomas Berryman. The two hit it off and Heilbrunn says it quickly became obvious that her next endeavor in digital health was to be with Privy.

In July, she joined as the company’s first CEO and a month later packed up her home in Brooklyn to move west to Los Angeles where Berryman and the Privy team are headquartered.

Under the Hood

Privy is the first women-led feminine care company developing clinically-proven solutions for women’s health issues ranging from bladder leaks to UTIs and yeast infections. The company was originally founded by Berryman to bring to market the Finess® softpatch, the first FDA-cleared, over-the-counter product that prevents light to moderate bladder leaks before they happen, enabling busy and active women to power through a workout, laugh with friends or sneeze without fear of odor and discomfort from wetness.

Finess is an entirely new approach for women with light to moderate bladder leakage. It’s patented technology consists of foam that molds to fit comfortably and a gentle hydrogel adhesive that is placed over the urethral opening (the opening where urine leaves the body). The hydrogel adhesive seals it in place, preventing any urine from leaking out until it’s removed. When increased abdominal pressure is placed on the bladder — during a coughing fit or a Pilates class — Finess prevents the urine from escaping.

On average, women spend $250 a year on pads and incontinence underwear that catch leaks. In worse case scenarios, women may choose to have invasive surgeries that come with risks of complications to treat stress incontinence.

“For decades, women have been offered the same choices as their grandmothers. Finess brings innovation to the femcare aisle that hasn’t seen any since the invention of the pad,” says Heilbrunn. “It’s better for the environment too, taking up 95% less landfill space than pads, liners, and incontinence underwear.”

On Sunday, October 11th, 2020, Finess hits the shelves of 800 U.S. Target retail locations and will be available nationwide on Target.com. Box sets of 12-pack and 36-pack options will be available in addition to an exclusive Target Trial pack featuring 5 soft patches that launches with the nationwide rollout.

Why We’re Proud to Invest

At first blush, it was easy for us to get excited about Privy’s first science-backed feminine care product, Finess. The product offers a unique glimpse into what true innovation looks like: solving an old problem by taking a fresh approach. Too often, especially in women’s health innovation, we’ve settled for old products in new packaging.

“At Privy, we are inventors. We are making room for a whole new category in women’s health, starting with Finess,” says Heilbrunn.

As novel as Privy’s first feminine care product is, we’re backing Heilbrunn and Berryman because their vision goes beyond product development. Their health moonshot includes one of the most important components to shaking things up in women’s health: education. Deep-seated cultural stigmas and barriers have long kept women’s health issues in the shadows, and consequently solutions for what Heilbrunn calls “below-the-waist women’s health issues” have lagged in innovation.

At Privy, the two Health Transformers are leveraging their unique experiences in the digital health space to create new products for women that come with an educational component via quality media content. Heilbrunn describes it as a feedback loop between Privy’s customers, their product development team, and their clinical team that offers women the opportunity to connect with the clinical experts who are championing the next solution for them.

“Privy is developing the next generation of science-backed feminine care solutions with an emphasis on care,” says Heilbrunn. “As women, we want to feel comfortable and confident in every moment, and we think that’s something all women deserve, no matter their stage of life.”

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Connect with Evi Heilbrunn here.

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