S2 006: Cecilie Hvidberg Jakobsen. Infertility support & data science at wawa. 👩‍👧‍👧🤖

The Healthtech VC

With a background in data science and fintech, Cecilia wondered how to take established solutions in fintech and translate them to the under-served healthcare market. wawa is an intelligent fertility assistant app that helps patients navigate the fertility journey. Used by couples who are experiencing infertility, single mothers and same-sex couples undergoing assisted conception, wawa has found a really good product-market fit. They are focused on closing the reproductive data gap and most impressively, unlike any other healthtech company I’ve met, the wawa patient community has managed to get a reproductive law changed in Denmark.

We touch on deep market research, building a meaningful community and wawa’s ‘go-to-community’ strategy. Currently active in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, wawa is expanding in Germany with their next stop the UK. We discuss the varying fertility laws across Europe and how this impacts the infertility market and the information asymmetry that exists between patients and providers. I also get to reminisce a bit about my time in the NHS when I was a gynaecological radiologist performing fertility investigations such as hysterosalpingograms.

This is a deep dive into the world of infertility – I hope you enjoy our conversation.