TOP 100 Startup Award 2017: First place goes to Ava, the Perfect timing
07.09.2017
AVA Bracelets produced by the Zurich startup indicate when women are fertile during their menstrual cycle. Now the aim is to make Ava a constant companion for women aged between 25 and 55.
 Ava's got the perfect timing
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Fifteen women and ten men on 178 m2 – it’s getting crowded at the Ava office. Luckily the stylish shell construction in Zurich’s Binz district is designed to be flexible. For instance, the restaurant on the ground floor can also be used as a meeting room. Ava CEO Pascal Koenig leads the way. Once we arrive at the restaurant, he places his product on the table: a turquoise bracelet with a silver button. In an elevator pitch, Koenig would say: “Every third woman who would like to have a child does not fall pregnant immediately. One of the most important factors is timing. But it’s not always possible to know exactly when ovulation has occurred and the fertile phase has begun. That’s why we developed a solution that is better than all the other available options.”
Other ovulation test providers require women to measure their temperature vaginally and enter this information into an app. By contrast, Ava records no less than nine physiological parameters. This enables women using the Ava method to identify 89 percent or 5.3 of their (on average) six fertile days – twice as much as the competition.
And it all happens while they’re asleep. The woman puts on the bracelet in the evening. During the night, sensors measure her skin temperature, circulation and the variability of her heart rate. By morning, three million data points have been transferred to her smartphone via Bluetooth and from there they are uploaded into the Ava cloud.
Each month the algorithm becomes more precise, says Koenig, as Ava collects and processes more physiological data about women trying to conceive than any other company or institute. The data is stored by Amazon Web Services, but it is anonymised and belongs exclusively to the customers.
The University of St. Gallen graduate and former McKinsey consultant entered the world of medical technology through a job at Synthes. Since then Koenig has worked on various startup projects. One was a monitoring device for cardiac patients, another was wristwatch with an emergency call function designed for seniors. The savvy entrepreneur met ETH engineer Peter Stein in summer 2013 at a restaurant called Studer’s in Zurich West. Stein’s friend from university Philipp Tholen was also there, as was Lea von Bidder, who, like Koenig, had studied at the University of St. Gallen. They chatted about pregnancy and children. Later they discussed modern data tracking technologies. Why had no-one ever come up with the idea of recording the physiological parameters of pregnancy from a person’s wrist? And so Ava was born.
Soon afterwards the four founders visited the world’s leading sensor manufacturers and asked: “If we took the best sensors currently in your development pipeline, what could we do with them?” The Ava team presented their initial sensor bracelet concept to Brigitte Leeners, a professor at the University Hospital of Zurich who specialises in mathematical modelling of the menstrual cycle, as well as Stephanie von Orelli, senior consultant at the gynaecological clinic of Zurich’s Triemli Hospital. A oneyear clinical trial with forty women was launched. The results came back in April 2016 – a “milestone” for Koenig.
Investors and business promoters believe in Ava’s potential: The startup wins CHF 130,000 in a competitive Venture Kick process and gains a further CHF 100,000 through the De-Vigier Award. In 2015 Ava went on to win the Swisscom Startup Challenge and then generate CHF 2.6 million in a round of seed financing. The investors included Swisscom and the Zürcher Kantonalbank, which also participated in the series A round in 2016 that generated a further CHF 9.7 million for the startup. Now there are plans for a series B round aimed at raising a two-figure million figure. The Ava bracelet was officially launched in July 2016 – exclusively in the USA. To make it happen, Ava opened an office in San Francisco. It is the company’s second branch following Belgrade, where the software is developed. From their base in California, Lea von Bidder plots the takeover of American women’s wrists.
Potential customers were made aware of the product online: Ava produced trustworthy content about conceiving, used YouTube to great effect and issued hundreds of PR articles resulting in widespread coverage in the media and on blogs. By this point, the startup had invested a decent seven-figure amount into its US marketing campaigns. And it paid off. As of mid-July this year, more than 10,000 bracelets have been sold in the USA at a retail price of US$249. According to Pascal Koenig, their core business is already making a profit in America.
The bracelet was launched in Europe at the start of the year. Here, too, sales are on the up and already represent one fifth of the company’s overall revenue. Koenig is convinced: “In the current year our revenue will increase tenfold.” Not only that: as the winner of Venture Leaders China 2016, he has already evaluated the Chinese market. CHF 3 million have been set aside for the launch. Part of the funds will go towards direct marketing via the internet, while another part will be used to establish distribution partnerships. “A global pharma company that has access to 80 percent of all gynaecologists has shown great interest in us,” says Koenig. The Ava bracelet would perfectly complement its existing product portfolio.
At the same time, the Ava founders are also expanding their product range: In addition to calculating a woman’s fertile days and monitoring pregnancies, Ava also wants to make a name for itself in relation to contraception. After all, if you can use sensors to work out when a woman is fertile, then you can also calculate when she is guaranteed not to fall pregnant. Pascal Koenig has his eye on a new generation of women who no longer want to take daily hormone pills or use other pharmacological products. Studies into contraception are currently under way. Meanwhile in Zurich, Ava is tinkering with additional functions and experimenting with new colours and materials for the wristbands. The team is also investing heavily in a content platform all about women’s health. The aim is to position Ava as a constant companion for women aged between 25 and 55. “As a startup, it’s important to think big, really big,” says Koenig. “We would like to become the global market leader – even if that doesn’t sound very Swiss.”
TEXT: EDITH ARNOLD
Other ovulation test providers require women to measure their temperature vaginally and enter this information into an app. By contrast, Ava records no less than nine physiological parameters. This enables women using the Ava method to identify 89 percent or 5.3 of their (on average) six fertile days – twice as much as the competition.
And it all happens while they’re asleep. The woman puts on the bracelet in the evening. During the night, sensors measure her skin temperature, circulation and the variability of her heart rate. By morning, three million data points have been transferred to her smartphone via Bluetooth and from there they are uploaded into the Ava cloud.
Each month the algorithm becomes more precise, says Koenig, as Ava collects and processes more physiological data about women trying to conceive than any other company or institute. The data is stored by Amazon Web Services, but it is anonymised and belongs exclusively to the customers.
The University of St. Gallen graduate and former McKinsey consultant entered the world of medical technology through a job at Synthes. Since then Koenig has worked on various startup projects. One was a monitoring device for cardiac patients, another was wristwatch with an emergency call function designed for seniors. The savvy entrepreneur met ETH engineer Peter Stein in summer 2013 at a restaurant called Studer’s in Zurich West. Stein’s friend from university Philipp Tholen was also there, as was Lea von Bidder, who, like Koenig, had studied at the University of St. Gallen. They chatted about pregnancy and children. Later they discussed modern data tracking technologies. Why had no-one ever come up with the idea of recording the physiological parameters of pregnancy from a person’s wrist? And so Ava was born.
Soon afterwards the four founders visited the world’s leading sensor manufacturers and asked: “If we took the best sensors currently in your development pipeline, what could we do with them?” The Ava team presented their initial sensor bracelet concept to Brigitte Leeners, a professor at the University Hospital of Zurich who specialises in mathematical modelling of the menstrual cycle, as well as Stephanie von Orelli, senior consultant at the gynaecological clinic of Zurich’s Triemli Hospital. A oneyear clinical trial with forty women was launched. The results came back in April 2016 – a “milestone” for Koenig.
Investors and business promoters believe in Ava’s potential: The startup wins CHF 130,000 in a competitive Venture Kick process and gains a further CHF 100,000 through the De-Vigier Award. In 2015 Ava went on to win the Swisscom Startup Challenge and then generate CHF 2.6 million in a round of seed financing. The investors included Swisscom and the Zürcher Kantonalbank, which also participated in the series A round in 2016 that generated a further CHF 9.7 million for the startup. Now there are plans for a series B round aimed at raising a two-figure million figure. The Ava bracelet was officially launched in July 2016 – exclusively in the USA. To make it happen, Ava opened an office in San Francisco. It is the company’s second branch following Belgrade, where the software is developed. From their base in California, Lea von Bidder plots the takeover of American women’s wrists.
Potential customers were made aware of the product online: Ava produced trustworthy content about conceiving, used YouTube to great effect and issued hundreds of PR articles resulting in widespread coverage in the media and on blogs. By this point, the startup had invested a decent seven-figure amount into its US marketing campaigns. And it paid off. As of mid-July this year, more than 10,000 bracelets have been sold in the USA at a retail price of US$249. According to Pascal Koenig, their core business is already making a profit in America.
The bracelet was launched in Europe at the start of the year. Here, too, sales are on the up and already represent one fifth of the company’s overall revenue. Koenig is convinced: “In the current year our revenue will increase tenfold.” Not only that: as the winner of Venture Leaders China 2016, he has already evaluated the Chinese market. CHF 3 million have been set aside for the launch. Part of the funds will go towards direct marketing via the internet, while another part will be used to establish distribution partnerships. “A global pharma company that has access to 80 percent of all gynaecologists has shown great interest in us,” says Koenig. The Ava bracelet would perfectly complement its existing product portfolio.
At the same time, the Ava founders are also expanding their product range: In addition to calculating a woman’s fertile days and monitoring pregnancies, Ava also wants to make a name for itself in relation to contraception. After all, if you can use sensors to work out when a woman is fertile, then you can also calculate when she is guaranteed not to fall pregnant. Pascal Koenig has his eye on a new generation of women who no longer want to take daily hormone pills or use other pharmacological products. Studies into contraception are currently under way. Meanwhile in Zurich, Ava is tinkering with additional functions and experimenting with new colours and materials for the wristbands. The team is also investing heavily in a content platform all about women’s health. The aim is to position Ava as a constant companion for women aged between 25 and 55. “As a startup, it’s important to think big, really big,” says Koenig. “We would like to become the global market leader – even if that doesn’t sound very Swiss.”
TEXT: EDITH ARNOLD