When the COVID lockdowns hit, Emm founder Jenny Button noticed a gap. Devices like Oura and Whoop could track sleep, stress, and recovery — but nothing offered meaningful insights into one of the most fundamental aspects of women’s health: the menstrual cycle. “It seemed crazy to me,” she told TechCrunch. “Every woman wants to understand her reproductive and menstrual health better.” So she approached an engineer at Dyson, began prototyping, and five years later — after thousands of iterations and extensive user testing — Emm was born.
The UK-based company has now raised $9 million (£6.8 million) in seed funding led by Lunar Ventures, with support from Alumni Ventures (an early Oura investor), The Labcorp Venture Fund, and BlueLion Global. The capital will help launch Emm’s first product in the UK next year.
A Menstrual Cup Reinvented as a Health Device
Emm’s product works like a traditional menstrual cup, collecting blood instead of absorbing it. But its medical-grade silicone is embedded with ultra-thin advanced sensors that analyze menstrual fluid in real time.
This data — collected through the Emm app — helps users identify patterns in their cycles and could ultimately transform how menstrual and reproductive health conditions are studied, diagnosed, and treated.
Femtech leaders have described menstrual blood as an untapped diagnostic resource, offering unique biological insights not available from standard blood tests. It could provide earlier indicators of conditions such as:
- Endometriosis (affecting 1 in 10 women)
- Other chronic reproductive health disorders
- Severe menstrual irregularities and inflammatory conditions
“The average endometriosis diagnosis takes seven to ten years,” Button said. “That delay is largely due to the lack of meaningful menstrual health data. There have been no reliable tools to objectively track this aspect of health — until now.”
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Privacy and Data Security at the Core
Button emphasized that user data is encrypted, stored securely, and protected with two-factor authentication. All information is anonymized or pseudonymized, accessible only to Emm team members who require it for product functionality.
A Strategic Seed Round and a Growing Waitlist
Button describes the round as “strategic” and raised it largely through her network. The company will use the funds to:
- Launch Emm in the UK market (over 30,000 pre-orders already on the waitlist)
- Expand research and development
- Prepare for U.S. market entry in early 2027
A Platform for Broader Women’s Health Innovation
“Menstrual health is only the starting point,” Button said. In the long term, Emm aims to:
- Accelerate diagnosis of reproductive conditions
- Provide digital tools that help users advocate for themselves
- Develop broader women’s health technologies — potentially including diagnostics and therapeutics
“Our mission is to empower people with the data they need to take control of their bodies and their health journeys,” she said.
