PhenomX Health wins over Vanguard Accelerator

PhenomX Health is a seed-stage, FemTech company using expert driven AI to analyze hormonal health symptoms combined with home-based scientific biomarkers to provide precision nutrition recommendations that honor the biochemical uniqueness of midlife women. Leveraging deep tech, health science and molecular nutrition systems, PhenomX aims to empower women of all backgrounds to take ownership of their wellness as they age. Their work focuses on the user’s biochemical individuality and is built from scientific data points and functional medicine experience. This is an innovative precision nutrition and scientific wellness approach that takes patients into the future of health.

Conceptualized in March 2021 and accepted shortly after into the first edition of Tech4Eva Femtech Accelerator, PhenomX Health officially became a public company in February of this year. PhenomX is the result of Dr. Colleen Fogarty Draper's 30 years of experience in personalized nutrition R&D, genetics, clinical practice, functional medicine, and product development at academic medical centers, startups, and large multinational corporations.

During her career, Dr. Draper was frustrated with the lack of attention to women’s hormonal health and scientific wellness. As a perimenopausal mother of 3 teenage daughters, she knew it was time to change societal paradigms and thought she could use her experience to do so. Her visionary approach to midlife wellness and longevity is catalyzed by co-founder Jérôme Michaud’s complimentary skills and experience. He brings his entrepreneurial and operational expertise to support PhenomX Health’s mission to empower midlife women to personalize their nutrition and treat their hormonal health symptoms on the perimenopause to post menopause journey. Jerome’s passionate interest stems from his life-long commitment to innovation and healthcare coupled with growing up in a female-centric environment. He is, also, a coach, mentor and judge at Tech4Eva and FemTechLab. As an ex P&G, where we spent more than 10 years supporting innovation and scaling operations, Jerome has been able to apply his experience to drive PhenomX Health toward success.  

High-Expectations for the Program

By joining the Vanguard Accelerator, the founders of PhenomX Health hope to collaborate and engage with the local life sciences ecosystem, helping to identify how best to include all players - from middle-aged women to healthcare professionals and from insurance companies to pharmacies - in strengthening their value proposition and go-to-market strategies. This will be critical to establishing a complete ecosystem from pre-menopause to post-menopause, as a one-stop shop for science-based answers with established and proven results. The program is also expected to give PhenomX crucial exposure to investors as the company seeks to close a round of investment seed funding. This support will be further bolstered by access to the H4 initiative, a collaborative hub that boosts innovators in health and care in Vaud.

Speaking of the selection of the FemTech, Pierre-Jean Wipff, Director of Innovation and Partnerships at Biopôle says: “We have chosen PhenomX essentially for their outstanding knowledge in nutritional sciences, their entrepreneurial drive and the potential opportunity to offer menopaused women the care they need. Also, we believed the Vanguard could support the company in better understanding the clinical and business environment of their approach.”

Support for ambitious plans

The FemTech is set to launch its minimal viable ecosystem (MVE1) in Q3 2023. The team is currently beta testing its smartphone app to stay close to the needs of its user base before launch. Interestingly, PhenomX go to market strategy varies with geographic marketplaces. The team is currently piloting a B2B2C model in Switzerland while exploring D2C and employee benefits for the US/UK markets. Successful fundraising being key for its future, the startup is offering various investment packages based on the scope of interest of the investor community. The FemTech based in St Sulpice, close to Lausanne, has 11 people (3.5 FTEs) on its team.

Biopôle Lausanne’s Vanguard Accelerator is a 6-month acceleration program to boost early-stage start-ups and projects. Think it might be the right next step for you and your project? The next application deadline is May 10th, 2023. Find out more on the Vanguard Accelerator page.

(ES)

Picture by Biopôle: Phenomix's team with Jérôme Michaud and Colleen Fogarty Draper (left) and Pierre-Jean Wipff (right) meets for the Vanguard Accelerator.