VANCOUVER — A startup founded by a healthtech industry veteran hopes to fill the gap in support for women and families with newborns with the launch of a subscription-based app this fall after closing a US$1-million funding round which prioritized female and other underrepresented investors.

“This is an area that I want to personally focus on as a woman and want to build solutions,” said founder and CEO Swati Matta in an interview with The Logic. Matta spent most of her career in the health and technology space. First she worked at the University Health Network. She then completed stints at Telus, in part at its health division, and League, the Toronto-based healthtech company in which Loblaw-affiliated Wittington Ventures has invested. League has since partnered with the grocery chain on an app.

It was at League that the idea for Koble came to Matta. Around March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic spread throughout Canada, employers rushed to her team for advice. “I realized that there weren’t many solutions that I could bring to my clients that specifically supported women as they thought through fertility, pregnancy, postpartum and also back to work,” she said, especially in a time when, amid school and daycare shutdowns, women started leaving the workforce in droves to care for their children. Though not yet a mother herself, Matta is in the “planning phase” of parenthood and discovered that most fertility apps cater to the pre-pregnancy crowd, “but … dropped the ball thereafter.”

Realizing she wanted to help fill that gap, Matta quit her job that summer. She spent the rest of the year researching what kind of support new parents wanted, and by December had homed in on an idea for a platform providing postpartum education.

Koble, meaning “to connect” in Norwegian, was officially founded in January. The small Toronto-based team spent the first three months building the platform and in April launched a private beta version for about 100 families in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. About 200 more people were on the waitlist as of mid-August.

Investors are so far buying into the idea. Koble closed a US$1-million pre-seed round early this summer, led by Garage Capital with Panache Ventures also participating. The company also received funds from angel investors that included executives from Telus, Shopify, Uber, League and Cleveland Clinic Canada. It wanted investors with health-care expertise who could help recruit technical talent or who could help build a consumer-facing brand, said Althea Wishloff, the company’s head of growth. Koble will likely look for more funding late next summer.

They also wanted a diverse cap table both in terms of gender and race. Wishloff recalls making a list early in the fundraising process of venture capital firms with woman partners. “It was a smaller number than what we would have liked.” So they shifted their strategy to include more women angel investors, and those that hit at least one of the three technical criteria or had experienced a gap in postpartum care themselves—ideally both. That changed the conversations with potential funders. “There was no need to spend five, 10, 20 minutes on the problem set, because immediately going into that conversation, especially for the folks who already had children, they were like, ‘Yes. I completely buy this. Just tell me about execution.’”

Mary Criebardis Singh, an angel investor, heard about the company through Matta’s brother. “It just really resonated with me,” she said. “I really understood the problems they’re trying to solve.” 

In the app, users—both birthing parents and their partners—can find resources on infant care, emotional and mental wellness, physical recovery, nutrition and fitness, relationships and careers. A broad range of experts—like a physiotherapist, lactation consultant, sleep coach and doula, chiropractor and RMT, and psychotherapist—offer live and pre-recorded sessions. One series explains what to expect from the breastfeeding experience in the first three months and another offers support for women with diastasis recti, or the separation of abdominal muscles during pregnancy. The live sessions include question-and-answer periods.

Criebardis Singh, a mother of three, recalled being sent home from the hospital with a baby and left to wade through a massive amount of information during an already difficult and sleep-deprived time, while also healing from labour and delivery. “Having one platform where you could have all the resources in one place, I think, is really important,” said Criebardis Singh, who declined to disclose the amount she invested. She believes Matta, with her years at League and Telus Health, and Wishloff, who spent three years at Panache, make a strong leadership team.

Koble plans to sell subscriptions to the platform. It will start with one price point and eventually introduce a tiered system, offering access to more information and benefits at higher price points. Matta said the company is still finalizing the subscription fee for its October launch. The company’s pre-seed round pitch deck suggests Koble could charge $19.99 monthly for the lowest tier. The annual sum would be equivalent to what many parents-to-be pay for a prenatal class, but gives them the information on demand rather than once, in a classroom.

The company is aiming to launch to the public in Canada this October, and later in the U.S., while working to expand the services it offers. The company wants to focus next on building community on the platform. In the fourth quarter of this year, Koble aims to start delivering cohort-based learning experiences where new parents can start their journeys alongside other families that welcome babies around the same time. The company will then work to provide one-to-one care, virtual and in-home, early next year. It will also add information on more parts of the parenting journey, said Matta, starting with infant care and the transition back to work. “So almost … growing with our families as they grow.”