Flourish Care, a maternal healthcare platform, has raised $5.7 million in seed funding to scale its doula network, the startup shared with MedCity News exclusively.
Boston-based Flourish Care offers in-person and virtual doula support before, during and after pregnancy. Patients are matched with a doula based on a variety of factors, like cultural preferences, language preferences and location. The doulas provide birth plan and advocacy support, comfort and pain management, feeding support, sleep guidance, childbirth education and more. The company largely works with Medicaid, but is also in network with several commercial plans.
The seed round was led by Zeal Capital Partners, with participation from Create Health Ventures, Collide Capital, Rogue Women’s Fund, Symphonic Capital, Slater Technology Fund and Catalytic Impact Foundation.
“The policy and payer landscape has finally caught up to what families have always needed. Flourish Care is building the scalable model that will fundamentally integrate doula care into clinical workflows, insurance networks, and women’s lives,” said Nasir Qadree, founder and managing partner of Zeal Capital Partners, in a statement.
With the funding, Flourish Care is focused on expanding nationwide in the next couple of years, said Melissa Bowley, founder and CEO of Flourish Care. The company currently has doulas in 18 states. It recently went in network with UnitedHealthcare, expanding doula support for employers.
In addition, the financing will advance its data platform and technology to identify higher-risk patients and intervene earlier, Bowley added.
Bowley launched Flourish Care in 2020 after receiving doula support during her own pregnancies. She was previously working in the medical devices business.
“[Insurance wasn’t] reimbursing for doula care, even though I was fighting them tooth and nail to try to get reimbursement,” she said. “After I was doing all of this research, I saw the disparities and the maternal healthcare crisis that our country was in. So I left med devices after having a doula with both of my kids —who was absolutely amazing and changed the whole course of my birth and postpartum care — and ultimately decided to commit to reducing the gaps in maternal healthcare through getting everybody access to doula care.”
And there’s a need for more doula support. The U.S. has some of the highest maternal health risks among high-income countries. Doula support has been proven to lower the risk of cesarean deliveries, preterm birth and NICU admissions.
Numerous other companies provide access to doula support, including Pomelo Care and Pacify. However, these are more focused on virtual support than on in-person care like Flourish.
Ultimately, Bowley hopes to make doula care the standard in the U.S.
“There are a lot of other countries that implement this type of support, and they’ve been able to turn their mortality and morbidity rates around with that community-based support. We want to be that community partner alongside both the clinical teams and the patients,” she said.
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