Bellabeat

The company was co-founded by Sandro, a developer, and Urska, a designer & sculptor. Our journey began with building remote patient monitoring systems for medical clinics. However, as the public health system was slow in adopting new technologies, we saw an opportunity in the consumer market. We never went into this with the idea of being founders per se, we just wanted to build things that will help women.

Our journey starts in 2013 when we won the Pioneers Challenge and met Michael Seibel, who later became one of our angel investors. We were really impressed by Michael's stories about the Y Combinator community and decided to apply to the program. The process was fairly vigorous and competitive, but our persistence paid off and we were accepted into the Y Combinator '14 batch. The experience itself was incredibly intense, as we were one of a few foreign, let alone hardware companies in our batch which made us work even harder to adapt to the different business mentality in Silicon Valley. Nonetheless, we successfully completed the program and moved on to fundraising on demo day. We were able to raise a significant portion of our seed round on the spot and immediately after demo day. Despite these challenges, we remained committed to our goals and were able to overcome the obstacles in our path, which made the experience a memorable and incredible one.

We stay connected with the Y Combinator community and maintain close relationships with our batchmates, other founders, and select teams from Europe. This helps us stay updated on each other's progress, find ways to help each other, and take advantage of Y Combinator resources and programs, which have been essential for growing our company and achieving goals.

Bellabeat started as a company focused on addressing the lack of attention given to women's wellness in the market with the mission to understand and improve women's health & wellness from a holistic standpoint. Over the years, we have evolved to become a leading solution for women's health and wellness. In 2014, we were a part of the top cohort at Y Combinator and raised a substantial seed round. This was followed by the launch of our flagship product— Leaf Nature, the first wellness tracker designed for women, the following year. In 2019, we introduced a membership program offering personalized health and wellness guidance, further solidifying our position in the market. We continued innovating and in 2021, we launched Ivy, a new wearable device that provides personalized health guidance based on a woman's menstrual cycle and biometric data. Throughout our journey, we made a significant impact, launching various Leaf editions, Time smartwatch, as well as Spring- a smart bottle. We’re proud that our products are not only helping women reach their full potential, but also accompanying them during the most important parts of their lives.

Realizing the lack of attention given to women's wellness in the market, we founded Bellabeat with the mission to understand and improve women's health by utilizing the cycle as a focal point of women’s health and wellness. We noticed that women, in pursuit of knowledge about their health & well-being, only relied on information gathered through reading online, joining forums, or visiting their physicians. While these sources are great to educate women, they’re missing a key point that women need in order to understand their bodies on a daily—biofeedback.When creating Ivy and combing it with our personalized programs and cycle input, we wanted to give women the tools they need to understand their bodies every day, receive actionable advice, and see the change for themselves. By delivering timely and appropriate guidance adjusted to the different stages of the menstrual cycle, every individual user’s unique bio-responses, and lifestyle tracked through sensor technology, we’re introducing women to a way of life that is in sync with their natural hormonal rhythm. A way that leads to a healthier lifestyle and a healthier future where women start working with their bodies instead of against them to achieve their wellness goals.

Our long-term vision is to revolutionize the understanding of women's cycle and wellness to empower them to live their full potential. By providing personalized guidance through our subscription option, we aim to bring a new perspective to women's health and wellness that goes beyond traditional approaches. Our goal is to become the leading femtech company in the world and help women lead healthier, better, and more equitable lives.