Osborne Clarke advises BGF on its lead investment in the £58M funding of disruptive femtech firm Elvie

By Nicky Godding

5 August 2021

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Bristol-based lawyers from Osborne Clarke have advised BGF on its lead investment in a £58M funding round in Elvie, the revolutionary global health and lifestyle brand developing iconic products for women. Further investment came from funds and accounts managed by BlackRock Private Equity Partners and a consortium including Hiro Capital and Westerly Winds, plus existing investors Octopus Ventures and IPGL.

Founded in 2013 by CEO Tania Boler, Elvie develops products that improve women’s lives – revolutionising categories which had been overlooked for many years, including breast pumps and pelvic floor health.

Elvie’s products include Elvie Trainer, an award-winning app-connected Kegel trainer that helps women strengthen their pelvic floor and Elvie Pump, the world’s first silent wearable breast pump. In October 2020, the company brought to market two new breastfeeding products, Elvie Catch and Elvie Curve.

Since the launch of Elvie Pump on the catwalk of London Fashion Week in September 2018, Elvie has experienced hyper-growth. The business grew 6x in 2019, almost doubled in 2020 despite widespread Covid disruption – and is on track to double again in 2021. The company launched 10 new markets across EU and Asia in the last 12 months and continues to see rapid sales growth in the US, the world’s biggest breast pump market.

The funds will be used to invest in three key areas: innovation and the development of new best-in-class products and services for women, continued expansion into new and existing markets, and strengthening Elvie’s operations and infrastructure ready for the next phase of high-speed growth.

The femtech industry is expected to become a $50 billion market by 2025.

By Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe.

After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts.

She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.