7. Hormona Hormona helps women understand and track their hormones at home with smart tests and personalised insights, fixing a healthcare system that often overlooks them. Written by Helena Young Sponsored by Sage Published on January 12, 2026 About the Startups 100 Now in its 18th year, the Startups 100 is the definitive list of the most promising new UK businesses. There's no fee for entry or for inclusion in our index. The Startups team of new business experts judge all our top 100 entrants in collaboration with specialist industry consultants. See our guide to this year’s hottest new businesses and most exceptional founders in the complete 2026 Startups 100 index. Exceptional Founder Award Winner In recognition of the entrepreneur who has turned their own personal struggles or challenges into a force-for-good, leading the way for industry change and innovation. Go to award Marketing Award Nominee To recognise the startups that demonstrate the most creative and effective method for building early-stage brand awareness. Go to award Founders: Karolina Löfqvist and Jasmine TagessonYear founded: 2020Website: hormona.ioIt’s an all-too familiar story. In her twenties, after years of battling a range of debilitating symptoms and being dismissed as “stressed” by doctors, Hormona’s co-founder Karolina Löfqvist finally received a diagnosis for an underactive thyroid and hormone imbalance.But it wasn’t a cause for celebration. All she could think was how much earlier her condition could have been detected if someone had taken the time to truly listen and understand.Hormone testing for women is still often treated as a one-off procedure, usually via a single blood draw. That one snapshot is supposed to account for a woman’s entire endocrinology. And as a result, says the Hormona team, millions are misdiagnosed or ignored each year.Löfqvist had come face-to-face with the yawning chasm in women’s healthcare, and the judgment, delay, and disbelief that so many face as a result. And so, alongside co-founder Jasmine Tagesson, she decided to do something about it.Together, the duo launched Hormona, a first-of-its-kind, fully quantitative at-home hormone test, powered by lateral flows and smartphone image analysis. Used alongside the Hormona app, users can schedule tests tailored to their cycle phase and combine their measured hormone results with regular, logged symptoms.We covered the startup’s origin story in-depth when it ranked #52 in the 2025 Startups 100. But its ambition runs deeper than one woman’s struggle. In a subsector that’s dominated by men, Hormona wants to become the first female-founded femtech unicorn in the UK.So far, the brand has made swift progress. In the last 12 months, Hormona has raised £5.5m in seed funding and secured a £100k Innovate UK award. The funding helped to support the launch of the Hormona Wellness Tests, marking their first entry into the market.Simultaneously, Hormona has been working on another barrier: education. Hormonal literacy among women is woeful (and among doctors, not much better). The business counters this with its Daily Insights app feature that teaches users about the different hormonal cycles and how this might affect their everyday life. Additionally, the platform houses a community forum where users can pose questions and receive expert replies within 48 hours.Strategic marketing efforts have underpinned Hormona’s rapid progress. In 2025, it became the first femtech to test hormones in space via a SpaceX Falcon 9 mission – one reason we nominated it for our 2026 Marketing Award.Closer to home, collaborations with large employers and nutritional brands have extended Hormona’s reach into employee wellness and health supplements (the latter called Hormone Support). At the end of 2025, Hormona also teamed up with New Balance to fuse its mission of hormonal empowerment with the fitness brand’s ethos of health and self-confidence.In half a decade, Hormona might well have earned itself that elusive unicorn status. But the brand is already a rare bird in a sector that’s in need of authentic leadership; which is why Löfqvist is also the winner of our 2026 Exceptional Founder award.View the full Startups 100 Index for 20261. Omnea2. HIVED3. MAGIC AI4. OXCCU5. Lightyear6. Neuranics 7. Hormona8. Burbank9. Better Dairy 10. Lenkie Technologies11. Userled12. Hoxton Farms13. Rensair14. PulpaTronics15. TradeKart16. 32Co17. Carmoola18. cheqd19. Sightline Analytics20. Adamo Foods21. Bold Bean Co22. Beams Renovation 23. Pan Galactic24. Capi Money25. Spotted Zebra26. ANTHROTEK 27. Unravel28. Perci Health29. Untap Health30. Hair Syrup31. Connect Earth 32. spacebands 33. Unfabled34. Lightning Reach35. STOCKED36. Embeddable37. XR Therapeutics38. Literal Labs39. Scooch40. Openr41. Fibe Limited42. Inicio AI43. Peachies44. Better Nature 45. Ctrl Alt46. Resting Reef47. Nila48. ROXFIT49. Finmile50. NavLive51. Volunteero52. Inntelo AI53. Zonova54. A&B Smart Materials55. Ethicronics56. Treeapp57. kennek58. Soil Benchmark59. Vox Aeris60. Asan Cup61. Nuuri62. Mindstone63. MYNDUP64. Enbiosis Biotechnology65. JUX Food66. Danu Robotics67. Wylde Market68. Air Aware Labs69. Mimicrete Ltd70. ALYVE71. Happl72. Living Things73. Grub Club Pets74. Mealia75. PetProov76. Lylo Products77. Chest78. ZIM Connections79. Uptime Labs80. Teal81. Zero Fintech82. Micro Thermal Energy 83. Kanjo 84. Merlin Cloud85. My Skin Feels86. Eleria87. Cashblack88. RevvedUp89. Cosysense90. SuperFi91. Loom92. Legacy Compass93. Meshed94. SWURF95. Main Squeeze96. Sampl Technologies97. Over the Moo98. Pioneering People99. Bikebook100. Recondition Share this post facebook twitter linkedin Tags 2026 Written by: Helena Young Deputy Editor Helena is Deputy Editor at Startups. She oversees all news and supporting content on Startups, and is also the author of the weekly Startups email newsletter, delivering must-know SME updates straight to their inbox. From interviewing Wetherspoon's boss Tim Martin to spotting data-led working from home trends, her insight has been featured by major trade publications including the ICAEW, and news outlets like the BBC, ITV News, Daily Express, and HuffPost UK. With a background in PR and marketing, Helena is particularly passionate about giving early-stage startups a platform to boost their brands. That's one reason she manages the Startups 100 Index, our annual ranking of new UK businesses. Sponsored by: Sage Startups 100 Index Sponsor 2026 Sage exists to knock down barriers so everyone can thrive, starting with the millions of Small and Mid-Sized Businesses served by us, our partners and accountants. Customers trust our finance, HR and payroll software to make work and money flow. By digitising business processes and relationships with customers, suppliers, employees, banks and governments, our digital network connects SMBs, removing friction and delivering insights. Knocking down barriers also means we use our time, technology and experience to tackle digital inequality, economic inequality and the climate crisis.