People’s Champion finalist 2018: Elvie

Start-up name: Elvie
Founders: Tania Boler and Alexander Asseily
Started in: 2015
Based in: London
Business description: Pioneering smart technology for women including pelvic floor training devices and breast pumps

Shortlisted categories:

Women in Business Award, Founders Pledge Social Impact Award, and Venture-funded Business of the Year

The Elvie story:

Never before has women’s health tech been so important.

In the words of Tania Boler; “we’re at a very special time for women’s health technology as we are gaining momentum, both from a feminist point of view in terms of how women think about their health, combined with huge technological advances in terms of big data”.

Boler is the co-founder of Elvie, the British brand developing extraordinary products to improve women’s health and lives via smart technology.

With co-founder Alexander Asseily, Boler has created the Elvie Trainer; a pelvic floor trainer and app that helps women strengthen their pelvic floor.

The Kegel device combines being sleek and easy-to-use (inserted like a tampon) with an app that enables you to visualise your workout in real-time paired with fun, five minute exercises.

The Elvie Trainer was launched in October 2015, after two years in development, and has won recommendations from over 1,000 health professionals worldwide. However, the product is only the start of the Elvie journey as Boler and Asseily seek to build out more smarter technology for women.

In September 2018, the duo launched the Elvie Pump; the world’s first silent wearable breast pump. Hands-free and wireless, the Elvie Pump enables mothers to benefit from greater freedom, mobility and discretion while pumping.

Elvie Pump also connects to a free smartphone app, allowing women to view real-time milk volume and
track their pumping history for each breast. Elvie Pump is able to identify when the bottle is full and automatically pause the pump, while users can also control the pump from their phone.

And there are more exciting launches like Elvie Pump in the pipeline. Backed by a whopping £11.6m in funding, £7.4m of which is equity investment, Boler and Asseily plan to have four more products on the market by 2020.

Why Elvie made our shortlist:

Boler and Asseily are on a mission to make Elvie “the ultimate hub for women’s connected health and lifestyle
products” and we think they’ll achieve that goal – and then some.

For too long, technology has failed to provide necessary solutions to common – and often ‘taboo’ – issues that women face on a daily basis. It’s pioneering start-ups like Elvie that are breaking with tradition; using proprietary technology to design and retail products that women really want and need.

Where to find out more about Elvie:

Website: www.elvie.com
Twitter: @helloelvie