Amidst a global sperm decline, the at-home fertility clinic will open same-day treatment centers, double its headcount and increase menu of offerings
BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Legacy, the leading digital fertility clinic for people with sperm, today announced it raised a $25M Series B funding round led by Bain Capital Ventures with participation from existing investors FirstMark Capital, Section 32 and TQ Ventures, as well as new investors including Valor Equity Partners. Today’s financing brings the company’s total funding to $45M.
Founded in 2018 by Khaled Kteily, Legacy aims to humanize the path to parenthood by giving customers access to sperm analysis, DNA fragmentation and sperm freezing all from their home. Backed by celebrity investors Justin Bieber, The Weeknd, Orlando Bloom and DJ Khaled, the company empowers sperm producing individuals to be part of the fertility solution, a challenge that typically falls on women to solve.
“Fertility rates are declining, and somehow it seems like almost no one is talking about sperm health – except Legacy – despite it affecting half of our population,” said Yumin Choi, partner at Bain Capital Ventures. “Khaled and the team are poised to transform the way we think about fertility, family planning and overall health.”
Legacy has seen consistent momentum since its inception. The company increased its revenue seven-fold in 2020 and quadrupled it in 2021, and currently tests and freezes more sperm than any other fertility clinic. With this latest funding round, Legacy plans to double its headcount and scale its offerings beyond sperm testing, freezing and fertility support. The company will also launch Legacy Labs: physical labs that allow customers to receive same-day, at-home service. Legacy Labs are specifically designed for individuals beginning surgery or fertility-compromising treatments for illnesses like cancer, and need to bank sperm immediately.
The Growing Fertility Crisis
There is a major family planning and overall health crisis: sperm counts have decreased by more than 50 percent globally in the past 40 years and one in seven couples struggle with infertility.
When a couple is trying to conceive, the United States is the only country in the world that does not start the fertility treatment process by testing the sperm-producing partner. Male fertility complications are easier and cheaper to diagnose and treat, sometimes the solution is simply a matter of lifestyle changes. Legacy is on a mission to flip the fertility script and empower men to take ownership of their part of the family planning process.
Sperm testing is not solely important for fertility purposes. Sperm is a strong biomarker of overall health and can point to a wide range of issues including cancer, chronic illnesses and mortality. By engaging in testing, individuals have the chance to be proactive and catch health concerns early that may have otherwise gone unnoticed.
“Bringing life into this world is one of the greatest joys people can experience in their lifetime, but family planning can be daunting – and at times feel hopeless,” said Khaled Kteily, CEO and founder of Legacy. “Our goal is to eliminate the pain points involved, make the experience human rather than clinical, and help everyone create the families they want when they want.”
Preserving our Warriors’ Legacy
Infertility is twice as common among members of the military as compared to the general population. The Legacy team believes that service and sacrifice should be honored, not an obstacle to starting a family.
In partnership with the Military Family Building Coalition and as part of the Tadpole Project, Legacy offers active duty members of Naval Special Warfare, including SEALs, Special Warfare Combatant Craft Crewman and Explosive Ordnance Disposal personnel, free access to its privacy-protected, at-home sperm testing with one year of complimentary cryopreservation service.
“For the military community, I view sperm testing and freezing as a genetic insurance policy. In case of injury during training or on the battlefield, sperm cryopreservation enables service members to have children on their own terms,” said CPT John Crowley, Head of Military Affairs at Legacy. “The Pentagon identified the opportunity to leverage this life-changing technology in 2016, but Congress has not yet passed legislation authorizing gamete cryopreservation for active duty troops. I believe we’re on the cusp of a legislative breakthrough and I’m honored to play a role in this effort.”
In partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs, Legacy is launching a comprehensive semen analysis for 1,000 Global War on Terror veterans. This study will shed light on the impact of deployment, occupation and exposure to environmental conditions on sperm, and, by extension, overall health. Legacy plans to expand its military offerings to cover services for all active and veteran military personnel.
Champion for Fertility Inclusion
Due to gender-affirming efforts, transgender women often experience a decline in sperm health. After just two months of tucking – a way to hide the penis and the testes – transgender women see a 97 percent decrease in sperm production, and hormone replacement therapy can lead to infertility. It’s critical that transgender women have the ability to test and freeze their sperm easily – allowing them to live a life that is true to their identity and secure the possibility of having biological children in the future.
When entering a traditional sperm clinic, transgender women are likely to experience gender dysphoria: a sense of anxiety due to unalignment of their biological sex and gender identity. Legacy aims to make the sperm freezing and testing process as pain-free as possible by enabling individuals to utilize its services from the comfort of their own home, mitigating gender dysphoria triggers.
How it Works
Legacy sends customers an affordable and easy to use at-home sperm testing kit and offers sperm analysis, DNA fragmentation and cryopreservation for the samples. To ensure successful cryofreezing, Legacy engages in post-thaw analysis: the thawing of a small amount of the samples to re-analyze and verify the sperms’ motility.
As part of the Legacy experience, customers receive personalized lifestyle recommendations to improve fertility, and access to virtual appointments with medical professionals to discuss results and care plans. Legacy also offers its own male fertility supplements created by urology experts with research-backed ingredients to support healthy sperm production, hormone health and overall fertility.
About Give Legacy, Inc.
Give Legacy, Inc. aims to humanize the path to parenthood by giving customers access to sperm analysis, DNA fragmentation and sperm freezing all from the comfort of their home. Founded in 2018 out of the Harvard Innovation Labs, Legacy is a Y-Combinator backed startup with leading investors including Bain Capital Ventures, FirstMark Capital, Section 32, TQ Ventures, Tribe Capital, and celebrity investors including Justin Bieber, The Weeknd, Orlando Bloom and DJ Khaled. Legacy’s services are covered for approximately 8M lives through partnerships with all of the leading fertility benefits providers and an additional 12M lives through insurance contracts in California, New York, and New Jersey with insurers like Aetna, Cigna, and UnitedHealthcare. The Legacy team brings international experience in male fertility, health care policy, and business with a world-class advisory board. For more information visit givelegacy.com.
Contacts
Julie Cogert
legacy@thehatchagency.com
