SimpliFed Closes $6 Million Seed Round
Rev member SimpliFed has raised $6 million in a recent seed round. Morningside Ventures and The Venture Collective led the funding round, while NY Ventures, Elizabeth Street Ventures, Waterline Ventures, and 3CC also participated.
SimpliFed’s platform aims to broaden access to baby feeding services. The company helps clients ensure that their health insurance covers lactation consultations. Mothers who don’t have health insurance can receive financial assistance from SimpliFed, and clients also have the option to attend virtual consultations. Additionally, the company provides other services for parents, such as postpartum and prenatal education.
“We have a platform that reaches parents where they’re at; we start working with them during pregnancy, all via telehealth commonly covered by most health plans,” said Andrea Ippolito, CEO and Founder of SimpliFed. “We cover an episode of care appointments to help support parents on their baby feeding journey nonjudgmentally.”
SimpliFed plans to utilize at least part of the funding for its new initiative with the U.S. military’s TRICARE program, seeking to support military families and the health of their babies. Parents receive access to up to six free lactation consultations per birth through SimpliFed’s contract with the TRICARE program.
“New mothers who are part of the military family want to provide the best care for their newborn babies,” said Kurt Malcolm, Vice President of Provider Network Management at Health Net Federal Services. “The remote support from SimpliFed will make it that much easier for new moms to have someone easily accessible to guide and encourage them, no matter where they’re located or what support network they have around them.”
Ippolito plans to continue working with providers, community-based organizations, and health plans in order to achieve SimpliFed’s goal of making resources for new mothers more accessible.
“Our focus over the next year is really creating this platform to partner with healthcare stakeholders to get that referral from healthcare providers so that we’re not just disjointed from the healthcare system; we are very connected to the system,” Ippolito said. “This will allow the company to create more access and impact for families.”
When Ippolito became a mother, she noticed the lack of resources for feeding her baby. She founded SimpliFed in 2019 to help expecting mothers with breastfeeding or bottle feeding in a nonjudgmental way.
“When I was speaking with investors, everyone very much understood the problem,” Ippolito said. “They saw the opportunity to better support families surrounding feeding their baby. What really resonated with, frankly, the people we serve and investors is the fact that we are focused on both mom and baby. Because mom matters, and her mental health matters and her physical health matters.”
Ippolito’s personal experiences reflect her work on SimpliFed. During the seed funding round, she was postpartum with her second daughter.
“I would be pitching investors and breast pumping,” Ippolito said. “Often times they wouldn’t know … I was living the mission we were solving for.”
Cat Hernandez, partner at The Venture Collective, said the firm values high quality, personalized care for parents.
“Despite the astronomical amount of capital going into digital healthcare over the last decade, a comprehensive feeding platform built for everyone has not existed until today, and we’re thrilled for what this means for moms and babies across the country,” she said.
“Breastfeeding is women’s health, and women’s health is health,” Ippolito said. “So, our health care professionals work with them to reach their baby feeding goals but also help guide and coach them along.”