Peri, a Dublin based business, is raising €1 million as it seeks to launch its wearable devices for perimenopause management early next year.
Formerly known as IdentifyHer, the business was founded by Heidi Davis and Donal O’Gorman in 2021. It has four staff and has raised €1.4 million in funding to date.
Peri has developed a wearable device that fits neatly under the breast to help track perimenopausal symptoms. The adhesive on the device can be worn for seven to 10 days before recharging and is keeps working even when showering or swimming.
“It’s a health tracker that provides objective data on perimenopausal symptoms as well as the user’s lifestyle and sleep. It guides them through perimenopause and gets them the information they need to find the right management plan,” Davis told the Business Post.
“It has four sensors that transform raw data into symptom information. Our connected app provides information on hot flushes, night sweats and anxiety levels amongst other information. It’s very specific information for perimenopause.”
The idea for Peri grew from the previous work both Davis and O’Gorman had done together and their shared interest in the impact of lifestyle on personal health.
“I met Donal 10 years ago where we were working on a project around biomarkers for diabetes. We stayed in touch as we had common interest around the effect of lifestyle on long-term health,” she said.
“Both of us wanted to do something else and women’s health became an obvious area. There is so little done in that sector and we realised there was no objective data on menopause and perimenopause.”
While the opportunity presented appeared obvious to Davis and O’Gorman, that lack of research meant that a lot of work would be required before going to market.
“It’s new science. We’re creating a new technology that will present this information objectively for the first time. The past three years have been based on collecting data and running trials with women across Ireland,” Davis said.
“We partnered with Analog Devices to build the device and set about building digital biomarkers for each of the symptoms. We’ve started moving towards commercialisation in the last year.”
Davis has been nominated for Enterprise Ireland high potential start-up unit (HPSU) founder of the year award, which will take place on October 17 in Dublin.
She credits the agency with helping Peri to reach the stage it is at now.
“We’ve availed a lot of their services. They have provided a lot of mentorship around market entry, regulatory requirements and our IP [intellectual property] strategy. All of that guidance helped us get our first patent,” she said.
Peri is in the process of raising a €1 million funding round to get its first devices out to the public.
“We should have that closed by the end of this year. That will allow us to get our first 1,000 devices out early next year. That will be a big milestone to unlock bigger funding.”
This Making it Work article is produced in partnership with Enterprise Ireland