Exclusive: Hey Jane expands beyond abortion to provide other treatments and compete in digital health
Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Fashion brand Zimmermann gets a billion-dollar private equity boost, an IPO looms for Canva, and the startup Hey Jane expands beyond abortion. Have a wonderful Wednesday.
- All about access. It's been a difficult environment for startups over the past year—and Hey Jane has dealt with more challenges than most.
The telehealth startup provides patients with medication abortion via mail. Founded in 2019, the company has been through the fall of Roe v. Wade and an onslaught against mifepristone, one of two drugs at the core of its business.
Despite the political environment, Hey Jane is determined to continue providing medication abortion. But it's expanding its remit, too. The startup is introducing a suite of reproductive and sexual health services, Fortune is the first to report. Hey Jane will now offer patients treatment for UTIs and yeast infections; birth control; emergency contraception; and treatment for herpes.
"We were very focused on providing safe, private abortion care," says Hey Jane cofounder and CEO Kiki Freedman. "But we know that abortion is not the only reproductive and sexual health care need that's been stigmatized. And we really want to make all the things that patients care about as easy and supported as possible."
The launch allows Hey Jane, which raised $6.1 million from investors including G9 Ventures and Amboy Street Ventures last fall, to better serve patients on a more regular basis beyond abortion. But it also gives the company more solid footing with a "more diversified product portfolio" that isn't under quite as intense political attack (although that's not to say services like birth control are immune from rightwing pressure these days).
So far, Hey Jane's new services are only available in the 11 states where the startup is able to provide abortion access. But these categories give the startup the ability to eventually provide some level of service in all 50 states.
With the new treatments, Hey Jane will compete more directly with other digital health startups—some of which have a head start and bigger scale. But launching in abortion care—arguably the most challenging health category—and accepting insurance has given Freedman confidence that the startup is well-equipped to earn customers in other corners of the medical field. Customers who had a positive experience accessing abortion care through Hey Jane have asked the startup if it would offer other products, Freedman says.
"We've taken a number of risks providing this type of care," the CEO adds. "Now folks can feel confident that supporting care with Hey Jane is supporting access in this broader sense."
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
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This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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