Ovo Labs, a frontier company dedicated to advancing egg quality and reproductive longevity, is making its debut with £4 million in seed funding. The company builds on research from one of the world’s leading fertility experts Prof. Melina Schuh and addresses the reason why a woman’s egg quality decreases with age. The launch of Ovo Labs is poised to positively challenge how infertility is treated, a sector which has historically suffered from a lack of funding and innovation.
Ovo Labs aims to dramatically increase the number of women who can conceive in a single IVF attempt by addressing the biggest bottleneck—poor egg quality. The company is spearheading the development of new therapeutics that reduce genetic errors in eggs (aneuploidy), thereby increasing the number of viable eggs that can be successfully used for fertility treatment.
The round, co-led by Creator Fund and Local Globe and with participation of Blue Wire Capital, Ahren Innovation Capital and Antonio Pellicer (founder of the world’s largest IVF clinic chain), allows Ovo Labs to further develop its therapeutics and put them in pole position to advance towards clinical trials.
The tough reality of fertility in older women
As women age, their ability to produce healthy eggs declines sharply. By the time a woman reaches 40, over 70% of her eggs carry genetic abnormalities. This makes conception significantly harder. Unfortunately, even the gold-standard treatment for infertility, IVF (in vitro fertilisation), fails for 8 out of 10 women in their late 30s, leaving tens of millions of couples each year unable to start a family.
Challenging today’s perceived wisdom
Successful conception through IVF often relies on patients undergoing as many as half a dozen IVF cycles, each with a low success rate. In contrast, Ovo Labs aims to dramatically increase the number of women who can conceive in a single IVF attempt by addressing poor egg quality - a significant factor in female infertility and IVF success.
Ovo Lab’s work in pioneering therapeutics has been shown to significantly cut genetic errors in eggs (aneuploidy), thereby increasing the number of viable eggs that can be successfully used for fertility treatment. Once approved by regulatory authorities, this treatment can be seamlessly integrated into the standard IVF workflow, at no extra burden to the patient while offering hope for the transformation of infertility treatment.
World-class fertility experts and visionary fertility tech
The firm’s technology builds on the pioneering research of Prof. Melina Schuh, a world-renowned fertility expert at the Max Planck Institute. She is joined by co-founder Dr. Agata Zielinska, a highly accomplished Polish-British fertility scientist bringing valuable experience from her time with the NHS and the Francis Crick Institute. Completing their team is Dr. Oleksandr Yagensky, a biologist-turned-strategy consultant and one of the fastest-promoted scientific hires in the history of Bain & Company in Germany.
Using cutting-edge microscopes and molecular tools, Melina and Agata first pioneered meticulous studies on young and older eggs at Bourn Hall Clinic, the world’s first IVF centre, whose founding team's work was recently spotlighted in the Netflix movie Joy. By bridging fundamental research with a clear clinical vision, Schuh’s and Zielinska’s discoveries not only shed light on why egg quality declines with age but also opened the door to therapies that could redefine fertility treatment.
Ovo Labs has already proven that they can improve the quality of eggs in old mice. They have also secured an attractive IP package and shown they can successfully treat isolated human eggs. As they enter the next stage, their product development will be carried out at the state-of-the-art facility at the Life Science Factory in Munich.
