SAN JOSE, California – Affordable, consistent, and high-success fertility treatments sound almost too good to be true. Oma Fertility and its leader Dr. Sahil Gupta has set out to change that. In the United States, IVF runs at a minimum of $20,000 dollars for one cycle, which has a rough success rate of 30%.
This has emptied the pockets and hopes of many couples who dream of being able to raise a child of their own. The idea to revolutionize the IVF industry started when Gurjeet Singh, co-founder of Oma Robotics, told industry expert, Dr. Sahil Gupta, that his colleague had gone bankrupt attempting a successful IVF procedure.
Oma Fertility was founded in 2020 by a team of engineers, AI experts, and fertility specialists who believe that combining AI and robotics in the lab and human-centered care in the clinic will make parenthood possible for more people. The original founders: CEO Gurjeet Singh, Ph.D. in Computational Math; CCO Dr. Sahil Gupta, fertility specialist; and CTO Kiran Joshi, Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering take great pride in what they do and have the prior experience to accomplish their goals.
Oma is a full-service fertility clinic that brings top lab design and technology to a wide range of in-house treatments, including in vitro fertilization (IVF). Oma Fertility treats everyone who wants to become a parent. CisHet and LGBTQIA+ couples and individuals all find compassionate, appropriate care at every Oma Fertility clinic. Oma Fertility opened its first fertility clinic in Santa Barbara, California in 2021 and is expanding nationwide through 2023
OMA Robotics Brings New Advancements to the Field
To make IVF and fertility treatments affordable in a place like the United States, Dr. Gupta and Gurjeet Singh knew they would have to get creative. They developed a revolutionary and cutting-edge procedure using the best doctors and engineers available to create a streamlined process by which AI and robotics were able to administer IVF under the strict supervision of clinical staff. This would rapidly reduce the cost, improve the accuracy and safety, and change IVF as the world knew it.
The company’s first major innovation was the Oma Sperm InSight™, which uses AI to help pinpoint the most promising sperm cell for use in IVF. Oma opened its first fertility clinic in Santa Barbara in 2021 and now operates in 5 different cities across the country.
Oma Fertility developed its first technology, an AI sperm selection tool called Oma Sperm InSight™, to help embryologists pinpoint the most promising individual sperm cells to pair with eggs. On average, women undergo three cycles of IVF before either becoming pregnant or giving up, which can be an extremely stressful process. The Oma team developed the AI platform as a first step in reducing the number of cycles required and improving the IVF process. The company will implement additional technologies in the near future, including robotics to support fertilization and incubation.
Dr. Gupta is Making IVF Affordable
Dr. Gupta, who has a history of providing affordable and accessible care in IVF and fertility treatments, decided that he had heard enough. Gupta’s previous success with Aveya, a chain of fertility clinics that he founded in India and Nepal, enabled him to offer IVF treatment to the general population, as up to that point it had only been affordable for the upper echelons of society.
Dr. Gupta and his staff were able to successfully deliver 6,000 cycles of IVF a year through eight clinics. When Singh told him the story about his colleague, Dr. Gupta knew where to take his talents next. They put together a team, and OMA fertility was born.
IVF can be significant financial stress to fertility care seekers and their families: the average IVF patient spends nearly $75,000 in total (three cycles, meds, supplies). Because of Oma Sperm InSight’s potential for increasing fertilization rate and embryo quality, along with their ethical pricing model, Oma Fertility makes IVF significantly more accessible for families, compared to conventional clinics. Through vertical integration, Oma Fertility passes on cost-saving developments that have historically not been passed on to the patient. Oma Fertility’s per-cycle cost for IVF, including ICSI, is $7,500.
OMA’s Growth and Success
Oma Fertility has secured $29M through key investors, including Root Venture, Mithril Capital, and Jazz Venture Partners in addition to an $8.5M debt facility led by Silicon Valley Bank. Seed funding was led by Root Ventures, with Series A funding led by Jazz Venture Partners. Oma Fertility has 5 clinics open or in development in Santa Barbara, CA; St. Louis, MO; Atlanta, GA; New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA. The company will expand nationally through 2023.
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