Hormona brings women’s healthcare into the digital age with their award-winning app to track your hormones

Hormona is an all-in-one companion for your hormone health and was founded in 2023 by Karolina Löfqvist and Jasmine Tagesson. With daily insights into your hormones and tailored cycle and symptom tracking, alongside supplements, recipes, wellness programs, their thousands-strong community, and their exclusive at-home tests, they can help you monitor, understand, and improve your hormone health. And they will give you the data and knowledge you need to talk to your healthcare providers with confidence. Hormone health is essential to your wellbeing. Take control with Hormona and learn how the company was created and how they tackle this industry sector.

A personal story

Hormona is the result of Karolina’s personal struggles with her health and wellbeing. When she got ill, she could not find a single solution that catered to her problem. These days, she is aware of her thyroid issue and why her estrogen was out of balance but several years ago, she was just ill. Really ill, with a patchwork of symptoms that made little sense to any doctor or specialist she spoke to, much less herself. She had to leave her job in finance because she just could not go on being ill and working, and despite the hundreds of hours she spent trying to improve her health, no one seemed sure what was causing her symptoms. 

Karolina lost count of how many doctors told her that the stress of her job was to blame, or recommended antidepressants or hormonal birth control as solutions to a problem they could not name. But she knew that was not the solution, so she decided to learn about it herself. She had to educate herself about hormones, menstrual cycles, and the ways in which imbalances can affect everyone’s health differently. And along the way, she discovered that she was far from alone in her search. Women everywhere were facing similar issues, both with their health and the medical professionals treating them. 

She also learned that hormone issues do not exist in isolation. There are signs and symptoms that point to those issues long before you must stop working. The problem is, those symptoms do not always conform to a textbook pattern, and ideal hormone levels vary from person to person. And that is partly why diagnosis can be a lengthy, tricky process, as not all medical professionals acknowledge those individualities.

She eventually found a doctor who not only listened to her symptoms, but was able to narrow down the precise hormones causing said symptoms and help her fix it. She was so relieved she would finally be able to get her health back on track, joyous at the idea she would be herself again soon, and frustrated on behalf of every woman who made this journey before her, every woman currently on this journey, and the women yet to make it. 

Hormona was born there and then. Together with her childhood friend and Co-Founder Jasmine, she wanted to make this journey easier and faster for all of them. Forever. And they knew that a combination utilizing the latest advances in both software and hardware technology was the best way to not just reach as many women as possible, but also make this kind of essential healthcare accessible, easy to use, and made by people who have been where you are. 

Although their backgrounds are in business and finance, they have managed to find some amazing people to join them on this journey and they have never been more motivated, or more inspired than right now. Hormona has proven that there is a thirst for knowledge and the desire to change the health landscape among women globally. Women want a more tailored approach, and want to take control of their health. And that is a powerful thing.

Take control of your hormones

Hormona takes a multi-pronged approach to hormone health, as the hormones that govern your menstrual cycle are also involved in myriad other physical processes. Which means that an imbalance may present in ways that seem completely unrelated to your cycle. Joint pain, for instance, can be a result of hormone fluctuations. So, Hormona has a detailed, customizable cycle and symptom tracker, which is hugely important. Hormones are supposed to fluctuate during a natural cycle, that is how cycles work. But being able to see your baseline of hormone levels, period length, symptoms, PMS, and such, means you are far more likely to spot anomalies or changes that are not typical for you. And it is this data that hormone healthcare is missing. No one is taking your baseline into account, which makes it much more difficult to diagnose any issues later on. 

Daily hormone and cycle insights, coupled with symptom predictions help reduce stress and take the mystery out of what is happening with your cycle. And in the case of symptom predictions, they are tied to user tracking and relevant to each of our users. Hormona’s hormone tests add another layer of knowledge and data to the user experience, giving a speedy, non-invasive result from home.

Hormona is the first company to offer at-home urine tests for Estrogen, Progesterone, and FSH, producing accurate results in minutes. And that means no need for blood tests, doctor’s visits, or long waits for results. Hormona recently partnered with Great Earth in order to soon offer tailored supplement programs, helping to balance users’ nutrition and hormone health with proven solutions. When taken as a whole, Hormona, with the app at its heart, works to improve the health and wellbeing of the women who use it. 

Hormona is addressing women everywhere, acknowledging that healthcare is often substandard where hormones are concerned, and offering a place to be heard, to learn, to share their experiences, but most of all take control of their hormones.

The industry challenges - changing the focus

One of the biggest challenges faced in the women’s health industry is the strong focus on fertility. That is an important area, but women’s health extends further than reproduction. As the only hormone health company in the industry, Hormona is a lone voice, for large chunks of the industry, fertility feels like safe ground. 

But hormones are involved in almost every system in your body, and focusing purely on reproduction ignores so many aspects of women’s health. Estrogen alone plays a role in the health of your bones, brain, and immune system. It is clear that the healthier your hormones are, the better your overall health can be. And that is something every woman on the planet should know. 

The dichotomy here is that there are literally thousands of companies aiming products at women, but surprisingly few are run by women. This often translates to a lack of knowledge around hormones, as part of an all-female founding team, Karolina and Jasmine often come up against that knowledge gap while trying to raise capital or pitch to investors. And that can be incredibly frustrating. That said, some investors are open to, and even excited by, making women’s lives better. And by having a clear vision, being knowledgeable, and unwavering in our commitment to women’s hormone health, Hormona has been able to find some of those investors which have allowed us to meet those challenges head-on.

Hormona’s biggest achievements to date

Hormona has been recognized for its work across a range of different channels. For example, they won SLUSH100 in 2021 and were a top 20 finalist at TechCrunch’s Disrupt in 2022, which was an incredible experience. They won Sweden’s Social Impact award by Techarenan last year, one of the country’s most prestigious start-up contests. This year, they have won Research Project of the Year by Femtech World, appeared in Swedish Vogue, Marie Claire, and Yahoo News, all of which are just amazing. 

But in addition to that, the achievement of raising funds in the last 2 years as two female founders for a cause that is purely female in this current market, has not been easy and is something they are incredibly proud of. And finally, the hormone tests and technology that Hormona has developed is really what sets them apart and they are so excited to see the overall improvements in women's health they can contribute to.

About the team

Karolina Löfqvist, Founder & CEO

Karolina Löfqvist is a former Management Consultant and currently CEO and one of the founders of Hormona. She grew up in an entrepreneurial family and has always been very interested in technology’s which lead her to start her first company aged 18 and since then entrepreneurship and running businesses has always been part of her life. Hormona is the result of her personal journey with health and wellbeing. After being bounced between multiple doctors over years and years without any real help she eventually figured out that she suffered from hormone imbalance and after speaking to countless women in the community it became obvious that she wasn’t alone. This experience made her really notice the lack of information and education around hormonal imbalances but also the difficulty in getting an accurate picture of what’s going on with our hormones and Hormona was born.

Jasmine Tagesson, Co-Founder & COO

Jasmine Tagesson is a former Creative Director, who's passion for women's health and equality led her down the road of becoming a health tech entrepreneur. Her aim is to truly make a substantial difference in women's lives using data and innovative solutions with a goal to reshape the future of women’s health and contribute to advances that means better health for all women. She is a childhood friend of Karolina and currently the COO and co-founder of Hormona. The Hormona app empowers women to understand and take control of their hormones and is full of insights and tips on how to keep them balanced. Hormona has also invented the world’s first, non-invasive at-home urine test that allows women to test their hormones from the comfort of their home using just their mobile camera and the Hormona test.

In conversation with Co-Founder Karolina:

Key trends and outlook

When we started Hormona no one had even heard about “hormone health” it was a new concept and not something that had been given any focus, but fast forward 3 years and women today are much more aware of their own body, their cycle and what is going on which has led to an increase in businesses and solutions focusing on this area. I believe this increase in awareness will continue to grow which means even more options for women out there. In addition, I think the market overall is slowly changing and we will notice a shift in the funding environment although the focus on profitability and building a sustainable business over “growth at all cost” I think will remain.

Advice to other Founders

Do not give up. Tech needs more diverse voices, so keep pushing, apply for all the competitions and grants you can, and get your face out there. Talk to founders and investors, get advice, take mentorship, and make connections. It is a great community and we are here to help!

About joining Tech4Eva Program

Being a founder is not easy, being a female founder is even harder due to the societal pressure historically put on women so having a community of like-minded people and support from a network that can help you on this journey is invaluable. As a start-up you have many limitations, especially in how quickly you can grow your team so to be able to get advice, mentorship, guidance, and peer support through an initiative like Tech4Eva helps start-ups like us to get further with less. It is also great from a synergy point of view as there could be some fantastic opportunities to team up with other companies in this space to collectively drive women's health forward.

More info: https://www.hormona.io/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hormona/

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