Emm raises $9M seed to create one of the world’s first ‘smart’ menstrual cups

Jenny Button first came up with the idea for Emm during the COVID lockdown. She was using devices like the Oura Ring and the Whoop band to monitor various aspects of her health. Yet, she noticed a significant gap: none of these tools offered meaningful insights into reproductive or menstrual health.

“It felt unbelievable to me, because this is information every woman wants to track and truly understand,” she told TechCrunch. She wondered, “Why not build a wearable that actually provides real data about reproductive health?” That question led her to write a letter to a Dyson engineer, start conversations, and begin testing the concept.

“Five years later — after thousands of design iterations and extensive user testing — we’ve unveiled what we believe is the world’s first smart menstrual cup,” Button said.

The U.K.-based startup has now secured a $9 million (£6.8 million) seed round, led by Lunar Ventures, as it prepares to launch its product next year.

The device works like a standard menstrual cup, collecting period blood rather than absorbing it. However, Emm uses medical-grade silicone embedded with ultra-thin, advanced sensors. These sensors gather cycle-related data that can help users better understand their patterns. Button hopes this technology could “revolutionize research, diagnosis, and treatment in menstrual and reproductive health.”

She’s not alone in this belief. Women’s health founders recently told The Guardian that menstrual blood represents an “overlooked opportunity” — one that could reveal insights not available through traditional blood tests. This opens the door for earlier detection of conditions such as endometriosis, which is often painful and frequently misdiagnosed.

“One in 10 women today live with endometriosis,” Button noted. “It’s a condition that, like many others in reproductive health, takes seven to ten years on average to diagnose.”
She believes this delay stems from the lack of meaningful clinical data and poor understanding of menstrual health in medical environments. “There simply haven’t been reliable tools to objectively and accurately track this part of health until now.”

Beyond endometriosis, Button pointed out that one in three women experiences serious reproductive health issues during their lifetime.

Emm’s data will be encrypted, securely stored, and protected with two-factor authentication. Button emphasised that all information is anonymised or pseudonymized, ensuring that personal identifiers are removed or replaced with coded data. Access will be restricted to essential team members only.

She described her fundraising process as “strategic,” noting that the lead investor connection was made through her network. Other participants in the round include Alumni Ventures (an investor in Oura), the Labcorp Venture Fund, and Blue Lion Global. Funding will be directed toward Emm’s U.K. launch, where the waitlist already exceeds 30,000 people, with preorders expected to open soon.

Additional investment will support research and development, with plans to enter the U.S. market in early 2027.

“Menstrual health is only the beginning for Emm,” Button said. “I believe we’ll have a significant impact on women’s health on a broader scale.” She added that the long-term goal may include diagnostics, digital care tools, and even therapeutics.

“Our mission is to speed up diagnosis, give people the data they need to advocate for themselves, and empower them to take control of their bodies and health journeys,” she said.