LVNDR, a London-based startup for inclusive sexual health solutions for the LGBTQ+ community, raised Euro 1.5 million in a seed round led by Octopus Ventures on 23 September 2021.
Investors: Octopus Ventures led the latest funding round with Calm Storm Ventures and Soho Ventures (UK), alongside eminent angel investors including Pam Garside, Harry Briggs, Alistair Murray, and Angelia Muller.
The objectives behind the funding: The company plans to deploy the current proceeds to develop new products and scale its commercialisation activities through partnerships with the UK’s leading healthcare providers.
About LVNDR
Founded in 2020 by Christopher El Badaoui, Joshua Armistead-Wood, and Araxie Boyadjian, LVNDR provides a digital platform that improves sexual wellbeing for LGBTQ+ individuals and modernises sexual healthcare for clinics. LVNDR partnered with crucial healthcare service providers, including Sexual Health London — the largest remote sexual health service in Europe.
What the Founders have to say:
Joshua Armistead-Wood, Co-Founder & COO at LVNDR, said: “The work and research done across sexual health generally over the last few decades have been nothing short of exceptional, HIV has gone from being an infection to one that can be treatable and preventable with a few pills and at scale. This is just one example of the new world. LGBTQ+ individuals have been lucky enough to inherit. This is no small part of the efforts of governments, local authorities, and researchers across the globe. However, with a new area comes a new range of challenges, in areas such as engagement, trust, education, and long-term care, and this is where the new thinking and tools we’re developing at LVNDR health come in. We’re here to inject innovation and experimentation into the system to support the next generation.”
Christopher El Badaoui, Co-Founder & CEO at LVNDR: “Queer and trans individuals have faced systemic discrimination and challenges in receiving an affirmative, inclusive, and respectful environment of care. At LVNDR, we want to change that, turning a feared experience into a celebratory one. We want to empower individuals to feel seen and control their health choices by providing access to tailored sexual health and gender identity services through an integrated digital clinic. Having experienced inadequate care first hand, I think it is time we bring about a solution that closes the gap that exists between heteronomative and queer individuals.”
What the Investor has to say:
Will Gibbs, Principal and health investor at Octopus Ventures, said: “The two most important drivers for long-term health improvements are patient engagement and long-term adherence, but it’s impossible to achieve meaningful results on these two measures unless patients feel comfortable. Time and time again, when health services are designed by communities for their members, they achieve superior results on both vectors, and my experiences as a gay man have also reinforced this. Once you have been to an LGBTQ sexual health clinic (e.g. Dean Street Express), it is hard to think why a patient would go anywhere else. Building a business where the clinicians understand and even look and speak like patients is the first step in building a category-leading health company that can solve issues in every country in the world. It is rare to find founders more driven to lead this change than the LVNDR team and, when successful, I hope LVNDR will become the home for any sensitive conversations about LGBTQ health.”
LVNDR provides a solution to overcome the challenges of deep-rooted homophobia, and transphobia still exists directly or indirectly within healthcare systems. Stonewall’s Health in Britain reported that 1 in 8 LGBT+ people had faced some sort of unequal treatment from healthcare workers. 2 in 5 trans people experiencing a lack of understanding of the community’s unique healthcare needs. LVNDR’s platform addresses inequalities within the sexual health system.
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