Millie, a startup looking to redefine maternity care, recently raised $4 million in a seed round led by TMV Ventures and BBG Ventures.  Millie says it is created by birthing people, for birthing people, and offers a patient-centered team that supports an individual's entire pregnancy journey, from 48-hours after a positive pregnancy test, to one year postpartum.  Millie's virtual care services are currently available for booking, and the startup is also opening its first physical clinic.  Anu Sharma, co-founder and CEO of Millie, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.

Millie Raises $4 Million Seed Round to Redefine Maternity Care 

a startup looking to redefine maternity care. Millie raising four million in a seed round led by T. M. V. Ventures and BBg Ventures. Millie says it's created by burning people for birthing people and offers a patient centric team that supports an individual's entire pregnancy journey. From 48 hours after a positive pregnancy test to one year. Postpartum Millie's virtual care services are currently available for booking and the startup is also opening its first physical clinic. So joining me now is anu Sharma co founder and Ceo of Millie, a new thanks so much for coming on. In your words. I want you to tell me how you are trying to improve this special maternity journey. Yeah, thank you for having me and it's actually a very exciting day here today because uh we just opened our physical location and I am sitting in our first clinic um so that's very fun and exciting. But um uh if you've been through the maternity journey, what you realize is that um it's a pretty human experience to go through from finding out that you're pregnant, going through the pregnancy experience um bringing a baby home after you've been through labor and delivery and then settling in, once you get through your own physical recovery into the fine art of parenthood. And even though people have done it for years and years and years. Uh the experience of it um is pretty subpar and here in the U. S. Uh we have the highest cost of maternity care anywhere in the world and amongst the worst outcomes um in any high income country, both for moms and kids. And so what we're really doing at maternity is really is re imagining this whole experience with a collaborative tech enabled Obi midwifery model of care that really holds your hands 48 hours you're after. You're you learn about your first pregnancy positive test and then takes you all the way through the first year of a baby's life with all of the education, the emotional support and supplementary care that you need along the way, knitted together into one unified experience without compromising political care. Um Well I love what you're doing right? I think a lot of people would find real value a new in your services here. So talk to me about what the day to day is like. Is are there check ins on an app? It sounds like obviously there is a clinic, is it meant to be in person and telehealth option as well? Yes. And so we have two kinds of patients. We have patients that um may choose to only um take part in some of our services and they can um get those virtually through telehealth. But for our clinic based patients who are going through the whole maternity journey with us, we uh um offer the whole experience and so they check in through our website for their first visit. Um We can meet them as early as 48 hours post positive pregnancy. Um We you know kind of hold their hand at that point helped them kind of you know really visualize what that experience is. Like bring them into their first clinic visit when we're ready to confirm the pregnancy with labs and ultrasounds and then um as they go through the clinic experience with us they have access to a million app which is rich with a lot of content which is relevant to what stage of pregnancy they're at. They're also paired with a practicing doula who is Emily guide. That is that meets with them once each trimester. But it's also available available to them to answer questions along the way Uh once we get through birth um you know um come home we do a home visit and are available to um to them throughout. Let me ask one very quick question and we only have about 30 seconds. Is insurance? Part of this, will it cover the services? What's the cost of the typical cost to a mom? Yeah it is covered by insurance. And we are very excited to be launching today in network with all major insurance plans and we're working on Medicaid and expect to be in network Medicaid in the next few weeks. Anu Sharma I wish we had more time thank you so much for coming on, congratulations on the round and is the co founder and Ceo of Milly