Novocuff is developing a device to prevent pre-term births. Preterm birth (<37 weeks causes about one million infant deaths annually – but 75% of those deaths can be prevented by delaying labor.
Novocuff’s device address a mother’s short cervix, which accounts for roughly 1/3 of preterm births. The device applies compression to the cervix, aiming to delay pregnancy for those at risk at delivering early and to reduce costs, infant neurodevelopment impairment, and mortality rates..
CEO: Amy Degenkolb
Headquarters: Mountain View, CA
Year Founded: 2021
Year Avestria First Invested: 2024 (Fund II)
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Novocuff joins Fogarty Innovation to help prevent preterm birth
Expecting the unexpected with Novocuff
Celebrating the journey: Insights from the 2022-2023 Ferolyn Fellowship Graduates
Amy Degenkolb is a speaking at the NIH maternal health workshop event
Novocuff presents at the Pediatric & Maternal Innovation Showcase
Novocuff working with Cal Poly Incubator to save infant lives
July 17, 2024: Novocuff raised $26M in an oversubscribed Series A round. The funds will be used to support the company’s growth, including a multi-center pivotal clinical trial, marketing authorization, and early-stage commercialization. The proceeds will also support the expansion of the team, including the hiring of Kathryn Wine (Vice President of Clinical Affairs) and Marissa VanDeVeer (Clinical Engineer).The round was led by AXA and included participation from Laborie, Laerdal Million Lives Fund, March of Dimes, RH Capital, and Avestria.
February 5, 2024: Fogarty Innovation (FI) is another familiar stop for the Novocuff team: Amy Degenkolb’s former company (and Avestria portfolio company ) Alydia Health graduated from the same program, Amy Degenkolb herself is a 2023 alum of FI’s Ferolyn Fellowship, and both Amy Degenkolb and Novocuff’s other co-founder, Donald Lee consider FI board vice chair Fred St. Goar MD to be one of their “earliest and most influential mentors”. This article explores those connections and highlights other reasons why Novocuff chose to join FI, such as the devotion and like-mindedness of FI’s other participants.
January 15, 2024: Roughly 20% of infants born at 24 weeks do not survive. Novocuff’s co-founder, Donald Lee, almost experienced this sad reality firsthand when his wife gave birth to twin daughters nearly four months earlier than usual. While the Lee’s daughters are now healthy and thriving, they spent over five months in the NICU after birth, and they inspired their father to see whether he could create a solution for those with short cervixes, like his wife, who were in danger of giving birth prematurely. He shares that story - and how Novocuff has developed from that original idea in this article for the magazine for Cal Poly San Luis Obsipo: the alma mater of both Donald Lee and his wife Christine.
November 2, 2023: Amy Degenkolb is one of the three 2022-2023 Ferolyn Fellowship Graduates. The Ferolyn Fellowship, offered by Fogarty Innovation, aims to support and coach up-and-coming leaders in health technology. In this article, Amy and the two other Ferolyn Fellows share their experiences, including how the Fellowship changed them as leaders and what the Fellowship community is like.
May 9, 2023: The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), of the National Institutes of health (NIH) brought together academics, clinicians, entrepreneurs, investors, payors, regulatory agencies, and more for its “Innovative Approaches to Improve Maternal Health” workshop. One of the speakers was Amy Degenkolb who presented individually and who was on the “Navigating the Regulatory Path for Maternal Health Solutions” panel. Watch the corresponding webcast here. (Watch the corresponding webcast here. Note: Amy’s individual presentation starts at 7:34 and her panel begins at 1:43:00).
May 5, 2023: Novocuff was one of the eight startups pitching at the Impact1 Maternal Health Pitch Competition. This pitch competition is part of the Stanford Medicine Children’s Health Pediatric & Maternal Innovation Showcase, which celebrated its sixth year in 2023, and Novocuff co-won the gold award - the second highest award - alongside Navigate Maternity.
February 21, 2023: Cal Poly has multiple ties to Novocuff, even before the startup joined the institution’s Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CIE) Incubator. Novocuff’s co-founder and COO, Donald Lee, graduated from Cal Poly - as did his wife, whose delivery of the couple’s twin daughters inspired Donald Lee to help develop a device for women with short cervixes. Meanwhile, Novocuff’s other co-founder and its CEO, Amy Degenkolb, is already a graduate of the CIE Incubator. Alydia Health - where she was a former lead engineer (and which was one of Avestria’s portfolio companies before its 2021 acqusitition by Organon!) - graduated from the program in 2012.
April 22, 2022: AngelCon is an annual competition held by Cal Poly's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE) Small Business Development Center (SBDC). This year, among the startups that were competing for more than $100,000 in equity-backed funding, those focused on agriculture or medical technology emerged the most successful: AcreCloud, an agriculture technology company, won the grand prize of $135,0000 while Novocuff, the runner-up, took home $70,000.