This content was originally published in the London Inc. Weekly on Feb 14, 2025.
A new app that promises to help Canadians access birth control information announced its launch this week. London-based Reya Health, founded by Dallas Barnes, aims to offer “contraceptive counselling that is personalized to the user,” essentially trying to avoid the trial-and-error process that has long been a pain-point associated with birth control methods. “The current approach to offering birth control choices lacks the precisions that is possible with tech,” said Dr. Thara Vayali, a medical advisor with Reya. According to Reya Health, 70 per cent of birth control users have this kind of negative experience, and it causes 50 per cent of Gen Z users to stop. “Women and people with ovaries continue to be failed by the healthcare system,” Barnes said. “Women’s health has been neglected and overlooked for far too long. Women’s healthcare solutions are labelled ‘good enough’ and people who are struggling are told to deal with it. I’m inspired that Reya is part of something much larger than just our app.”
The upshot: Reya Health is one of a number of new femtech startups that have hit the market in recent years. It’s a growing market, but not one that is without its challenges ― particularly when it comes to raising capital (often from male investors) and getting products to market, something that Barnes spoke with The Globe and Mail about last year. “We always have to say, ‘this is 50 per cent of the population who’s experiencing it.’ It’s not a niche problem,” she said. And she’s right about that. It’s a market that is expected to explode in the coming years ― one estimate suggests that femtech could balloon to a trillion-dollar industry by 2027.
Read more: Future Fem Health | Reya Health
