Is IVF Funding The Next Big Asset Class? One Founder Thinks Yes.

Forbes

The cost of egg-freezing and IVF for people who want to build families can quickly top $20,000. Claire Tomkins launched Future Family in 2017 as a way to bring more financing options to the IVF process. Tomkins sat down with ForbesWomen editor Maggie McGrath to talk about how she's scaling her business, why IVF financing is a potentially lucrative asset class, and why she recently decided to hand over the CEO reins to Alden Romney, a veteran healthcare executive.  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Hi everyone I'm Maggie McGrath, editor of Forbes Women. In the United States

00:07nearly one in six families experience infertility and just one cycle of in

00:13vitro fertilization can cost twenty thousand dollars. It often takes more

00:18than one cycle to attain a successful pregnancy. This means that IVF is

00:24ultimately creating an asset class in the US that one founder would argue is

00:28untapped. That founder is Claire Tompkins. She is the founder of Future Family and

00:34she joins us now with an exciting announcement. Claire thank you so much

00:37for being here. Maggie thanks for having me it's great to be here. So we're gonna

00:40break some news a little deeper in the conversation but you are really

00:44innovating the IVF infertility space by looking at it as an asset class instead

00:49of approaching it from yet another fertility solution. Can you tell us what

00:53Future Family is? Absolutely so Future Family is the largest financing platform

00:57today in the US for American families for in vitro we also cover things like egg

01:02freezing which can be a step along the pathway to building your your family and

01:07using fertility treatment. You're exactly right about this being an asset class in

01:11the US now it is the fourth largest expense mortgage auto education and now

01:18family building and so the biggest really barrier to you know being able to

01:24start your family especially with fertility treatment really has become

01:27the cost of treatment and that's the the solution that we're obviously working

01:31on a future family. So often we talk about fertility coverage as a workplace

01:35benefit but for folks who don't have access to a workplace plan they're kind of

01:40out of luck so is that the type of customer that you're pursuing? Absolutely and

01:44that is still the vast majority of Americans and this is a very personal

01:49mission for me I have three children a ten-year-old and twins who are now seven

01:54all born by IVF so I had spent my career in the asset space and consumer

02:00finance but only through going through IVF personally did I really come face to

02:04face with the costs and the financial aspects in every other dimension of our

02:10lives 87% of Americans finance their home 85% of Americans finance their auto almost

02:17all of us have taken out education loans this has been something that very

02:21naturally speaks to the need for a product that instead of paying as you

02:25said $20,000 you pay $400 a month for IVF with future family. $400 a month and what

02:32are the interest rates on these loans? The interest rates vary they look like a

02:37typical personal loan one of the things we've been able to innovate though is to

02:40show that this is a high-performing asset class which allows us to offer lower

02:44interest rates to American families and would be true for just taking out a

02:48standard personal loan for another use. That's interesting because I imagine you

02:53want to invest in American families I mean that's what building an asset class is

02:57about it's allowing the capital markets to invest where they want to in this

03:01case in building American families. And of course we at Forbes women talk

03:05about highly educated women who perhaps put off the decision to have kids or in my

03:10case I was paying down student debt for a very long time and then you get to your

03:14mid-30s and only suddenly are you free from that financial burden before you can

03:18consider buying a house building a family or making any other large financial

03:23decision. That's right and you have a lot of financial demands at the same time we

03:26all know that starting a family is you know very motivating it's a it's an

03:30inflection point in many ways and we're all going to continue obviously

03:32working and growing our careers so having that sort of financial freedom where you

03:37don't have to use your savings you have financial products available just like

03:41you do when you think about a mortgage or an auto purchase or an education loan

03:45and that's really been our entire focus. What's been the investor response to your

03:51company do they see the value proposition? Yes although it is

03:55interesting and a little mixed when you you know live in Silicon Valley or in the

03:59tech industry I think there is a little bit as you said workplace benefits

04:03there's a little bit of insular thinking where it's like whoa wait but

04:07don't you maybe just pay out of pocket for this and it's like actually no for

04:10such an important financial decision it's such a large investment typically

04:16you would have you know financing freely available and I think that message is

04:19getting out even more so now and there's much more focus on high cost

04:23selective care in this country where the idea for all of women's health is we have

04:28a lot of innovation in America but sometimes we have issues getting broad

04:32access to health care. That is definitely an issue and you talk about the

04:35maternal care deserts it's a whole separate conversation that we could have. Yeah but it's

04:39an issue for sure that reverberates across the health care system. Now you

04:43have had a pretty busy year at future family earlier this year you announced a

04:47four hundred million dollar fund specifically for this financing can you

04:50talk about that? That's right and that's like that really I think was a

04:53landmark deal for us with our partners at Clearhaven Capital Management really

04:58signifying how this asset class is starting to grow is the ability to of course extend financing to more

05:03families so four hundred million will represent about twenty thousand new

05:07families on the platform and obviously we continue to seek you know and grow the

05:12commitments to financing activity. That was a big announcement for us earlier this

05:17year and then we followed it with a product announcement. We'll get to the

05:21product announcement but you've provided more than two hundred million

05:23dollars in financing to more than ten thousand families so the demand is there.

05:28Doubling exactly our existing are exactly there's been a lot of demand and I think

05:33now you can also see that you know from an asset perspective this is a great

05:36place in the market to invest. How big could it get what's your TAM in your mind?

05:40Well I mean if you think about four hundred million is financing about twenty

05:44thousand families and there's maybe a million families seeking treatment each

05:49year just based on kind of where the population is you can see that this

05:52asset class can grow phenomenally. Now the product announcement that you're

05:56referring to is baby or your money back which almost sounds too good to be true

06:01for families that are really yearning for a child. How does that work? Yeah well

06:07this is something that was also very near and dear to my heart since founding the

06:11company is like it's one thing to obviously be able to offer financing which

06:15is critical in this space. It's also though the case that you know success rates are

06:20not perfect and as one of the doctors we work closely with said to me the other

06:24day unfortunately no one has a non-zero chance of failing you know and I had

06:29been through multiple cycles to have my daughter and so the idea of baby or money

06:33back was born with a number of partners around the table including Munich Re

06:37Ventures, Munich Re is the largest global reinsurance firm, our partners at

06:42Milliman on the actuarial side and we looked at it from the perspective of would we

06:46be able to offer a financial guarantee that if you did not achieve success after two

06:50cycles you'd at least have financial security. Doesn't change of course like the

06:55disappointment with going through two cycles of IVF and not achieving success

06:59but it does give you the financial security to potentially pursue more

07:02treatment or take another path and so that product which is only possible

07:07because the success rates are now high enough to offer a guarantee can now be

07:11purchased when you buy your first IVF treatment cycle. Two follow-up questions

07:16they're only high enough because or only possible because the success rates are

07:20high enough so what's the success rate among future family customers? Yeah so

07:24the success rate varies widely based on age it's one of the biggest factors that

07:28determines it but there's other you know as you would imagine biological or

07:31physiological factors that could impact IVF success but the idea was that in the

07:36early days of IVF it was not very successful even for a single cycle and now and if

07:42you are to have three or more cycles on average not for every couple but on

07:47average you can get to a success rate even above 90 percent so but you can see

07:52it may take more a number of cycles. And we're specifically talking embryos. Right

07:56once you're well we think of a cycle as you go through a stimulation protocol and

08:00then hopefully create eggs and then embryos so now we're talking about if you are

08:05not successful after two cycles you can get your money back. So that gives you of

08:12course some financial protection and that would then allow you to pursue

08:16additional treatment if you needed a third or fourth cycle and that's been

08:19the the idea behind that guarantee. So if someone if a family is paying four

08:25hundred dollars a month for two years they get that money back and they can

08:30either do another cycle or put that money towards an adoption? Yeah they they

08:34have coverage on whatever they paid out of pocket for out of pocket or through

08:38financing but whatever they paid for their IVF cycles. So let's say that they

08:41paid decided to take coverage of forty thousand because they anticipated two

08:46cycles they could ensure the forty thousand if it doesn't succeed they'll

08:51get the full forty thousand dollars back. They may have paid some interest or

08:55other fees along the way but that investment that principle is now protected.

08:59You announced that in roughly February was that? That's right we announced the

09:02product was coming in February then launched it in May and you know we're very

09:07excited to be able to now say that again for couples who are starting IVF in this

09:11country they can purchase this guarantee alongside their treatment plan. So

09:15recognizing that it's still new have you had anyone get the money back pursue

09:21another avenue? Really great question it's typically it's a year this policy or

09:26this insurance maybe your money back will last for about 30 months of

09:29coverage so it's actually too we haven't had any claims yet it's too soon.

09:32That's right because you typically would go through two cycles and each cycle can

09:36take anywhere from you know 12 to 14 weeks depending on that cycle. And then

09:40the recovery time. Exactly so we but you know we will obviously issue refunds to

09:45those who don't succeed and I imagine those will start next year in 2026. So

09:49speaking of 2026 we are in the final part of 2025 and as we head into the new

09:54year you have an announcement that I teased at the beginning of this segment can

09:58you share what that announcement is? Yeah Maggie I'm delighted to get to share the

10:01news with you. So Future Family is welcoming a new CEO in Alden Romney who is an

10:10incredible healthcare executive and leader. He's helped build brands like One

10:14Medical. He's helped exit companies like Pacific Fertility Center. He brings a depth

10:20of healthcare experience and I think I have can say that he is as passionate about

10:27this particular mission as I am. How did you make the decision to hand over the CEO

10:32reins? Because it can be hard for a founder to identify the opportunity to make a

10:37transition like this. Yeah I mean I feel incredibly lucky that Alden and I got put

10:41together and that in itself felt a little serendipitous and we were introduced

10:46through a great mutual friend in the healthcare space. I think it was really this

10:52incredible alignment around what Future Family has built so far but also what

10:58their remaining potential is in the business and in particular very drawn to

11:02Alden's experience in healthcare. It's a very specific, we talked about an asset

11:08class, this sort of financial and fintech innovation within healthcare is still

11:12very new and so really now with Alden joining the company you have this

11:17ability for someone who's got a deep deep healthcare background across as you

11:22mentioned employer, payer, a lot of different areas of healthcare who's coming

11:26in to really help us continue scaling the financial offering. I was gonna ask

11:31because you have an asset background he sounds like he has a healthcare building

11:34background so I was gonna ask if that meant like a pivot for your business but

11:38instead it sounds like bringing all the various component parts together. I think

11:42that's right I think a lot of when you think about just broadly like the space

11:46we're in innovation, tech, women's health, we are seeing a lot of incredible

11:51innovation in this category and now the question really becomes how do we scale

11:55distribution. All these great solutions that are coming out of the tech and

12:00innovation ecosystem they need to be pushed across broadly adopted by payers, they

12:06need to be you know obviously increasingly adopted by employers into their benefit

12:09packages more broadly available across the provider landscape and I think Alden's

12:14unique background like so deep a lived experience in healthcare is going to be

12:18really instrumental to that. And as he takes over as CEO you will move to

12:23executive chair so what will that mean for your day-to-day work? I'm excited to

12:27have even more time to focus on both the you know asset and capital market side of

12:32the business but also just the mission and the strategy and being able to really

12:35spend more time with some of our partners in this space but to continue

12:39working very closely with Alden as he sets the strategy for growth across the

12:42healthcare landscape. So obviously there's there are developments that you

12:47can't share with us now but if we were to speak one year from now in September

12:512026 what would you hope to report to me then? Well I certainly hope that we can

12:56come back and continue saying that we're bringing in more commitments to this

13:01space on the financing side right more the ability to help more and more

13:04American families. I think 20,000 is an ambitious goal and yet there's so many

13:09more that need care and support so I hope that we come back together perhaps we

13:13will in a year that we're able to share the fact that we're just continuing to

13:17expand the business in a way that actually gets healthcare in the hands of

13:20more American families. What's the number one question you get from consumers?

13:26Gosh it's fertility and it's finances so I feel like it's sometimes the

13:30intersection of the two most complicated and often emotional issues that we

13:35talk about at the dinner table so we get so many questions. I think really you

13:39know a lot of them are on the fertility side specifically and we do have on our

13:43platform in addition to financing registered nurses who are coaches so we

13:47offer our financial clients some support on their fertility journey because

13:51exactly that reason as a financial institution we still get inundated by

13:55fertility questions. I think on the financing side it really is just trying to

13:59wrap your you know arms around the idea of like this being a big investment and

14:04that pathway of like what it doesn't you know what if it doesn't work and I

14:08think that us being able to offer a financial guarantee has gone a long way to

14:11being able to create that peace of mind as people start this journey. Well I

14:15normally end interviews with the one year from now question but I ask the

14:18most commonly asked question because I actually want to end on your advice for

14:22the Forbes audience watching because of how many Americans experience

14:25infertility I'm curious to hear what your message is to anyone who's watching

14:31who is either assessing financing thinking through their options or just

14:35generally befuddled at this point in time. Yeah I mean I generally like to end

14:40things on a really hopeful note because I went through a quite complicated

14:44journey to build my own family so I think my optimistic note would be look

14:49there's now been a lot of innovation and it continues in this space there are a

14:53lot of great solutions your most important two things if you're thinking

14:57about fertility or starting your family or somewhere on this journey are to

15:02make sure that you are able to find and visit a good doctor a lot of people

15:05delay seeing a fertility doctor also known as a reproductive endocrinologist a lot

15:11of people delay that thinking like oh well you know it'll work next month or

15:16I'll figure out something I always encourage every woman every couple to be

15:20really informed about your health so that's really step one is seeing a

15:23fertility doctor getting a baseline even if you're not sure what's going on and

15:27then the second is it's you know really and certainly my personal mission to

15:31make sure that everybody also feels like they have financial options and and

15:34which you know we are proud to offer it through future family. Claire Tompkins

15:38thank you so much for sitting down with us at Nasdaq market site we are so

15:41happy to have you and you will have to come back to report on that claims data. I

15:45look forward to it thanks so much Maggie it's a pleasure to be here.

Category

Transcript

Comments

Recommended