Meet WoW members and partners Essity Ventures - interview with Kai Thornagel, Director of Essity Ventures

Launched in February 2020, Essity Ventures is a strategic initiative of Essity, a leading global hygiene and health company with a mission to break barriers to well-being. With their strong brands, they are active in 150+ countries. Their Feminine Care segment includes brands like Libresse, Bodyform, and Nana. They are also well-known for our tissue brands such as Tempo and Zewa and for their globally leading incontinence brand TENA.

As global leaders, they leverage their expertise and resources to help start-ups build credibility and accelerate their growth towards commercial success. They seek innovative start-ups and entrepreneurs who share their mission and want to partner with them to connect the dots between innovation and expertise. Their goal is to reshape the future of women’s health in all life stages.

We spoke to Kai Thornagel, Director of Essity Ventures, to find out more about their key focus areas for 2022 and what startups can expect from the partnership with Essity Ventures.

Kai, how did you get into the Femtech and women’s health industry? 

That’s a very good question. Coming from the world of food and food tech, what triggered me to join Essity Ventures was the nature and potential of Femtech itself – meaning its transformative nature and power. In this industry, new tech solutions and business models have a positive, life-changing impact throughout all life stages of a woman’s life. There are many multi-layer – meaning physical, mental, social, economic – high-friction problem spaces in women’s lives, where Femtech solutions can bring true value. It is great to be part of a team and an ecosystem that strives to change women’s lives for the better thru the means of Femtech. 

Can you tell us more about the focus areas of Essity Ventures for 2022? 

Our target audience is dynamic teams developing Femtech innovations that can disrupt the future of women’s health at different life stages. This includes menstruation and menstrual pain, menopause, and overall feminine care and wellness. Additionally, we are also open to solutions that aim to revolutionize the health and hygiene industry with new sustainable and digitally advanced solutions in the area of incontinence, consumer tissue, professional hygiene, and baby care.

What do you think are the challenges of being in the Femtech industry? 

It is not a secret that there is a big taboo around topics such as menstrual pain and menopause. Some people would openly talk about this, while some others would not discuss it with anyone other than very close friends. At Essity, we believe we need to start breaking taboos together and educating society that this is a normal conversation. Therefore, we are continuously working to change this reality and we have run campaigns such as #Bloodisnormal and #VivaLaVulva. Breaking taboos has always been the company’s DNA.

Taboos cause huge misinformation, and the lack of proper education can bring several repercussions in women’s health. In fact, 1 out of 10 women suffers from endometriosis and most women do not realize it until it is too late – due to the scarcity of education resources around the matter. 

With Essity Ventures we have set out to not only “break” barriers to female health and well-being. But to explore, validate, and scale those new ground-breaking business models and tech solutions, that allow women in all life stages to actually “overcome” barriers. To live an empowered and fulfilled life at ease!

How would you describe the way that Essity Ventures work and why is it different from other typical VC funds? 

We are agnostic to new business opportunities and models. We believe that each opportunity and partnership is unique, and thus needs a unique way to be brought to life and scaled. That said, we adapt ourselves to the particular needs of each business and partnership opportunity. Which can mean bringing know-how, funding, market access, or others to the table in a partnership. 

That sounds interesting! Could you please explain to us what goes behind that way of thinking?

One of our biggest learnings is that start-ups need more than capital – that’s why Essity Ventures commits to resources that go well beyond funding. The needs for each venture are very different, some lack of money for sure, but some just lack a way to gain access to retailers, to a platform, to consumer knowledge, to marketing or supply-chain knowledge, and to key expertise tied to running successful and efficient business operations.

We are looking for long-term partnerships which can be co-developing, commercial agreements, insights sharing, and other forms of collaboration that will be tailored depending on the needs.

Wow! That is definitely something start-ups would value. So, what is the process you go through when selecting a start-up to partner with? What key criteria do you look for? 

Our open “Call for Collaboration” process is very simple. Start-ups can go to our website, send us their pitch deck and other basic information. Then we will get in touch with them and start a video call. That way the creators can show their brainchild to us, and we can understand better their business model, the background of the team, and other dynamics.

Can you share an example of a successful Essity Ventures partnership and how it materialized? 

Yes! One concrete example is our partnership with Fizimed, a French start-up that develops smart Kegel (cone) trainer solutions to strengthen the pelvic floor with Kegel exercises at home. We helped the Fizimed team launch their solution into the UK market through our channels in a collaborative approach.

Find out more about Essity Ventures on their website.

Follow Essity on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Click here for the Essity Ventures application.

This interview was conducted by Marija Butkovic, Digital Marketing and PR strategist, founder, and CEO of Women of Wearables. She regularly writes and speaks on topics of wearable tech, fashion tech, IoT, entrepreneurship, and diversity. Follow Marija on Twitter @MarijaButkovic and read her stories for Forbes here.