The women’s health space is ramping up.
Willow, known for its breast pump devices and accessories now available at Target, on Friday revealed the acquisition of femtech brand Elvie.
“We believed that there was an opportunity for us to accelerate our path to greater scale, global scale, and product portfolio diversification through potential merger acquisition activity,” said Willow chief executive officer Sarah O’Leary. “Elvie [is] also an iconic brand, also a trailblazing femtech leader [and] in many ways, a sister company based in the U.K. We’ve been competitors, but we also have a tremendous amount in common in what we have worked to do.”
Willow is best known for its wearable breast pump, which the brand unveiled at CES in 2017, but now has several complementary products including storage cases, cleaners, lactation massagers and more. Meanwhile, Elvie offers a suite of products for mothers, including pumps, pelvic floor trainers and its latest dual bouncer and bassinet Elvie Rise.
Elvie Rise
Courtesy
While the brands did not share details of the transaction, the acquisition is expected to result in 50 percent year-over-year growth for the company.
“We look at the femtech category, the women’s health category, and there are so few players of meaningful scale,” O’Leary said. “We believe that the opportunity to come together makes us stronger together and allows us to continue to drive future innovation for moms and for women’s health.”
In terms of coming together, O’Leary sees several benefits, most notably the opportunity to scale globally thanks to Elvie’s broad distribution and offer a wider array of products from each brand.
“Addressing all of the challenges together with innovation and products that aren’t coming only from one category’s perspective is ultimately a meaningful unlock for new moms,” said O’Leary.
Additionally, O’Leary said there are ways the companies will be able to streamline.
“We have the opportunity to realize operational efficiencies as a combined entity,” she said. “Behind the scenes, there’s many ways that we will be integrating the businesses, but for the consumer, I think the most important piece is your products that you love aren’t changing.”
That being said, each brand will operate as its own for now. While Elvie and Willow have some similar products — each has a breast pump — there are no plans to discontinue or consolidate the assortment.
According to Leary, there will be more innovations coming from each brand within the next year.
