Egg Freezing Reinvented: Cofertility’s No-Cost, Half-Donation Approach
tl;dr
Cofertility’s innovative Split program lets women freeze their eggs for free by donating half to intended parents, lowering the steep costs.
Founded by Lauren Makler after her personal health scare, it challenges traditional fertility preservation and compensatory models.
With a pool of diverse, highly-educated donors and $16M in funding, Cofertility significantly expands access and seamlessly matches hundreds with intended parents.
Today, when career ambitions and late marriages are the norm, many women are rethinking their biological timelines. The steep cost of egg freezing - estimated at $10,000 to $15,000 per attempt - has long kept this fertility preservation option out of reach during women’s most fertile years, typically in their 20s and early 30s. Enter Cofertility, a startup with a radical new model designed to dismantle financial barriers and the stigma surrounding egg donation.
Founded by former Uber executive Lauren Makler and health tech angel investor Halle Tecco, Cofertility is shaking up the fertility industry with its innovative “Split” program. This program offers women the opportunity to freeze their eggs at no cost. The catch? Donors must be willing to donate half of the retrieved eggs to individuals or couples struggling with infertility. Although it might sound like a tough pill to swallow - perhaps a tough egg to crack - this model is proving to be a win-win situation for both donors and intended parents.
The inspiration for Cofertility came from Makler’s own life-changing experience. In 2018, she was diagnosed with a rare abdominal disease, which led to multiple surgeries and posed a serious threat to her ovaries. Faced with the possibility that egg freezing might be her only option to preserve her fertility, she dove deep into research. During her journey, Makler discovered that egg donors were usually compensated and that the price could soar even higher based on specific factors such as ethnicity or education level. “It felt sort of like surge pricing for egg donors, which felt icky to me,” she recalled, drawing a parallel with the familiar dynamics of ride-sharing apps during peak hours.
Makler’s personal scare, coupled with her firsthand experience of the staggering costs, motivated her to build Cofertility - a platform that matches young women who want to preserve their fertility with those in need of donor eggs. The new model not only alleviates the financial burden on aspiring parents by eliminating donor compensation but also provides a broader pool of diverse, high-quality egg donors. Impressively, about 55% of these donors have graduate degrees, ensuring a high caliber for the eggs intended for those yearning for parenthood.
Backing this unconventional concept is a robust $7.25 million Series A funding round led by Next Ventures and Offline Ventures, with total funding now reaching $16 million. Cofertility’s scale differentiates it from traditional clinics, which typically have only a handful of donors on standby. With hundreds of donors available at any given time, the platform dramatically improves the chances of finding a match for intended parents.
According to Makler, the overarching goal is not just to facilitate egg freezing but to “remove the taboo of egg donation.” “There is zero shame in however you become a parent. Doing that with the help of a donor who’s also interested in freezing her own eggs is a really exciting option,” she affirmed, highlighting the modern, inclusive nature of parenthood. With Cofertility, the future of fertility preservation and family planning is becoming more accessible, equitable, and truly groundbreaking.
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