Ecommerce for Women's Health in Emerging Markets | Our Story
Maternova, Inc. is the trusted resource for cutting edge medical innovations in newborn, obstetrics and reproductive health.
We research, review and sell innovative, proven obstetric and newborn technologies to private hospitals, governments, Ministries of Health, NGOs and healthcare professionals around the world.
Our woman-owned women's health solutions company has a network of over 30,000 clinicians, midwives, and thought leaders in 180 countries. We listen to needs in healthcare settings from industrialized world to developing world and put together solution sets to meet your needs.
Our mission:
We accelerate access to life-saving innovation by educating, marketing, distributing and evaluating. Our social enterprise is committed to investing a portion of our profits into midwifery training schools in the lowest resource countries of the world. Our non-profit sister entity, Maternova Research, will oversee research and training initiatives
Our profits will be reinvested first into expanding existing manufacturing and staff to continue to grow the social enterprise, and then into new women's health product research and development, both within the company, Maternova and in the non-profit, Maternova Research. While we don't have the formula for what percentage of profits will flow to each aspect of the social enterprise, we can state the cap on dividends -- stating that in our model, under 49% of profits flow to investors.
So how did Maternova evolve from a germ of an idea in 2009?
We spent several years developing a business model... and testing the market such that....
By 2013...
Maternova was named by Women Deliver as " one of the 50 best ideas for women." We had developed relationships with some of the leading practitioners in midwifery and had developed mid-sized customers and had gained strong operational experience. We sold to the United Nations, humanitarian groups and to 15 countries. And we won a national LivePlan business plan competition. The number of exclusive products began to grow rapidly and we invested in marketing.
By 2015...
Our company was being contacted directly by Ministries of Health and private hospitals from Brazil to Malaysia, and from Colombia to South Africa. We had now shipped into 40 countries and expanded our offerings and exclusive distribution agreements with entrepreneurs. The company began to partner with major brands to accelerate distribution through our unique channels. Maternova was named by Huffington Post as a top 20 social media outlet in maternal health and our work was published in top medical journals as well as business publications. We also filed our first patent in the obstetric space.
By 2016...
Maternova Inc. added a line of rapid diagnostics to test schistosomiasis, syphilis and a range of other diseases. The company launched major partnerships with corporates seeking our unique distribution model. We now sell to some of the largest humanitarian organizations in the world, as well as top tier private hospitals in the United States, Brazil, Ecuador and Germany. Maternova developed protective apparel (NovaVeil) and received funding from Grand Challenges Canada as well as a successful equity crowdfunding campaign on Republic. NovaVeil received media attention from NPR, BBC World Radio, Mashable and Forbes.com.
In 2017 and beyond:
The next couple of years are focused on scaling our business model. We have proven that we have a viable business model and we are cash flow positive. Our solution sets have relevance in a range of emerging, industrialized and developing markets. We are now scaling our model, partnering with several corporations and smaller scale entrepreneurs and selling larger volumes of life-saving innovations. NovaVeil is currently being manufactured. We have miles to go before we sleep but we're proud of what we have already proven with women, for women.
