Ovo Labs makes its debut – UKTN

Ovo Labs, a frontier company dedicated to advancing egg quality and reproductive longevity, is making its debut with £4m in seed funding.

The round, co-led by Creator Fund and Local Globe and with participation of Blue Wire Capital, Ahren Innovation Capital and Antonio Pellicer, founder of IVI.

The company builds on research from one of the world’s leading fertility experts, Professor Melina Schuh, and addresses the reason why a woman’s egg quality decreases with age.

Ovo Labs aims to increase the number of women who can conceive in a single IVF attempt by addressing poor egg quality.

The company is spearheading the development of new therapeutics that reduce genetic errors in eggs – known as aneuploidy – thereby increasing the number of viable eggs that can be successfully used for fertility treatment.

Professor Melina Schuh, co-founder and scientific advisor, outlines the company’s main mission. “Ovo Labs’ mission is to make the dream of parenthood a reality for millions of couples who struggle to conceive.

“By helping to increase the number of viable eggs, we aim to extend the reproductive window, empowering more couples to have children at a time that feels right to them.

“Ovo Labs’ technology also offers a potential solution for declining birth rates, which is a trend observed in many countries worldwide.”

By the time a woman reaches 40, over 70% of her eggs carry genetic abnormalities, making conception significantly harder.

In vitro fertilization (IVF) also fails for 8 out of 10 women in their late 30s.

Professor Schuh is joined by co-founder and leading fertility scientist Dr Agata Zielinska and biologist Dr. Oleksandr Yagensky.

Ovo Labs has already proven that they can improve the quality of eggs in old mice and have also shown they can successfully treat isolated human eggs.

As they enter the next stage, the firm’s product development will be carried out at the Life Science Factory in Munich.