Sama Fertility PLLC

Sama Fertility has raised $3.8 million to help people undergo IVF, mostly at home, Endpoints News learned exclusively. With seed funding, Sama is launching a program called SimpleIVF, which requires patients to visit a clinic in person only twice: once at the beginning of the in vitro fertilization process and again at the end. The mostly virtual program doesn’t take insurance and charges $6,000 per cycle, and medications, lab testing and other services like egg freezing are not included. As part of it, Sama guarantees a full refund for patients who do not deliver a baby. After initial testing at a lab that belongs to their partner LabCorp or another lab of their choice, patients receive an ultrasound device, medication and 24/7 remote support from nurses and technicians. Traditional in-clinic blood draws are replaced by urine hormone tests. Near the end, patients travel to one of Sama’s partner clinics for egg retrieval and embryo transfer. IVF, the process of helping people get pregnant by fertilizing eggs outside of the body, has grown in demand as an aging population looks for ways to have children. Sama hopes to lower the cost of IVF, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars , and make it more accessible by cutting down on travel time to clinics. “Reproductive endocrinology and infertility specialists are F1 engineers that are doing higher charging activities in a day-to-day clinic. It’s not needed, it’s raising the cost for the patient,” CEO and founder Sarthak Sawarkar told Endpoints . Instead, Sama wants to take on the majority of routine IVF and egg freezing cases across the country and make them more accessible to patients, he said. Sama recommends the program for those under 42 with uncomplicated fertility needs, such as those who have not undergone surgery for fertility-related issues before, and for people who would be comfortable doing most of the procedure at home, such as those without mobility issues. SNR Ventures led the seed round. Ford Street Ventures, Artesian, Rootspring Ventures and Sequoia Capital’s Scout Program also invested in the round. Sawarkar, formerly a biomedical scientist, founded Sama in 2019 after realizing that he and his partner would have to return to New York City to access a quality IVF clinic, despite having moved to New Jersey. New Jersey-based Sama has 14 people on staff, and its program can operate in all states nationwide except for Hawaii and Alaska, Sawarkar said. (This story is from our Health Tech newsletter. If you’d like to sign up, just click here. )