Emjoy, an audio app for women that sells a narrative of sexual self-care and empowerment, raised $3 million in seed funding led by JME Ventures, with existing investor Nauta Capital.
The seed funding will be plowed into making more content – with plans for additional collaborations with “leading academics, experts and influencers within the sexual wellbeing and education space” – and the overarching aim of building the “category-defining” app in the female sexual wellness space, according to the company.
The femtech startup offers women with sex-positive subscription audio content focused on sexual empowerment, intimate education, and sensuous entertainment.
Emjoy launched worldwide in early 2020 and clocked 80,000 registered users in its first six months. It now has 150,000 active users globally, with the U.S. and the U.K. its main markets (NB: content is currently only available in English), and according to TechCrunch, almost 10% of “recently acquired” active users are paying a subscription, per Oliver.
The startup’s team has grown to 11 people at this point – including an in-house sex therapist. Most of Emjoy’s content is produced in house at this point.
“My inspiration for founding Emjoy is based on my personal experience and the experiences of many girlfriends of mine. All of us had normalized, not climaxing when having sexual encounters,” Andrea Oliver, CEO and co-founder. Oliver moved from Nauta Capital, where she had been working with startups, founding her own business in January 2019, along with co-founder Daniel Tamas, CTO – taking in an initial $1.2 million from her former VC employer to get the app to market.
Andrea Oliver said: “What sets us apart from competitors is offering a broad library of both wellbeing and entertainment audios, being extremely trustworthy and reliable because of our in-house sex therapist, partnering with sexual wellbeing experts, and finally being a product company that offers more than just content,” she goes on, discussing the competitive landscape. “An example of this is our ‘Daily Routines’ feature, which allows our users to take 30-day challenges to create new habits, such as accepting their bodies.”
Recently in a similar deal, Blueheart, a developer of an AI-powered app for sexual therapy, raised $1.3 million in Seed funding led by PROfounders Capital, joined by Calm/Storm. Read more about sexual health apps.
