MPowder, the ecommerce brand providing nutritional powders that tackle hormonal changes and provide women with insights, practices, and tools to empower them through the menopause, has announced its £500k seed round. The menopause market is set to be worth $5.23 billion by 2023, which has led MPowder to attract the backing of Pink Salt Ventures, Founders Factory, and other strategic angels including Mumsnet co-founder, Carrie Longton.
With thirteen million women in the UK transitioning through the menopause today, MPowder’s own research shows that around 75% will visit their doctors with symptoms and of those, three quarters will leave the surgery with nothing*. MPowder plans to vastly improve this experience with its selection of plant-based powders that address the distinct biochemical needs, relieve symptoms, and nutritional deficiencies experienced through the three stages of the menopause.
MPowder is the brainchild of founder and CEO Rebekah Brown, former creative agency executive, following her negative experience after visiting her GP when she started to encounter perimenopause symptoms (the first stage of menopause), aged 46.
Rebekah Brown, Founder and CEO said, “My doctor didn’t identify the early symptoms of perimenopause. I didn’t fit the profile. I was ‘too young’ and still having a regular cycle. I was advised to take ‘time out’ to address exhaustion and upweight my vitamin intake. My experience isn’t unusual. Menopause simply isn’t well enough understood or researched. It is presented as an end-of-life category when it should be a midlife empowerment category.
“The options available to us have not kept pace with the way we live and how we see ourselves. Medical intervention can work wonders. But not everyone can or choses to take them. This is a life stage that 51% of the population will go through. Women deserve greater choice – and innovative, smart, robust solutions that encompass the body and mind.
“This investment is another step towards our vision to provide the same depth of service and community to women going through the three stages of menopause as women going through the three stages of pregnancy. We are the first generation that will potentially live 50 years after the start of menopause so life is just beginning!”
MPowder sells its nutritional powders for the three stages of menopause directly to its customers via its website and is already receiving repeat orders. The brand’s first powder ‘Peri-Boost’ is available now with two additional recipes to follow in the New Year. MPowder is also stocked on leading online beauty destination Cult Beauty following its launch in September. MPowder has an active ‘Powder Room’ community of ‘Makers’ that trials product recipes, verifies efficacy and provides detailed feedback on their lifestyle programmes.
Those participating in the round include Samira Ann Qasim, investor at Pink Salt Ventures, who said, “The menopause market today should be targeting women as women in their prime, with a wealth of experience to offer society. Most offerings fall offensively short. When and if diagnosed, medical drugs are available for hormonal and mental health symptoms. However, as a natural life transition, women deserve options beyond the disease and cure model.
“It’s refreshing to see someone taking a much-needed premium, wellness-based approach to treating menopause symptoms along with providing women with the supportive community and insights they need as they enter this new life phase. Rebekah and the team at MPowder fit perfectly into our investment thesis of purpose-led female founders tackling untapped market opportunities with scalable business models.”
MPowder will leverage the current investment to scale production, upweight trial protocols and build its team. At present MPowder
Carrie Longton, Co-founder of Mumsnet and MPowder angel investor added, “MPowder has a genuine and serious mission to make all menopausal women’s lives better. In the next 12 months the team will be testing recipes for women who, like me, have had breast cancer and are therefore excluded from so many menopausal aids.”
Leave a Comment