Flo is a women's healthapp, that supports women at each stage of their reproductive cycle. It tracks menstruation, cycle prediction, preparation for conception, pregnancy, early motherhood and menopause. The application is available on iOS and Android. Flo has over 100 million downloads worldwide and 30 million monthly active users as of November 2019.
Company History
Flo was co-founded in 2015 by Dmitry and Yuri Gurski, in Belarus. Dmitry served as the company's CEO, with Kamila Staryga joining as VP of Product in 2019. In 2016, the company raised $1 million in seed round funding from Flint Capital and Haxus Venture Fund. In 2017, Flo received an investment of $5 million from Flint Capital, model Natalia Vodianova and other angel investors. Vodianova also helped develop Flo's "Let’s Talk About it. Period" worldwide awareness campaign, which sought to break the taboo surrounding women's health and periods. In December 2017, Flo began working with the United Nations Population Fund to spread awareness about women's reproductive and sexual health issues. Also in 2017, Flo launched a question and answer service within the app that allowed users to discuss issues with experts and other users. In 2018, Flo received an investment of $6 million from Mangrove Capital Partners, with participation from Flint Capital and Haxus, giving the company a valuation of $200 million. In mid-2019, Flo received an additional investment of $7.5 million. Founders Fund were one of the main investors in the round, known for investing in startups such as Airbnb and SpaceX. In September 2019, Privacy International published a report regarding data sharing for a number of period-tracking apps. Following a number of data sharing controversies in the industry, Flo and four other apps implemented measures to protect user's data from third parties. A Flo spokesperson stated in an interview with Bustle, "we take extreme measures to ensure that individual user data and privacy rights are protected."
Application and community
Flo was initially created as a period and ovulation tracking application, but later, it developed into an artificial intelligence-powered women's health product. The application covers all phases of a reproductive cycle, including the start of menstruation, cycle tracking, preparation for conception, pregnancy, early motherhood, menopause. It is the first menstruation tracking application to use artificial intelligence for accurate cycle predictions. Flo users get access to a calendar to receive reminders of upcoming menstrual cycles and maintain a record of various other health symptoms such as contraceptive methods, vaginal discharge, water intake, pains, mood swings, and sexual activity. As the app grew, so did the number of features. A community section was added in 2017, which allows users to anonymously answer and ask questions on health issues and creates a wider support community regarding women's health. At the end of 2018, Flo launched a PCOS Health Assistant, a self-assessment tool that uses an algorithm to detect whether certain combinations of user self-identified symptoms could be associated with a potential risk of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome. Content on the app is reviewed by a board of medical professionals, on behalf of Flo Health. The board advises the developers on medical-related issues, with advisors consisting of professional GB/GYN's and MDs. The expertise provided by the board helps users identify other medical issues that can be similar to menstrual side-effects. The app also aims to increase awareness of conditions that can often be confused for period symptoms, such as Heavy Menstrual Bleeding.
Culture and menstruation
Founders and medical professionals associated with Flo have spoken frequently about menstruation taboo in various countries and cultures. In partnership with investor Natalia Vodianova, Flo launched the campaign in 2017, "Let's Talk About it. Period." Since then, Flo Health has invested in researching taboos and cultural differences for women around the globe. In 2019, Flo announced they had completed a survey of 200,000 women globally, as a wider study into period poverty. The study found a number of common problems, such as 34% of those surveyed believing that period poverty is only an issue in developing countries. Flo recently collaborated with the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency in the area of reproductive health. The Cooperation Agreement was signed on December 5, 2019, in Minsk. The collaboration project set out to achieve a number of goals, such as input from the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency on Flo content. Social media campaigns would also be done in partnership between the two entities and user behavior would be monitored to better understand reproductive health and gender issues. The UNFPA collaboration allowed the project known as "Byazmegnaya" to assist women with disabilities, in the area of reproductive health. As a UNFPA partner, Flo took part in the Nairobi summit for International Conference on Population and Development and committed to advancing women's reproductive health. Similar partnerships were agreed with European Board and College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology to develop educational materials and also contribute to awareness about women's health. Flo joined with Female Forward Together coalition for similar reasons.
Privacy breach
In February 2019, it emerged that Flo had been sending users' health data to Facebook. The data was sent without users' informed consent, and in violation of Facebook's developer policies. Later in February 2019, Flo said that it had released an update for its iOS and Android apps that would stop them from sending any further sensitive personal data to external analytics companies such as Facebook, and that it would conduct a privacy audit.
