From Personal Crisis to $1.7 Billion: How This CEO Built a Virtual Women’s Health Platform That’s Redefining Maternal Care

Former Flatiron Health executive Marta Bralic Kerns turned her own pregnancy complications into a data-driven solution serving 7% of U.S. births—and she’s just getting started.

When Marta Bralic Kerns experienced serious complications during her first pregnancy, she confronted a reality familiar to millions of American women: a fragmented healthcare system ill-equipped to provide consistent, personalized support during one of life’s most vulnerable periods. Rather than accept this as inevitable, the former Flatiron Health executive channeled her frustration into building something transformative.

Five years later, her answer—Pomelo Care—has reached a $1.7 billion valuation following a $92 million Series C funding round in January 2026. The virtual women’s health platform now covers nearly 7% of all U.S. births and is expanding far beyond maternity care to address hormonal health, perimenopause, menopause, and pediatrics. In recognition of her achievement, Kerns was named EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2025, cementing her position as one of healthcare’s most influential innovators.

The Genesis: When Data Meets Motherhood

Kerns’ journey from technology executive to healthcare entrepreneur began with a simple question: Why couldn’t pregnancy care be proactive rather than reactive? Her experience at Flatiron Health—the oncology data company acquired by Roche for $1.9 billion—had taught her the power of using real-time data to improve clinical outcomes. She recognized that the same principles could revolutionize maternal care.

The statistics she uncovered were sobering. One in ten babies in the United States requires NICU admission. Preterm birth rates remain stubbornly high. Yet many complications, including preeclampsia—a leading cause of maternal mortality—can be prevented with simple, evidence-based interventions like low-dose aspirin, which reduces risk by approximately 25%.

“What struck me was the gap between what we knew from research and what actually happened in practice,” Kerns observed in recent interviews. “Women were falling through the cracks not because providers didn’t care, but because the system wasn’t designed to catch them.”

Building the Affordable Maternal Telehealth Model

Launched in 2021, Pomelo Care developed a virtual care platform that provides 24/7 access to multidisciplinary care teams including obstetricians, midwives, nurses, doulas, lactation consultants, and mental health specialists. The platform’s differentiator lies in its sophisticated use of data analytics to identify risk factors early and trigger timely interventions.

The model addresses critical pain points in traditional prenatal care:

Key Features:

• Continuous monitoring: Algorithm-driven risk assessment flags conditions like gestational diabetes and preeclampsia before they escalate
• Accessible support: Round-the-clock virtual consultations eliminate barriers related to transportation, work schedules, and geographic isolation
• Care coordination: Integrated teams ensure seamless transitions between prenatal, postpartum, and pediatric care
• Evidence-based protocols: Standardized interventions proven to reduce adverse outcomes

This approach has resonated with both insurers and employers seeking to contain costs while improving health outcomes. Pomelo now partners with major insurers including UnitedHealthcare and Elevance, as well as large employers like Koch Industries, serving both Medicaid and commercial populations.

The economic case is compelling. Early detection and prevention of pregnancy complications not only saves lives but also significantly reduces healthcare expenditures associated with NICU stays, emergency interventions, and long-term maternal health issues.

Expanding the Vision: Beyond Pregnancy to Lifelong Women’s Health

The January 2026 funding round signals Pomelo’s ambitious expansion beyond its maternity care roots. Kerns envisions a comprehensive virtual women’s health platform supporting women at every life stage—a strategic pivot that addresses a glaring market inefficiency.

“Maternity care was our entry point because the need was so acute,” Kerns explained to Axios. “But women’s health challenges don’t begin at conception or end at delivery. We’re building infrastructure for lifelong care.”

The expansion encompasses several verticals:

New Service Lines:

• Hormonal health: Managing conditions like PCOS and endometriosis through specialized virtual consultations
• Perimenopause and menopause management: Addressing the estimated 1.3 million American women who enter menopause annually, many without adequate medical support
• Evidence-based pediatric virtual care: Extending support to postpartum care for working moms navigating infant health concerns
• Preventive care: Leveraging data to identify and mitigate long-term health risks

This broader strategy positions Pomelo to compete in the rapidly growing women’s health technology sector, valued at over $50 billion and projected to expand significantly as venture capital increasingly flows toward femtech solutions.

The Competitive Landscape: Navigating a Crowded Market

Pomelo’s expansion brings it into more direct competition with established players in the virtual women’s health space, each carving out distinct niches:

Maven Clinic, which raised $125 million in 2024, has built a comprehensive family health platform encompassing fertility, pregnancy, parenting, and pediatrics. Its focus on employer-sponsored benefits has made it a favorite among Fortune 500 companies.

Oula differentiates itself through a hybrid maternal care model, partnering with hospitals to blend virtual and in-person services, appealing to women who prefer traditional birth settings with enhanced digital support.

Kindbody has concentrated on fertility services, operating physical clinics alongside virtual consultations—a capital-intensive model targeting affluent urban markets.

Bloomlife and Marani Health represent the wearables and AI monitoring segment, using prenatal wearables and AI prenatal monitoring to track fetal health and maternal vital signs.

Pomelo’s competitive advantage lies in its dual focus: deep data integration across the care continuum and its commitment to serving both Medicaid and commercial populations. While competitors often target higher-income demographics, Pomelo’s model addresses health equity by making high-quality care accessible regardless of socioeconomic status.

Preeclampsia Prevention Tips and the Power of Simple Interventions

One of Pomelo’s most impactful contributions has been systematizing the delivery of simple, evidence-based interventions that dramatically improve outcomes. The platform’s approach to preeclampsia prevention exemplifies this philosophy.

By analyzing patient data—including blood pressure trends, lab results, and risk factors like first pregnancy, advanced maternal age, or pre-existing conditions—Pomelo’s algorithms identify women who would benefit from low-dose aspirin therapy, typically initiated before 12 weeks of pregnancy. This straightforward intervention, costing mere pennies per day, can reduce preeclampsia risk by up to 25%.

Yet studies suggest fewer than 30% of eligible pregnant women receive this recommendation in traditional care settings. The gap represents not a knowledge deficit but a systems failure—precisely the problem Pomelo was designed to solve.

The company’s recent funding will accelerate the deployment of similar data-driven protocols across its expanding service lines, from optimizing hormone therapy dosing to identifying early signs of postpartum depression.

The Economic and Social Imperative

Pomelo’s growth trajectory occurs against the backdrop of America’s maternal health crisis. The United States has the highest maternal mortality rate among developed nations, with significant racial disparities. Black women face pregnancy-related death rates nearly three times higher than white women.

These aren’t just health statistics—they represent economic losses from decreased workforce participation, increased disability, and preventable healthcare costs estimated in the billions annually. Virtual care platforms like Pomelo offer a scalable solution, particularly for underserved communities with limited access to obstetric specialists.

The employer value proposition is equally compelling. Companies offering comprehensive women’s health benefits report higher employee retention, reduced absenteeism, and improved productivity. As more employers recognize reproductive and hormonal health as strategic HR priorities, demand for integrated solutions is accelerating.

Looking Ahead: Challenges and Opportunities

Despite its impressive growth, Pomelo faces significant challenges. Regulatory complexity varies by state, particularly around telehealth reimbursement and scope of practice for virtual providers. Scaling personalized care while maintaining quality requires continuous investment in technology and clinical talent. And competition for patients and payer contracts is intensifying as more entrants recognize the market opportunity.

Yet the fundamentals favor Pomelo’s model. The company’s early mover advantage in building data infrastructure, its proven ability to improve outcomes while reducing costs, and Kerns’ credibility as both a healthcare entrepreneur and EY Entrepreneur of the Year position it well for the next phase of growth.

The expansion into lifelong women’s health care represents not just a business strategy but a recognition that women’s healthcare needs have been systematically underserved by a medical system designed primarily around male physiology and episodic care models.

A New Paradigm for Women’s Health

Marta Bralic Kerns’ journey from frustrated new mother to billionaire CEO illustrates how personal experience combined with technological expertise can catalyze systemic change. Pomelo Care’s evolution from maternity-focused startup to comprehensive women’s health platform reflects a maturing market understanding: women need integrated, data-driven care across their entire lifespan, not fragmented solutions for discrete life events.

As the company deploys its $92 million in fresh capital, the healthcare industry will be watching to see whether Pomelo can replicate its maternal care success across hormonal health, menopause management, and preventive care. If it succeeds, the impact will extend far beyond shareholder returns—it will represent a fundamental reimagining of how America delivers women’s healthcare.

For the millions of women who’ve navigated pregnancy complications, hormonal imbalances, or menopausal symptoms with inadequate support, that transformation cannot come soon enough. Kerns’ vision offers a glimpse of what becomes possible when motherhood’s challenges inspire technological solutions—and when those solutions scale to serve women at every stage of life.