Polari Group, a sexual health and wellness startup from the UK, has secured $539K in pre-seed funding. The round was supported by Ventures Together, which invested in qomodo, Ada Ventures (Angel Program), Chasing Rainbows, and Little Green Bamboo Capital, as well as a series of international angel investors.
The investment will enable Polari Group to advance on the regulatory pathway, expand the team, prepare for establishing the manufacturing line, and reach a larger community of users.
In this sector, we recently saw an Indian startup Kindly and female-led Hale raise funding.
Who is behind the company?
Polari Group was founded in 2023 by Anna Vybornova, an EPFL and MIT-trained bioengineer, and Dr Henry Blest, a chemist and immunologist with a PhD from the University of Oxford. The founders first met at Entrepreneur First and combined their expertise to start Polari Group.
Anna was the first employee of Aktiia, a competitor to Apple Watch, where she contributed to developing and bringing to market a proprietary AI-driven wearable technology for hypertension management and monitoring. Henry is an expert in virology, having spent the past six years researching sexually transmitted infections, including herpes simplex virus and HIV. He discovered new ways in which these viruses evade the immune response during his time at Oxford University.
What does Polari Group do?
As per Polari’s estimation, 167.7 million people in the UK, US, and Europe engage in anal sex, and approximately 2.8 billion anal sex acts occur yearly in these regions. The company, dedicated to helping people enjoy more spontaneous and hassle-free anal sex, aims to address and reduce the stigma surrounding anal sex, often perpetuated by lingering homophobia.
The stigma and the lack of sexual education around the topic prevent people from openly discussing their sexual practices with medical professionals when they encounter struggles. It is targeting a diverse demographic to reduce stigma and promote inclusive sexual wellness, including recent talks at Oxford University and Google UK.
In the future, Polari Group aims to offer the first anorectal health and pleasure platform, integrating medical innovation, education, and platform-based services. Furthermore, the company has set up the world’s first anal sex lab to study and improve anal health and pleasure. It collaborates with doctors and scientists to establish a better understanding of how anal sex works, how faecal accidents happen, and how to make this experience more comfortable. The goal is to expand to a larger line of proprietary products for anal health and pleasure in the future.
Anna Vybornova, founder and CEO of Polari Group, said: “Shame lives in silence and so does the lack of innovation. My mission is to empower people to have the sexual lives they want with the best long-term outcomes for their health. Because of stigma, anal health and pleasure have not benefited from the cutting-edge innovation available in the 21st century and there are still millions of people whose sexual experiences have been marginalised and who must use DIY solutions. Polari aims to change that.”
Dr Henry Blest, founder and CTO of Polari Group, said: “As a medical scientist and bottom, I find it shocking anorectal health is chronically under-researched. I believe this is due to the stigma associated with anal sex. My goal is to improve the life of anyone with an anus. This is why I have taken a vow to not stop talking about anal douching. I am commonly told ‘It is not the time or the place’ but frankly, these problems persist because it has never been the time or the place. If queer history has taught me anything, it is that no one is more effective than a pissed-off homosexual and I refuse to let LGBTQIA+ sexual health be overlooked.”
Investors’ views
The investors’ comments about this round are as follows:
Christian Tooley, an angel investor at Ada Ventures and founder of i3 investing, commented: “Polari Group isn’t just an investable startup with great prospective returns, but has the potential to be a movement that disrupts the entire queer community, revolutionising the Med/SexTech space. I only invest in impactful innovation – and that’s what Anna and Henry are wholeheartedly building.”
Carmen Fong, MD and colorectal surgeon, co-director of Haemorrhoids Center of America, commented: “I have patients that have tried all types of practices to prevent faecal contamination during receptive anal intercourse, including various forms of anal douching. Polari aims to provide an alternative to these practices, specifically, but on a larger scale, their work will open up the conversation about sexual health related to receptive anal intercourse and anorectal health in general, topics that still seem taboo and shouldn’t be. The more we talk about it, the more people will be likely to find solutions and not have to struggle in silence.”
Tobias Rijken, Ventures Together said: “Polari’s founders, Anna and Henry, have deeply impressed me with their bold vision and sheer passion for the problems in anorectal health. Their relentless energy has already led to breakthroughs in this overlooked field. The founders are my primary investment driver and if anyone can reimagine the world of anorectal health it is Anna and Henry!”
Ben Stokes, Chasing Rainbows said: “As a fund, we’re deeply committed to ensuring that LGBTQIA+ founders get the access to capital they need to be successful. Henry and Anna are two examples of exemplary founders who are solving big problems (not just for the LGBTQIA+ community), and yet they faced discrimination when trying to access capital. It is a privilege to be one of their earliest investors, and beyond that, I look forward to the outsized returns they, along with other LGBTQIA+ founders will deliver.”
Yifei Wang, Little Green Bamboo said: “At Little Green Bamboo, we strive to leave the world a bit better than the way we found it. We back Polari because Anna and Henry are working zealously to give people more choices, and thus more freedom. To us, choice is one of the greatest virtues available to humanity, particularly for underserved communities. Lastly, we have faith in the confluence of humility and ambition in Henry and Anna, and are excited to watch them grow and pursue future opportunities.”
