The microbiome has been a beauty buzzword for the past year, from skincare launches like Cultured to testing services such as Kind to Biome and Skin Trust Club, as well as microbiome-friendly fragrances by Givaudan. When it comes to wider health implications, the core focus of microbiome health has been on the gut, with the wellness market awash with prebiotic, probiotic, and postbiotic supplements. But for female-bodied people, an entire avenue had been overlooked, until now.

Priyanka Jain and Laine Bruzek founded the at-home vaginal microbiome testing kit Evvy in hopes of not only destigmatizing vaginal health, but giving consumers personal agency and straightforward tools for managing it. Both Jain and Bruzek are Stanford University alumni, but Jain’s background was in algorithm building as Head of Product at soft-skills platform pymetrics, while Bruzek worked as Team Lead at Google Creative Labs. Together they fused Jain’s passion for harnessing data science to drive equality, and Bruzek’s brand-building skills to fund the company with a $5 million seeding round in July 2021. Investors included General Catalyst, Box Group, Virtue, Human Ventures, G9 Ventures, and BBG Ventures, among others.