The model, film actress and philanthropist Natalia Vodianova is taking women’s health into her own hands as she has made an investment in mobile app Flo — which helps women track their health symptoms, periods, moods and more. Vodianova invested as part of a $5 million Series A round led by Flint Capital.
After downloading, women plug their health details into a user-friendly interface. From there, Flo suggests relevant health blurbs, tips, and discussion boards where women can communicate honestly and anonymously. Vodianova is also taking a seat on Flo’s board.
“The period tracker is the tip of the iceberg,” Vodianova said. “You discover all this amazing, very curated to your personal needs, content, which is delivered in a very nice way — very easy to digest in short messages.”
“It’s completely anonymous, so [women] discuss anything from anal sex to HPV, and whatever women may discuss,” Vodianova continued.
After friends introduced her to the app and its founder, Yuri Gurski, Vodianova brought up the part of Flo that really piqued her interest, she said.
“The most frequent thing I was reading in Flo Forums is, ‘Oh my God, I’m not alone,’” she said. “Behind this platform is the potential of conversations that have not been brought up.”
For Flo, one of the next steps is additional languages. Right now, the app is in English and Russian, and later this year will come out in French and German, Vodianova said.
Flo isn’t Vodianova’s first tech undertaking. She founded charity app Elbi, which aims to connect do-gooders with charities, in 2013. Elbi is the exclusive charity partner to Flo, Vodianova said. She’s also involved with PicsArt, an image-collecting app, creating an editing platform (complete with gifs and memes, Vodianova notes). “I became the head of aspiration,” Vodianova said. “Basically, I’m head of fun.”
