Meet the Founders - LatchAid
A female-founded business using AI and immersive technology to support mothers with their breastfeeding choices.
When we sat down with Chen Davies, CEO and Founder at LatchAid, we were shocked to hear that 90% of women give up breastfeeding before they want to. Not only does the UK have the worst breastfeeding rates in the world but the infrastructure to provide adequate support was hit incredibly negatively by the pandemic, leaving thousands of new mothers in a state of unsupported limbo. Chen explained that she was faced with struggles and unexpected difficulty when breastfeeding as a new mother and felt the existing system wasn’t able to meet her needs. Based on this she envisioned a tech-led app that would provide 24/7 lactation support, a community space to talk to other mothers and animations to help her through difficult times. With this vision, LatchAid was born. To date, LatchAid has secured impressive fundraising grants to develop the AI and machine learning components of the app; it listed in the top 50 medical apps on the Apple Store and has been licensed as a prescription app. Scroll on to read about Chen’s inspiring transition from an Oscar winning visual effects artist to one of the UK’s leading women in innovation.
1. Describe your startup in two sentences.
Sadly 90% of women give up breastfeeding before they want to, LatchAid is an award-winning FemTech startup using cutting-edge 3D interactive & Artificial Intelligence technology to support women through their breastfeeding & parenthood journeys. At LatchAid, we believe that all mothers deserve support and empowerment to give their child the best start in life.
2. What gave you the inspiration?
I hold a PhD in Computer Graphics & Animation. Before LatchAid, I had a dream career of creating breath-taking Visual Effects for feature films including Gravity and Blade Runners 2049, winning Oscar and BAFTA awards for Best Visual Effects.
My life course changed completely after I became a mother and experienced tremendous breastfeeding challenges. Struggling to achieve a good latch, I suffered from breast infections, baby's weight loss, and postpartum depression. My lived experience and technical expertise motivated me to found LatchAid to revolutionise breastfeeding and motherhood support.
Breastfeeding is a learned skill requiring sufficient peer-to-peer and professional support. The current support in the UK is patchy, under-funded, and reliant on face-to-face delivery, paralysed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sadly, for too many women, their breastfeeding journey is a desperate downward spiral. 90% of mothers give up before they want to due to lack of support, pain/health issues, and feelings of isolation and depression. The UK has the worst breastfeeding rate in the world with an astonishing 81% to 1% drop-out rate.
LatchAid is a pioneering app that utilises cutting-edge 3D technology to help women learn breastfeeding skills intuitively from 3D avatars, virtual support groups to connect mothers to a close-knit peer-to-peer support network, and an AI-powered virtual supporter chatbot, leveraging empathetic AI and 1-1 live expert chats, to provide mothers with personalised expertise and companionship 24/7.
3. What has been your greatest success to date? And your greatest challenge?
One of the greatest successes to date for LatchAid has been our B2C & B2B traction. We have over 2,500 total registered users from 20 countries across 6 continents. We’ve run App pilots with 12 NHS trusts in 4 large UK regions and VirginCare amongst 5000 new mothers; discussing 3-month licenses bulk purchases with VirginCare and Lancashire CCGs. We have won £260k in competitive funding from Innovate UK, EU, UnLtd, NHS Improvement, including winning a record 3 Innovate UK funding competitions in a year. Additionally, we undertook a beta study that showed we helped 70% of breastfeeding mothers improve confidence and skills in just 4 weeks. 80% of the participants said they would recommend the LatchAid app to others. This year I was also the recipient of the Innovate UK Women in Innovation Award, where I was recognised as a top female innovator in the UK. One of our biggest challenges has been communicating to people (who often don’t have first-hand experience) why breastfeeding and new motherhood is challenging for so many women.
4. What kind of impact is your business having and how do you measure it?
At LatchAid, impact is at the core of our business. As you will soon find out, our impact extends beyond improving wellbeing and life expectancy of mothers – we are also scaling a business that is helping to reduce the mass environmental impact of formula production.
Improving well-being & life expectancy sits at the heart of LatchAid’s purpose. A UNICEF report states, “breastfeeding is critical for the achievement of many UN's Sustainable Development Goals”. It improves nutrition (SDG 2) prevents child mortality and lowers risk of disease (SDG3), and supports education and cognitive development (SDG4). Failing to breastfeed costs the global economy 1 billion dollars in health system loss and lost productivity due to premature deaths and human capital losses. By providing 24/7 breastfeeding support, LatchAid helps to improve breastfeeding initiation and continuation rates and women’s feeling of self-efficacy.
LatchAid is also passionate in tackling health inequalities by providing accessible, affordable, and scalable breastfeeding education and support to families for improved health, well-being, and life expectancy, regardless of their races/culture or socioeconomic background.
Reducing the mass environmental impact of formula is also a focus area of LatchAid. Formula milk production and consumption significantly contribute to waste disposal, pressure on natural resources, pollution and climate change. In contrast, breastfeeding uses few resources, produces minimal/zero waste, zero greenhouse gases, zero water footprint, and is free. The associated infant/maternal health outcomes produce healthier populations that use fewer healthcare resources.
The potential carbon emission reduction can be calculated using increased breastfeeding exclusivity/lengths because breastfeeding for six months saves an estimated 95-153 kg CO2 equivalent per baby compared with formula feeding.
Our impact can be measured and demonstrated from our Beta user study, upcoming NHS & VirginCare trials, and future user studies and usage data. More details can be found here.
5. How has Covid affected your business?
Covid-19 paralysed the current breastfeeding support system because support groups were shut nationwide and little face-to-face support from midwives and health visitors were available. We distributed a UK-wide survey about how Covid has impacted women’s breastfeeding experiences, 81% of respondents felt that they were not getting sufficient breastfeeding support due to social distancing measures and 75% responded that they were feeling isolated.
The pandemic highlighted the urgent need for 24/7 digital breastfeeding and new motherhood support which we offer at LatchAid. We won a total of £220,000 grant funding last year by winning a record 3 Innovate UK funding competitions (including the most competitive Covid-19 rapid response fund in the Innovate UK’s history) and Q exchange award funded by The Health Foundation and NHS Improvement.
The Innovate UK funding enabled us to develop our core USPs, expanding to maternal mental health support (through sentiment AI technology), and launch our product on the Apple App Store this year. The Q exchange award funded us to run large scale pilots with 12 NHS trusts and VirginCare and to become a licensed prescription app.
6. When you were little what did you want to be when you grew up?
Changing the world!
7. If you weren’t doing this, what would be your plan B?
Innovation is needed for public health. It was my dream to be a little part of the Hollywood industry, but I knew I could do something more; I could change people’s lives. I am also passionate about using innovation to solve social, environmental, and economical challenges.
8. What would you save in a fire?
My family, laptop, phone, passport and purse.
9. Who is your role model/ greatest influence? And why?
Inspiring female role models: Ada Lovelace, Marie Curie, Florence Nightingale , Audrey Hepburn, Jucinda Ardern.
My mother – she is a strong woman with great resilience and entrepreneurial spirit!
10. What is your happy track?
Rainbow by Kacey Musgraves
11. What are your company values?
a) Every mother deserves support and empowerment to give their child the best start in life
b) Together we nurture and change the landscape of public health
12. What are you most looking forward to in 2021?
a) Successful NHS & VirginCare pilot
b) Successful fundraise
c) Achieving a great product and impact
d) Rapidly expanded team and customer base