Fertility Startup Gameto Raises $44 Million to Test Egg-Freezing Therapy in US

Gameto Inc., a biotech company working on stem-cell therapies for women’s health, has raised $44 million in venture capital to help fund a clinical trial for its product that aims to improve the egg-freezing experience.

The funding round, led by Overwater Ventures, will let Gameto bring its Fertilo therapy closer to US Food and Drug Administration approval. The technique, which uses stem cells that have been engineered into ovarian support cells, is intended to free patients from the grueling two weeks of injections that prompt ovaries to make enough eggs during fertility treatment. In a Phase 3 trial, patients are only given three days of injections, after which their eggs are extracted and matured by the engineered cells.