49. Maven Clinic

Founder: Kate Ryder (CEO)
Launched: 2014
Headquarters: New York City
Funding: $300 million
Valuation: $1.3 billion
Key technologies: N/A
Industry: Health care
Previous appearances on Disruptor 50 List: 2 (No. 21 in 2023)

Maven Clinic has grown into the largest women's and family health platform, with at least 17 million lives under management.

Offering technology-based care for fertility, pregnancy, and parenting, Maven has grown quickly from a service that in its very early days was popular with college students seeking quick telehealth advice, to a global digital health program being used by the largest corporations and health plans, and to cover a wide range of issues, from menopause (the fastest-growing product in its nearly decade-long history) to family health. Maven is quick to point out that for all of the focus on its reproductive health offerings, many of its members are men.

In August 2023, Maven made its biggest deal yet in the corporate market, partnering with Amazon to provide family-building benefits in over 50 countries, a deal reaching over one million employees. In February, Maven expanded a deal with existing client AT&T to its entire U.S. workforce, spanning 125,000 employees. After an international expansion boosted by an acquisition of a London-based firm in 2022, Maven now serves members in 175-plus countries.

Late last year, Maven also backed up some of its key work with peer-reviewed publications, issuing 10 peer-reviewed studies on the health outcomes from virtual care, specifically, in the case of virtual doulas. It found reduced need for C-sections, especially among Black patients, when virtual doula care was received.

Maven founder and CEO Kate Ryder, who was also named to CNBC's inaugural Changemakers list this year, has focused on disparities in health care from the beginning: stats like the fact that 50% of U.S. counties were without a single OB-GYN, contributing to what she has described as "galling" racial disparities across fertility, maternity, and pediatric care. The U.S., the richest country in the world, has the highest maternal mortality rate in the industrialized world.

Maven has received significant attention for its health niche in the aftermath of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, and the wave of state battles over abortion that now continue. But Ryder maintains that no business will be successful if it's founded on politics. Ryder stressed in an appearance at CNBC's Changemakers Summit this year that it's never about politics as a starting point – it's about implementing a vision that the company has had from Day One. "Whatever you start, you better really love the problem you are trying to solve in the next 10-20 years, and I thought, 'What better problem than solving gaps in women's and family health?'" she said.

Maven now has over 2,000 corporate clients, covering every state, and Ryder said it's been "less difficult than you might think" to deal with the politics, by having the mission in place — access to healthcare. "So every time there is a challenge to access it goes against our mission," she said. "Whether Roe v. Wade or … Alabama, those were challenges to access, to essential care, and it's unambiguous. We are not a political company. We are apolitical. We are a health-care company, and what is best for patient outcomes has been very black and white for us." 

Currently, Maven is focused a lot on state Medicaid programs, since over 40% of births in the U.S. are covered by Medicaid. Maven is also focused on a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) initiative to provide U.S. states up to $17 million each over a decade to improve maternal care outcomes.