Jennis

Jennis is a women's health and fitness app based in London, England, that provides personalized movement and training recommendations aligned with individual hormonal and menstrual cycles. The subscription-based platform leverages science-backed expertise to optimize workouts, nutrition, sleep, and breathing across the four phases of the menstrual cycle, aiming for improved training results and body literacy for its users. The company has an estimated annual revenue of $6.3 million and an estimated valuation of $20.3 million, employing between 51 and 100 individuals. Jennis has raised a total of £1.4 million in funding, including a £1 million pre-seed round led by Maki.vc, with Venrex also an existing investor. This funding supported a five-month study into period cycles and team expansion. Co-founded by Olympic champion Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill and Jane Cowmeadow, Jennis was established in 2019.

High-Level Overview

Jennis is a femtech startup founded in 2019 by Olympic champion Jessica Ennis-Hill, offering a women's hormonal health platform that provides education, fitness, lifestyle, nutrition guides, and symptom reduction tools tailored to menstrual cycles.[2][4] It serves women who exercise regularly, helping them train, eat, and sleep in sync with their hormonal phases to optimize energy, muscle gains, and wellbeing—addressing the lack of accessible, evidence-based guidance on cycle-synced fitness.[2][4] The company raised £1 million in a pre-seed round in 2023 led by Maki.vc, with participation from Venrex and angels, to fund research, team growth, and tech enhancements like its cycle-mapping function; it operates from Weston-Super-Mare, England, and competes in the booming period-tracking app market alongside Flo Health and Wild.AI.[2][4]

Jennis stands out by leveraging Ennis-Hill's athlete expertise to deliver science-backed recommendations across the four menstrual phases, targeting amateur exercisers underserved by generic fitness apps.[2]

Origin Story

Jessica Ennis-Hill, a retired Olympic heptathlon gold medalist, launched Jennis in 2019 after recognizing a gap in hormonal health resources for women—drawing from her professional access to elite coaching on cycles, training, and recovery, which everyday women lack.[2] The idea emerged from her passion to democratize this knowledge through tech, starting as a platform for trusted fitness and hormone insights.[2][4] Early traction included a 2023 app update with cycle-mapping features; a pivotal £1M pre-seed raise that year fueled a five-month study on everyday athletes' hormones, team expansion (especially engineers), and product iteration, marking its shift toward evidence-driven growth.[2]

Core Differentiators

• Athlete-Founded Expertise: Backed by Ennis-Hill's real-world experience, Jennis provides phase-specific (follicular, ovulatory, luteal, menstrual) training, nutrition, and sleep advice—proven to boost efficiency, unlike generic apps.[2]
• Scientific Validation Focus: Investments fund user studies to generate "game-changing evidence" on hormones for fitness, closing research gaps and building credibility.[2]
• Targeted USP for Active Women: Unlike broad trackers like Flo, it specializes in cycle-synced programs for regular exercisers, emphasizing lean gains and energy.[2][4]
• Tech and Community Growth: Expanding engineering for personalized tools; partnerships like with The Players Fund engage female athletes as investors, fostering a network.[4]

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Jennis rides the femtech wave, where period-tracking apps have exploded in popularity amid rising awareness of women's health post-pandemic, with millions of downloads for peers like Natural Cycles and Flo.[2] Timing aligns with scientific advances in hormone research and VC interest in underserved female wellness—market forces like diverse investor pushes (e.g., Maki.vc's focus on science-driven founders) and athlete-entrepreneurs amplify its momentum.[2] It influences the ecosystem by pioneering cycle-fitness data for amateurs, potentially setting standards for personalized health tech and broadening VC access for women-led startups.[2][4]

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Jennis is poised to scale with study-backed proof-of-concept, likely expanding into enterprise wellness for businesses and global markets as femtech funding rebounds.[2][4] Trends like AI-personalized health and hormonal equity will shape it, evolving from app to comprehensive platform—potentially partnering more with sports orgs given Ennis-Hill's network. Its influence may grow by proving cycle-syncing drives real outcomes, inspiring a new wave of evidence-led femtech and empowering women in fitness like Ennis-Hill did on the track.[2]