LOS ANGELES — Healthy Pleasure Group (HPG), the global outfit dedicated to sexual health and technology has launched Amboy Street Ventures (ASV), which is billed as the world’s first venture capital fund currently in the market focused on sexual health for all genders and women’s health technology startups.
Its first two investments are in Dame Products, the female-focused sexual wellness brand and Gennev, the digital health platform for women in menopause.
ASV is named after the first-ever U.S. birth control clinic at 46 Amboy Street in New York, which was opened in 1916 when prescribing and distributing information about birth control and contraception was illegal. This clinic marked a pivotal progression in the women’s health and sexual health space.
ASV said it seeks to cover all investment areas in the sexual and women’s health industry across medtech, femtech, sextech, healthtech, telehealth and wellness.
The venture is headed up by HPG CEO Dominnique Karetsos and urologist and co-founder, Dr Maria Peraza Godoy, who say they have created an ecosystem of businesses dedicated to solving the common issues that brands in “this stigmatized market.”
ASV’s three female principals also includes Founding Partner Carli Sapir. Together, they bring over 50 years of investment, commercial and medical experience to the fund.
Sapir commented, “We believe billion-dollar companies will emerge in order to bridge the gap between the underserved sexual and women’s health tech space and the needs of today’s society. We are female investors who are living through the issues facing women. We know the potential to help drive the market and make genuine change happen.”
Karetsos added, “From family planning to porn and the lack of anything in between, for too long our industry has been underserved. ASV strives for consistency in education, innovation and investment in the often overlooked sexual and women’s health tech space. Our agenda is to bring about behavioral change and ultimately affect social change globally.”
ASV is focused on Seed and Series A investments in America and Europe. To learn more, visit AmboyStreet.vc.