Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios

President Trump’s IVF expansion order includes cost-cutting policy recommendations which could impact the venture-backed financing business.

Why it matters: The procedure’s high cost sees many people turn to financing, and private companies offering health care financing have risen in popularity in recent years.

By the numbers: A single IVF cycle can cost up to $30,000, and with an age-dependent success rate between 38% and 49%, most people need two to three rounds to have a child.

Follow the money: As the fertility business develops, venture-backed insurance startups such as Sunfish and Gaia have raised fresh funds.

• The companies’ fertility financing tools are aimed at reducing sticker shock and helping people better plan, prepare and fund their fertility journeys.

Context: IVF generally enjoys broad support among American consumers and investors, and only a quarter of employers report offering some type of financial coverage, per the White House.

• “Fertility care turns out to be one of the few things all Americans agree on,” Gaia CEO Nader AlSalim told Axios in January when the company secured $14 million led by Peter Thiel-founded Valar Ventures.
• It’s also backed by Elon Musk, who’s used IVF to conceive several children.

Yes, but: IVF has been problematic for some in the anti-abortion movement, who object to the destruction of surplus embryos created through the process.

• “This is certainly something that the president is going to have to reconcile with people in his own party,” Barbara Collura, CEO of Resolve: The National Infertility Association, told Axios.

What they’re saying: With awareness around infertility on the rise, two fertility insurance startup leaders told Axios last month they benefited from a smoother fundraising process compared with two or three years ago.

Case in point: Sunfish CEO Angela Rastegar said the path to raising the company’s Series A this January was much simpler compared with its 2022 seed.

• “We went from kickoff to term sheet in six weeks,” Rastegar told Axios in January.
• That’s compared with Rastegar’s fundraising experience in 2022, which she said required “a lot of explaining to the VC community of what IVF was, what the process was [and] why it was important.”