The start-up is striving to improve newborn baby care and make it accessible to all.

• A home pregnancy monitoring device has been created by Singapore-based startup Biorithm for women to use during their pregnancies.
• The app receives information on the mother and baby's heart rate from the device, Femom, and transmits it to clinicians.
• The World Health Organization stated that an "unacceptably high" number of almost 800 women died daily from "preventable causes" during pregnancy or childbirth in 2020.

In 2022, approximately 6,500 babies died each day during their first 20 days of life, totaling more than 2 million deaths, as reported by the World Health Organization.

The WHO stated that almost 800 women died daily from "avoidable reasons" during pregnancy or childbirth in 2020, which is considered "unacceptable."

Biorithm, a Singapore-based startup, aims to address the issue of pregnancy monitoring with a device that women can use at home. The device transmits information about the baby's heart rate directly to clinicians via a connected mobile app for review.

Amrish Nair, Biorithm's chief technology officer and co-founder, stated that women's health care has primarily focused on treating sick women rather than promoting wellness.

"Our goal is to give women more control through technology, allowing them to receive care in their preferred location instead of being confined to hospitals," he stated during an interview with CNBC's "CNBC Tech: The Edge."

The Femom device, created by Biorithm, tracks both the mother and baby's heart rates, making it easy to use with the navel as a reference point. It can be used during contractions to provide clinicians with important information for interventions.

According to Sihem Tedjar, Biorithm's product development lead, monitoring takes approximately 20 to 30 minutes.

"The usability and design work of the device lie in its ease of use for non-trained individuals or non-healthcare professionals," Tedjar stated. The device, Femom, has five electrodes that capture electrical signals at the abdomen's surface and transmit information to a dashboard accessible to medical staff.

Dr Thiam Chye Tan, a startup mentor at Biorithm, stated that this device answers a fundamental question of all parents: "How well is my baby?"

A 'collapse of maternal care'

Nair stated in an online statement that the collapse of maternal care is caused by socio-economic factors and a lack of monitoring technology.

In 2020, almost 95% of maternal deaths occurred in lower- and middle-income countries, according to the WHO. In 2016, the WHO attempted to improve antenatal care and reduce the risk of pregnancy complications by issuing guidance to increase the number of contacts a pregnant woman has with health-care providers from four to eight.

The global market for medical devices is expected to increase from $542 billion in 2024 to $887 billion by 2032, according to Fortune Business Insights. Biorithm, a spin-off from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, is currently being used in clinical research settings.

In 2023, Biorithm secured $3.5 million in Series A funding from Enterprise Singapore and Adaptive Capital Partners, which the company is utilizing for the development of Femom and its expansion in the U.S. and Southeast Asia.

"Funding for women's health has always been a challenge, and it hasn't been a top priority in medical technology," said Nair to CNBC.

"We have received funding from women who have invested in us since the beginning, and now we have funds led by women who have invested in us," he stated.

Nair stated that the evolution of the funding landscape for women's health has been encouraging, although more needs to be done to make a significant impact.