FoodLabs and Eka Ventures lead $6M seed round for female-led menstrual health startup DITTO — TFN

• FoodLabs and Eka Ventures led a $6 million seed round for DITTO, a menstrual health startup founded by women.
• Women in DITTO’s community often print the company’s research and bring it to their doctors.
• This funding will help DITTO expand its PMS and PMDD supplement and support new trials exploring a possible link between PMDD and ADHD.

DITTO, a UK-based menstrual health startup led by women, has raised a $6 million seed round led by FoodLabs, with Eka Ventures also returning after leading its £1.35 million pre-seed round in August 2025.

This investment comes after women in DITTO’s community began sharing the company’s research with their doctors.

“They’re finally feeling validated. They go to the doctor time and time again and they’re dismissed, being told their symptoms are not connected, what they’re dealing with is normal… they finally feel like a sense of validation, like I was right all along,” Alice van der Schoot, the neuroscientist-turned-nutrition-scientist who founded DITTO, tells Tech Funding News, describing what happens when women who’ve been dismissed by doctors finally see their symptoms backed by evidence.

Combining both disclosed rounds, DITTO has now raised $6 million plus £1.35 million in total funding, or roughly $7.7 million at current exchange rates.

The guidance problem

Van der Schoot noticed a gap between what scientific research says and the advice women actually get.

“The healthcare guidance in the UK suggests women massage their tummy or have a warm bath,” she says. van der Schoot contrasts this with data showing 90% of women experience mild to severe PMS, 86% report mood symptoms related to their cycle, and 62% report severe pain.

Her approach bridges neuroscience and nutrition science, fields she trained in, and she believes the menstrual cycle lies at their intersection. This research supports DITTO’s flagship product, the Cycle Supplement, co-developed with female scientists like gynaecologist Dr Anita Mitra.

The supplement targets PMS and PMDD using beadlet-in-oil delivery technology to time-release 10 clinically supported ingredients. In a clinical trial, 88% of participants reported reduced symptom severity.

From lab videos to a 300,000-person community

Van der Schoot emphasises that the supplement is part of a broader effort to extract findings from paywalled journals and make them accessible. “It falls under the radar and doesn’t get shared much. It’s locked in academic journals the general public can’t access,” she says.

This approach has grown DITTO’s community to 300,000 members in 18 months, up from 116,000 at its pre-seed round in August 2025.

The community is now guiding DITTO toward a systematic review of the overlap between PMDD and ADHD. Over the next 12 months, van der Schoot aims to conduct three additional clinical trials and publish five papers.

An investor case built on trust, not just growth

DITTO’s team has expanded from two co-founders, van der Schoot and Adam Kugler, a former L’Oréal brand director, to 15 employees since its founding in 2024. The team now includes a gynaecologist and a women’s health GP as medical advisors.

“In the market of menstrual health, clinical evidence is becoming the price of entry, and the first company to set that standard is the one everyone else gets measured against,” says Flo Breiner, an operating partner at FoodLabs.

Camilla Dolan, general partner at Eka Ventures, calls the thesis straightforward: “The science earns trust, and trust is what scales a brand… that combination is hard to find, and it’s precisely what we want to back.”

The category DITTO is entering has traditionally relied on herbal remedies rather than clinical trial data. Semaine Health, a New York-based PMS and menopause supplement brand, has raised an undisclosed amount from Ocampo Capital. Wile, a plant-based hormonal wellness brand for perimenopausal women over 40, raised $3 million in pre-seed funding before its acquisition by Nameless CPG in May 2024.

Neither company has published clinical trials on their core formulations at DITTO’s scale. Flo and Clue, well-known in consumer tech for period tracking, are software providers rather than supplement manufacturers.

The global PMS and menstrual health supplements market was valued at $22.6 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach $35 billion by 2030, according to Grand View Research.

DITTO’s research has yet to be validated at scale. However, van der Schoot notes that the impact is already evident: women are sharing printed studies with their doctors, prompting more informed discussions.