HERmesa backs Peripear to reduce childbirth injuries at scale

HERmesa is pleased to announce its investment in Peripear, a femtech and medtech startup developing an adhesive, wearable device that delivers controlled heat and moisture to the perineum during labour, automating a clinically proven approach to reducing childbirth injury. The investment forms part of a £1.2m pre-seed round, which also saw participation from Zinc, SyndicateRoom, Mint, InvestinWomen and Femtech Lab, alongside angel investors including Andrea Sinclair and Gail Armstrong of Lavender Ventures, together with non-dilutive grant funding from Innovate UK.

Perineal tearing affects up to 90% of vaginal births, creating lasting physical and emotional consequences for mothers and placing significant cost and resource pressure on maternity units. Warm compresses have been shown to reduce these injuries by as much as 50%, but their manual, time-intensive application means they are rarely used consistently on busy labour wards.

Peripear automates this proven intervention, freeing midwives and clinicians from having to hold a compress in place by hand during the second stage of labour. The company was co-founded by Nina van Schaick, a midwife with 14 years of NHS and private practice experience, and Eviatar Natan, a medtech entrepreneur with a track record scaling healthtech startups.

This funding carries the company into its next phase of clinical, regulatory and product development, including First-in-Human testing in partnership with NUHS Singapore in 2027.

“When only a small minority can deliver best practice, the problem isn’t effort. It’s design. I brought what I was seeing in practice, and I brought the evidence that already existed but simply wasn’t being used consistently. Peripear exists because the standard of care couldn’t possibly be the best we could do,”
Nina van Schaick, co-founder of Peripear

“We are excited about Peripear because they offer a smart solution built on proven clinical principles to a huge, painful and underserved problem in maternal health. Nina and Eviatar are a great team with the right expertise to build in this category and have created strong momentum across clinical, regulatory and commercial milestones.”
Wibke Stoffers, Partner at HERmesa

Find out more about Peripear. Connect with Nina Van Schaick.