Natural Cycles and WHOOP Partner to Integrate Continuous Sensing

Natural Cycles and WHOOP partnered to integrate continuous sensing from a wristband feeding the first digital method of contraception to receive FDA De Novo authorization, placing clinical-grade fertility guidance directly on hardware users already wear to bed. Millions of people who already owned the hardware gained an FDA-authorized clinical tool without buying a new device, while a women’s health company expanded its reach without surrendering its hard-won credential.

Neither company had to buy the other, and each retained the asset that made the partnership valuable. Natural Cycles kept its authorization, while WHOOP supplied the sensor and membership base. For founders, the agreement serves as a template demonstrating how clearance, data rights, exclusivity, and exit terms dictate whether a partnership builds a lasting business or leaves a company dependent on its partner.

Wearables Acquire Clinical Claims Through Licensing and FDA Clearance

The pattern of licensing cleared algorithms across new sensors and user bases extends back through previous industry agreements. In 2022, Natural Cycles integrated with Oura, and subsequently partnered with Apple Watch temperature sensing. Meanwhile, individual hardware companies pursued their own FDA clearances, with Apple securing clearance for ECG and atrial fibrillation features, Fitbit clearing an algorithm for irregular rhythm detection, and Samsung following with cardiac clearances.

These developments illustrate how consumer wearables acquire regulated clinical claims through both building and licensing. Because signals such as temperature, heart rate variability, and sleep map directly onto cycle, fertility, and hormonal health, night measurements capture previously understudied physiology at scale, with regulatory clearance turning those measurements into medicine.

Investors Prioritize Femtech Companies with Clinical Validation

Roughly $2 billion was directed into women’s health and femtech in 2025. This funding shift has brought larger checks into fewer companies as investors back established businesses rather than early experiments. Rather than funding undifferentiated seed-stage tracking apps, capital increasingly targets companies with clinical validation, regulatory clearance, or diagnostics businesses across fertility and cycle tracking, menopause, maternal health, and hormone and lab testing.