VELLA Pre-seed overview · 2026 1 / 15 Download PDF

VELLA pre-seed investor overview

VELLA

Pre-seed overview · 2026

The touchless standard for intimate skin drying

A portable, thermally-regulated air dryer that removes friction from perineal and intimate care — for postpartum recovery, limited mobility, infants, and bidet households.

Raising

$750K pre-seed

Stage

DFM prototype

The VELLA device docked beside its four colour-coded hygiene heads.
01

The status quo

Drying is the one hygiene step nobody has engineered

Paper

Abrasive, contact-based, and unusable over stitches, tears, or broken skin. It is the default because there is no alternative.

Towels

Reusable, shared, and stored damp — a friction problem and a bioburden problem in the same object.

Bidets

Solved washing, then stopped. Built-in warm-air dryers are seat-bound, slow, and unavailable to the 88% of homes without a smart seat.

Reaching is the second failure: bending and twisting to wipe is precisely what post-surgical, late-pregnancy, obese, and elderly bodies cannot do.

02

The clinical cost of friction

Residual moisture and friction are treated conditions, not preferences

MASD

Trapped moisture macerates skin, friction breaches it, infection follows. Prevention guidance is explicit: dry thoroughly, without rubbing.

IAD

Incontinence-associated dermatitis drives perineal skin breakdown in aged and long-term care, and is a documented precursor to pressure injury.

Perineal wounds

Most vaginal births involve tearing or episiotomy. Wound protocols call for a clean, dry perineum — achieved today by patting with paper.

Prevalence and cost figures to be inserted from our literature review before external circulation. VELLA is positioned as a general wellness device; no therapeutic claim is made in market.

03

The device

A wellness appliance, not a bathroom gadget

Matte soft-touch shell, single tactile button, magnetic dock that purges moisture between uses. Discreet enough to leave on the counter.

Cycle
33 seconds
Air temp
38–43 °C
Weight
330 g
Reach
310 mm · 128°
VELLA docked beside folded towels and a bar of soap.
04

How it works

Three engineered systems, one 33-second cycle

Two VELLA handles at different neck angles.

01 · REACH

Modular ergonomic handle

128° neck and 310 mm reach for seated, one-handed use. Head detaches for cleaning or per-user replacement.

Close-up of the VELLA precision nozzle.

02 · SAFETY

Smart thermal sensor

Outlet air sampled 100×/second and hard-capped at 43 °C. Anti-scald by architecture, not by warning label.

Detachable colour-coded hygiene heads beside the dock.

03 · HYGIENE

UVC sterilisation loop

Intake passes a sealed UVC-LED chamber; the dock purges and irradiates the nozzle after every cycle.

05

Defensibility

Four layers, none of them the motor

  1. 01Utility filings on the 45 × 3.5 mm converging air slot, chevron lip, and 128° fixed-neck geometry — the parts that make airflow effective at close range without splatter.
  2. 02Thermal safety envelope — closed-loop control validated for mucosal-adjacent skin, the hardest thing for a fast follower to copy without a test protocol.
  3. 03Consumable head — a per-user, replaceable hygiene head creates recurring revenue and a reason not to buy a generic body.
  4. 04Category ownership — the clinician and doula channels that recommend the first device in a new category define the category.
Cutaway of the VELLA head showing the hooded air slot and internal air path.
06

Segments

Four markets, one appliance

VELLA docked beside a peri bottle and recovery kit.

Postpartum

Drying over stitches and tears without contact. Highest pain, shortest decision.

VELLA docked within easy reach on a counter.

Accessibility

Seated, one-handed reach for those who cannot bend or twist. Carer-hours saved.

VELLA docked on a changing table beside baby-care items.

Infant care

Dry skin is the whole diaper-rash strategy. Low-heat pass, every fold, seconds.

VELLA docked beside folded towels on a bathroom counter.

Bidet households

The missing half of wash-and-dry. Largest volume, most gift-driven demand.

07

Market size

Bottom-up US sizing at a $189 device ASP

TAM

$8.9B47M US households with a qualifying need

SAM

$2.1BDTC-reachable, years 1–5

SOM

$14MYear 3 target

TAM anchors: 61M adults 65+, 30M adults with a mobility limitation, 3.6M annual births, 16M bidet-equipped homes (US Census / CDC public data). Bidet penetration, household overlap, and ASP are VELLA assumptions. Replaceable-head revenue excluded.

08
VELLA docked beside a peri bottle and postpartum recovery kit.

Beachhead

Postpartum first, then outward

One segment, one message, one channel until the unit is proven — then accessibility, infant care, and bidet households reuse the same hardware.

  • Acute, dated pain — weeks 0–12, with a clear before and after
  • Existing spend on recovery kit — peri bottles, sprays, pads, sitz baths
  • A professional recommender in the room — midwife, doula, pelvic-floor PT
  • Gift-and-registry behaviour that removes price sensitivity
09

Go-to-market

Recommenders first, retail last

PHASE 1 · SEED

Clinical recommenders

Doulas, midwives, pelvic-floor PTs, and wound-care nurses get units and a feedback protocol. Their language becomes our copy.

Goal: 150 practitioner advocates

PHASE 2 · SCALE

Direct to consumer

Waitlist conversion, registry placement, and creator partnerships in the postpartum and AgeTech communities. Heads sold on subscription.

Goal: proven CAC-to-margin ratio

PHASE 3 · VOLUME

Institutional

Care homes, hospital maternity discharge kits, DME and HSA/FSA eligibility, then international bidet-first markets.

Goal: first facility contracts

10

Regulatory pathway

Ship as wellness, earn the clinical claim

Stage What we do Gate
Launch General wellness positioning: comfort and hygiene claims only. IEC 60335 electrical safety, biocompatibility on skin-contact materials, UVC containment testing. No clearance required
Evidence Investigator-led studies on perineal drying time, skin-moisture readings, and patient comfort versus paper — run with maternity and long-term care partners. IRB approval
Claims Pursue a Class II pathway for IAD and MASD prevention indications, opening DME coding, HSA/FSA reimbursement, and facility procurement. 510(k) submission
11

Competitive landscape

An empty quadrant: portable and touchless

TOUCHLESS →

Touchless · fixed

Bidet seat dryers

Seat-bound, 2–5 minutes, weak airflow, one bathroom only.

Touchless · portable

VELLA

33 seconds, any bathroom, thermally capped, per-user hygiene head.

Contact · fixed

Towels

Shared, stored damp, abrasive on healing tissue.

Contact · portable

Paper, wipes, peri kits

Cheap, ubiquitous, and the source of the friction problem.

PORTABLE →

12

Use of funds

$750K

Pre-seed, targeting 18 months of runway to a certified unit and first revenue.

Tooling, DFM, and first production run

$300K

Certification and safety testing

$150K

Clinical validation studies

$120K

IP filings and freedom-to-operate

$90K

Practitioner seeding programme

$90K

13

Milestones

Eighteen months to first revenue

Q1–Q2

Engineering validation

EVT units, thermal control loop signed off, utility filings submitted.

Q3

Tooling and certification

Injection tooling cut, IEC 60335 and biocompatibility testing underway.

Q4

Practitioner pilot

Units with midwives, PTs, and two care facilities; comfort and drying-time data collected.

Q5–Q6

Founding batch ships

First production run to the waitlist, head subscription live, seed round opened.

14
VELLA

The ask

$750K to make touchless drying the default

Eighteen months of runway to a certified, manufacturable unit, clinical evidence in hand, and the founding batch in customers' bathrooms.

Also asking for

Clinical introductions in maternity and long-term care

Contact

hello@vella.care

VELLA docked on a changing table in a calm nursery.
15

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