Natural Cycles: How Elina Berglund and Raoul Scherwitzl developed the world's first digital contraceptive
TLDR
- Two CERN physicists quit their jobs in 2012 to build Natural Cycles, now the only FDA-cleared and CE-marked digital contraceptive in the US and Europe.
Key Takeaways
- Elina Berglund developed the first version of the algorithm for personal use while working on Higgs boson research at CERN; the couple launched the company six months after the idea emerged.
- Clinical validation and regulatory approval were the core bottleneck, not product development; FDA clearance and European CE-marking are described as the defining company milestones.
- EQT Ventures led the Series B in 2017; partner Carolina Brochado joined the board and the firm remained supportive through the slower regulatory scaling phase.
- The product expanded from a pure software algorithm to a hardware platform including the NC° Band and integrations with Oura Ring and Apple Watch after Apple Watch added a temperature sensor.
- Natural Cycles now operates in over 160 countries and is actively lobbying in Sweden against unequal VAT on non-prescription birth control.
Why It Matters
- No certified digital contraceptive existed before Natural Cycles; the company created the category and holds the only dual US/EU regulatory approval.
- Wearable hardware integration was opportunistic, not planned; the Apple Watch temperature sensor addition unlocked a major product inflection the founders had hoped for but not counted on.
- The founders see AI as accelerating their algorithms and flag LLM potential for platform UX, but no shipped AI features are described in the source material.
· 2026-04-01 · Read the original
