Valentina Milanova started Daye based on her desire to provide every woman with the tools they need to manage our vaginal, menstrual and hormonal health. Her personal fascination with gynecological health spawned from her own negative experiences. This led her to uncover countless research papers that inspired her to create tampons that deliver localized relief. Daye’s CBD tampon is trusted by over 75,000 women in the UK and their diagnostic tampon can detect common vaginal infections, STIs, and HPV, allowing for convenient, at-home screening and aftercare.
Daye's innovative tampons are produced in-house, breaking a decade-long monopoly in period care product manufacturing. From the outset, Milanova has baked her core values into the DNA of the company. Daye‘s products are created by women who used to be in the prison system, and their tampons are produced in a fully carbon-neutral operation.
After 180 pitches to investors, Valentina managed to raise £4.23 million in seed funding and in 2018, Daye started changing the face of female health for the better. More recently, Valentina raised Daye's £10M series A funding.
As the founder and CPO of Daye, a gynecological health research and development company, Valentina and her team are on a mission to close the gender pain gap and overcome historical gender biases in medical research and product innovation. After years of research and testing, Daye launched its first consumer product in 2020: the world‘s first and only tampon with Cannabidiol (CBD) to fight menstrual cramps.
Prior to founding Daye, Milanova managed the AI & ML portfolio at Founders Factory, a startup accelerator and venture studio, and was a Venture Associate at global investment company, Techstars. Milanova currently serves as an Advisor and Mentor at early-stage gynecological health startup accelerator, FemTechLab, as well as social and environmental impact start-up, Nyungu Care.
Milanova holds a Bachelors in Business, Economics and Law, and a Masters of International and Trade Law from the University of Buckingham, as well as a specialization in Food and Drug Law from Harvard Law School. She is currently working toward her Master of Public Health from Imperial College London.
Milanova currently resides between London and Bulgaria, where she grew up, and when not working she enjoys volunteering, kitesurfing, snowboarding, and spending time with her two poodles, Polly and Ringo.
NOTE FROM TED: This talk only represents the speakers' personal business approach to and understanding of pain and health, which some viewers may find objectionable. Several claims in this talk lack sufficient scientific support. We've flagged this talk because it falls outside the content guidelines TED gives TEDx organizers. TEDx events are independently organized by volunteers. The guidelines we give TEDx organizers are described in more detail here: http://storage.ted.com/tedx/manuals/tedx_content_guidelines.pdf In their passionate talk Valentina and Kalina share stats, research and graphs depicting the discriminative way clinical research and product innovation in healthcare are being made nowadays. Historical gender gap is putting women’s health at risk without us even realising it. How can we fight prejudices that can save a woman's life, understanding the menstrual cycle and easing its pain? Learn about some of the worst and best case scenarios. A female entrepreneur on a mission to close the gender pain...
UK-based Daye wants to tackle period waste problems by creating sustainable products made from hemp and bamboo.
Daye's cannabis-infused tampons provide pain relief from menstrual cramps, but founder Valentina Milanova had to overcome obstacles facing femtech startups.