Maria Sharapova doesn’t miss. The five-time Grand Slam winner turned to investing after retiring from tennis—and one of her first bets was the sun protection phenomenon Supergoop. Now, she’s announcing a new investment in Cofertility.
“Women’s sport is having an incredible moment,” Sharapova tells me over Zoom, just days after the Paris Olympics have come to a close. “The emphasis on the athletes and their achievements and how inspiring they are is incredible. If they can prolong their career on their own terms by freezing their eggs at a younger age, they’ll perhaps have the time to compete at the highest level for longer, have the time to decide on their partner, and not rush into a relationship for whatever reason.”
Founded in 2021 by Halle Tecco, Lauren Makler, and Arielle Spiegel, Cofertility’s model for egg freezing is incredibly unique. “We enable women to freeze their eggs for free when they donate half of the eggs retrieved to intended parents that can’t otherwise conceive,” Makler tells me about how the program is set up. “More and more people need an egg donor to have a baby, and up until now, it’s just been very transactional and really hard to find a donor that you’re excited to work with. Through the Cofertility model, we make it less transactional, we make it more transparent, and we make it more ethical while really addressing this exorbitant cost of egg freezing.” Anybody who qualifies for Cofertility’s “Split Program” (there’s a set of factors the donor must meet) will also have all retrieval costs, along with storage for up to a decade, covered.
“Fertility is such a heavy subject when you’re young,” Sharapova says, going on to share that her mother had her at the age of twenty. “As a teenager and young adult, I was winning Grand Slams, I didn’t have time to think about friendships, let alone boyfriends. But I did know that I wanted to be a mom at the right point in my life.” Sharapova later met her partner, Alexander Gilkes, and gave birth to her son Theodore at age 35. Biological clocks—and the fear of fleeting fertility—can weigh heavily on a woman’s mind, athlete or not. That’s why Sharapova was excited to invest in Cofertility—to both start conversations about fertility, but also remove the highest barrier to entry when it comes to freezing your eggs: finances.
Makler, who is scheduled to give birth the day we speak, agrees. “Egg freezing is this amazing science that exists that allows you to preserve your fertility. The problem is that it’s cost-prohibitive,” she says. “The best time to freeze your eggs is the younger you are and frankly, when you can least afford it. Addressing that cost is really important, so we really set out to solve the pain points on both sides, and that’s what our model exists to do.”
And solving problems they are—Cofertility’s first Split Program babies are set to be born this summer. “Freezing your eggs gives women freedom,” Makler says. “Freedom to focus on your career, freedom to choose the right partner. We’re hoping to give more people that freedom.”
