Flo (app)

Flo is a health app that provides menstrual cycle and ovulation tracking.

The application is available on iOS and Android. Flo has over 350 million downloads worldwide and 60 million monthly active users as of February 2024.

Company history
Flo was co-founded in 2015 by Dmitry and Yuri Gurski, in Belarus. Dmitry serves as the company's CEO.

In 2016, the company raised $1 million in seed round funding from Flint Capital and Haxus Venture Fund.

In 2017, Flo received an investment of $5 million from Flint Capital and model Natalia Vodianova. Vodianova also helped develop Flo's "Let’s Talk About it. Period" worldwide awareness campaign. In December of that year, Flo began working with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to spread awareness about women's reproductive and sexual health issues. Also in 2017, Flo launched a question and answer service within the app.

In 2018, Flo received an investment of $6 million from Mangrove Capital Partners, with participation from Flint Capital and Haxus, giving the company a valuation of $200 million.

In mid-2019, Flo received an additional investment of $7.5 million. Founders Fund was one of the main investors in the round. In September 2019, Privacy International published a report regarding data sharing for a number of period-tracking apps. Following a number of data-sharing controversies in the industry, Flo and four other apps implemented measures to protect user's data from third parties.

In early September 2021, Flo announced it closed $50M in a Series B financing, bringing the total capital raised to $65 million and company valuation to $800M. VNV Global and Target Global both led the round.

Application and community
Flo was initially created as a period and ovulation tracking application, but later, it developed into a health partner for women. The application covers all phases of the reproductive cycle, from menstruation to preparations for conception, pregnancy, early motherhood, perimenopause and menopause.

Flo provides reminders of upcoming menstrual cycles and a place to record various other health symptoms such as contraceptive methods, vaginal discharge, water intake, pains, mood swings, and sexual activity.

A community section was added in 2017, which allows users to anonymously answer and ask questions on health issues. In 2023, Flo launched Symptom Checker in the United States, a digital tool developed by a multidisciplinary team of doctors, scientists, and engineers. It focuses on helping women by encouraging awareness and understanding of their symptoms and filtering this information to present at appropriate times. It covers several reproductive health conditions, such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Flo’s Symptom Checker is not a diagnostic tool, it does not provide medical advice, and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Content on the app is reviewed by a board of medical professionals, on behalf of Flo Health. The board advises the developers on medical-related issues, with advisors consisting of medical experts such as professional GB/GYN's and MDs. The purpose of the board is to ensure that Flo Health’s content is accurate and based on scientific evidence. The app also aims to increase awareness of conditions that can often be confused for period symptoms, such as Heavy Menstrual Bleeding and PCOS.

Culture and menstruation
Flo Health has invested in researching taboos and cultural differences for women. In 2019, Flo announced they had completed a survey of 200,000 women globally, as a wider study into period poverty. The study found a number of common problems, such as 34% of those surveyed believing that period poverty is only an issue in developing countries.

Flo collaborated with the United Nations Population Fund's (UNFPA) sexual and reproductive health agency in a project to assist women with disabilities. As a UNFPA partner, Flo took part in the Nairobi Summit for International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) and committed to advancing women's reproductive health. Similar partnerships were agreed with European Board and College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (EBCOG) to develop educational materials and also contribute to awareness about women's health.

Privacy and security
In February 2019, it was alleged in reports that Flo had been sending users' health data to Facebook without users' informed consent, and in violation of Facebook's developer policies. In response to the allegations of private data misuse, a complaint was filed against Flo Health, Inc by the FTC.

Flo responded that it never sold any data point to Facebook as well as never used data from Facebook Analytics for advertisements. Flo nevertheless deleted Facebook SDK from app, filed the request to delete all user data from Facebook Analytics and released an app update.

The FTC complaint ultimately led to Flo and the FTC reaching a settlement. This resolution was reached not as an admission of wrongdoing on Flo's part but as a means to avoid prolonged legal proceedings and associated costs, thereby enabling closure on the matter. The agreement obliged Flo to undertake an independent privacy audit. In March 2022, Flo successfully completed it. Independent auditors did not identify any material gaps or weaknesses in Flo’s privacy practices and found that Flo’s own practices were consistent with its publicly stated Privacy Policy.

Since then, Flo has reinforced its privacy and security measures and underwent further third-party independent audits. It obtained international standards in privacy and security, including security ISO 27001 and Privacy ISO 27701 certifications. Flo was independently tested against various security and privacy controls in the ISO framework. In 2023, Flo Health established a Privacy and Security Advisory Board composed of experts across various fields focused on privacy and security practices, particularly in the femtech industry.

Anonymous Mode
In September, 2022, as a response to Roe v. Wade being overturned, Flo sped up the release of a feature called “Anonymous Mode”. This mode allows users to access the app without any personal identifiers such as name, email address, and technical identifiers from being associated with their health data, making Flo the first female health app to take this level of precaution in terms of privacy and security.

Flo has partnered with Cloudflare, the same company that Apple worked with for the iCloud Private Relay, to integrate an Oblivious HTTP system, App Relay Gateway, which ensures that no single party processing user data for Anonymous Mode accounts has complete information on both who the user is and what they are trying to access.

The feature has received positive feedback and was praised by Andrew Crawford, Senior Policy Counsel at the Center for Democracy & Technology.

In 2023, Flo Health open-sourced the technology behind its Anonymous Mode feature. The company also added post-quantum cryptography, safeguarding sensitive health information from potential security risks posed by quantum computers.

Recognition
Flo’s Anonymous Mode feature was recognized on both Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas 2023 and TIME’s Best Inventions List 2023.

Flo’s Anonymous Mode won International Association of Privacy Professionals’ (“IAPP”) Legal Innovation Awards 2022.

Flo is a CES 2019 Innovation Awards Honouree in the Software and Mobile Applications category.