Episode description

With a deep technical background including a PhD in nanotechnology, Mohamed Taha ended up in the healthtech world after a health issue led him to have a sperm count done. He realised that sperm analysis was non-automated and non-standardised.

A true entrepreneur, Mo became obsessed with the idea of making sperm analysis more accurate using AI. He flew to meet the world’s most famous sperm researcher at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and spent a month convincing him to advise Mojo on how to measure sperm using AI. Today Mojo have built a computer vision system within a smart microscope which uses AI to accurately analyse sperm. Their test takes 4 mins to complete. Mojo offer a direct-to-consumer package which allows men to do a sperm sample at home and have it tested accurately, with results sent to them with post-analysis medical support available to them.

Mo touches on the areas of friction within the patient journey and how Mojo plans to ease these pain points. From standardisation and automation to personalisation and building a data repository on sperm analysis, Mojo has a very ambitious roadmap working across the whole value chain of fertility. They want to make fertility care efficient, affordable, reliable and accessible. Unlocking the secrets of the sperm and its acrosomes could help with future gene therapies and finding root causes for those having multiple miscarriages and one day we might use sperm as a biomarker.

As someone who has been working in this space since 2017, Mo knows the male fertility journey and the fertility clinics’ workflow inside out. The fertility tech space is traditionally building solutions from the female (femtech) perspective. Mo touches on male mental health, I don’t think I have had quite as much fun recording a podcast as this one and I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

Scientific abbreviations and definitions used in this podcast: IVF = in vitro fertilisation,  ICSI = Intracytsoplasmic sperm injection, Acrosome = special part of the sperm contained within the head of the sperm.