2021 Sept Demo Day - Vinh-Thang Vo-Ta

THANG VO-TA: Good morning, everyone. Thank you very much for having me, and to the MIT Startup Exchange for arranging this. My name is Thang Vo-Ta. I'm the CEO and co-founder of a company called Callaly. I'm an MIT grad, and we've got other MIT grads in our company. We're a diverse crew, as you can see in this photo taken clearly before COVID.

But there are two things that we're disrupting with this company called Callaly. One, we are disrupting the period care industry, also known as the feminine hygiene industry, with a completely new innovation. But also that same innovation can be used as a potential drug delivery device.

Our entire company has been centered around this invention from Dr. Alex Hooi, seated in the front of this picture. He has dedicated his life as a gynecologist, as one of the most senior ones here in the UK. He's been a gynecologist for almost 50 years. I'll just quickly introduce my other co-founder. Under the letter A of Callaly, that's Ewa Radziwon. She's from the fashion industry as a garment technologist.

So first starting with the consumer side of our innovation, what are we trying to disrupt here? There has not been any meaningful new period care product in many, many decades. It's a $30 to $40 billion industry. And we have that meaningful new innovation.

What does that innovation solve? Well, for example, in the US, the largest tampon market in the world, 70% of women-- not just in the US but everywhere who use tampons-- also wear a panty liner at the same time to prevent leakage. But also in the developing markets where tampons have been frowned upon, there's a lot of cultural inhibitions and misconceptions about the use of tampon and concern about the hygiene of the product.

That has been addressed by our innovation as has been the damage to the environment. 16 billion tampons are sold each year. The vast majority of them have hard plastic applicators, which you can't recycle, because they've come into contact with menstrual blood. So our product is biodegradable to ASTM 5511 standards, above 95%, as opposed to some of the leading products that are not as environmentally-friendly.

So how does our technology work? Here's a video that hopefully works. You can see that we-- this is our Tampliner. It's a combination between a tampon and a panty liner. You now don't need a plastic applicator to insert the product. Instead, you use your finger to insert the product, but there is a biocompatible, medical-grade film that protects your finger.

And as you can see, the panty liner has folded once you've inserted the product. That organic cotton panty liner folds in between the labia. So you have a two in one product, again, a tampon and a panty liner that is combined in one product, which deals with a lot of leakage issues.

And for the removal, this is a very strong selling point where-- this is why we have many thousands of subscribers and lovers of our product. When you pull the string to remove the Tampliner, you'll see what happens here. The product wraps itself on the way out upon removal, so there's less chance of leakage and inconvenience when you remove the product.

So this product we finally commercially launched after many years of securing patents. We have four patents all around the world already granted. And we've won many, many major awards. In the last 10 months, Time has named us one of the best inventions of the year. We came in second place to Alibaba and Sony for the most important China design prize. Fast Company has named us the number 10 most innovative design company in the world already. Red Dot also Amazon Europe, out of 1800 companies, named us innovation of the year just six weeks ago.

So we have started selling our product. And there's also a fantastic application on the medical side. So we have granted patents in the US, Europe, Singapore, South Korea, Canada, and many more countries to come, as a potential drug delivery device. Using the same principles of a leak-free device, what are we trying to solve?

This is actually our own solicitor who had to have 400 injections of progesterone to try and get pregnant. On average, a woman will have 300 very painful injections of progesterone to try and conceive. But why don't you, like in other areas of the world, deliver that as a vaginal suppository? There are issues of leakage and comfort. This new product-- we have a patent granted, and it's a very exciting thing that we want to explore.

Effectively, again, it's leak free design of developing hormones, potentially medicines, soft gels, over-the-counter therapies. There are a lot of things in a more hygienic way to insert comfortably and conveniently remove by pulling the string but also with no needles.

So as a company, as my fellow founders will know, the easy part is maybe getting a patent, manufacturing a few. We've spent many years building up our supply chain and manufacturing. We're ISO 9001 registered. Just six weeks ago, we got our third and final FDA clearance. So we are looking forward to launching in the US with our product but also exploring the drug delivery side.

So there are two sides to our company. And we are seeking industry partners in FMCGs, pharmaceuticals, drug delivery, life science. There's so much potential. And we'd love to partner up with people who might be interested in talking to us. Thank you very much.

SPEAKER: Let's do to this question right here. Does your ingredient cause possible irritation to the skin?

THANG VO-TA: Our product is that made by at least 95% organic cotton. And as part of getting FDA clearance, you have to do a crazy amount of tests, including skin irritation of which we've all passed them. So there is no irritation there.

SPEAKER: I understand your consumer business has shown tremendous traction. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

THANG VO-TA: I wouldn't say tremendous traction yet. Obviously, we've just launched. We figured out manufacturing. We've only started direct to consumer, because there is no choice. You can't go to CVS, Walmart, all these other retailers, who we are talking to now, until you have product market fit. So we've sold over a million total period care products in the last 14 months. But we're now talking to major retailers.

And everyone's interested in our product. We need partners to help with scale and take over the world effectively. So we've sold a million total period care products, including many hundreds of thousands of Tampliners. But the real opportunity is breaking out to retail where 95% of period care products are still bought.