Spotlight: Building IVF Confidence with Juniper’s Genetics-Led Approach

Dria's investment thesis in Juniper Genomics

When Jeremy Grushcow founded Juniper Genomics, he wasn’t setting out to build a fertility company. He was chasing a question that had been tugging at him for years: What if we could use the full power of genetic science to help families avoid heartbreak?

That heartbreak is all too familiar for families navigating IVF. Often, even investing after tens of thousands of dollars, undergoing months of hormone treatments, and selecting what seems like the “best” embryo under a microscope, IVF success rates still remain deeply uncertain.

The Problem Hidden in Plain Sight

Here's what most people don’t know about IVF failure: At least 85% of pregnancy losses – possibly as many as 95% – can be caused by the embryos’ genetics. This means that, on the flip side, better understanding an embryo’s genetic makeup, and doing so earlier in the process, could significantly improve the chances of successful IVF.

To date, IVF has remained a largely subjective process driven by human interpretation, trial and error, and limited data. Patients and clinicians are left making high-stakes decisions, often with incomplete information. The cost of this uncertainty is staggering.

IVF has grown into a $30 billion global industry. Couples often undergo two to three IVF cycles – sometimes as many as six – before conceiving. Most families spend upwards of $60,000 to reach a successful outcome, if they achieve one at all: Nearly a third of families end up making the heartbreaking decision to discontinue treatment altogether, citing cost as a leading factor.

Juniper aims to change this, and they’re doing so by offering families more than just hope. Juniper is setting out to empower parents with the data they need to improve their chances of success.

Beyond the Microscope: A Clinical Approach

While other companies are direct-to-consumer – offering interesting insights but potentially limited clinical relevance – Juniper operates as both a B2B and B2C partner that works with patients and their clinicians.

Juniper’s approach is comprehensive: analyzing DNA and RNA across 20,000+ genes, compared to competitors who might sequence 99% of the genome but only report on 5-10% of genes. This broader, more clinically meaningful analysis gives both parents and clinicians greater confidence in embryo selection and can help reduce failed cycles, unnecessary rounds of treatment, and the high costs that come with them.

Why Dria Invested

We backed Juniper because they’re not just advancing science – they’re restoring trust in one of the most emotionally complex corners of healthcare.

Rather than helping families take on more debt, Juniper is tackling the problem upstream. By using science to reduce the number of IVF cycles needed to achieve a healthy pregnancy, they’re offering a fundamentally better solution: one that could save families tens of thousands of dollars and save the healthcare system billions.

At Dria, we invest in solutions that reset the standard of care. Juniper is doing exactly that by addressing the gap between understanding chromosome numbers and genetic sequencing in IVF. Their approach has the potential to reduce unnecessary cycles, lower costs, and relieve the emotional, psychological, and financial strain on families. In doing so, Juniper is giving patients and clinicians something they’ve never had before: a clearer, more confident path forward in one of life’s most uncertain journeys.

Juniper’s mission is deeply personal for co-founder and CEO Jeremy Grushcow, whose own experience with loss helped shape the company's vision. For decades, Jeremy has worked with leading experts across molecular, clinical, and population genetics. But his drive to solve this problem started long before this, with a personal loss, when a family member suffered a sudden cardiac event at the age of 18 due to genetic risk factors.

From our first conversation, Jeremy stood out as a founder with both deep technical command and emotional intelligence. He’s building for outcomes – measurable, meaningful ones that can reshape what patients and clinicians expect from IVF.

The fertility space has many consumer-focused solutions, but Juniper stands apart. It’s clinically integrated, scientifically rigorous, and designed to answer the questions that matter most when IVF doesn’t go as planned: Why didn’t it work? What now?

We saw in Juniper not just a compelling idea, but a clear path to impact—driven by data, grounded in ethics, and led by a founder who understands that trust is just as critical as technology.

What's Next

Juniper launched commercially in Q2 2025 and is already generating revenue. They're building toward clinical validation data later this year and outcomes data that tracks healthy pregnancies and long-term success next year.

Beyond the immediate milestones, they're creating what Jeremy calls "a phenomenally interesting integrated data set to understand other parts of the IVF journey and transform the industry more broadly."

Juniper is just getting started, and we’re honored to be on the journey with them.

-Megan