There’s a new app for the transgender community, and its name is Euphoria.
Founded in 2019 after a winning pitch at HackOut, the nation’s only hackathon geared specifically toward aspiring LGBTQ+ tech entrepreneurs, Euphoria aims to empower the transgender community through every facet of their lives. Now, with more than $250,000 of fresh funding in its coffers (raised by prominent players like Chelsea Clinton and Gaingels), the company is well on its way to dominating the burgeoning space of trans health and lifestyle tech.
Co-founder and CEO Robbi Katherine Anthony says, in many ways, she was inspired by her own experiences as a trans woman to create Euphoria, and is trying to offer a technological solution that alleviates the pains often felt in the trans community.
“I think people have an expectation that this stuff was already made. Like: ‘Isn’t there a guidebook for transition? Isn’t there a specific savings app for that?’ And ultimately there wasn’t, so that’s where we came in,” Anthony told Built In. “Our thrust and our charter every day is just to help people cross this chasm that is transition and, ultimately, make sure that more people like me are alive.”
Until recently, this was fairly uncharted territory among tech startups. However, the space is beginning to grow. Earlier this month, Denver-based transgender healthtech startup Plume raised a $14 million Series A and Boston-based LGBTQ+ digital health startup Folx announced it raised a $25 million Series A round of its own, claiming to be the “first national venture-backed queer and trans brand.”
Euphoria was created to take this tech even further. Anthony says, eventually, she would like the company to be considered an “Adobe equivalent” for gender transition, providing unique products for each specific pain point or moment in a trans person’s journey.
Today, the platform has three prongs: Clarity, Bliss and Solace.
Clarity is for people at the earliest stage of their gender transition, helping them track and measure things like gender identity, gender expression and romantic or sexual attraction so they have a better understanding of who they are. Bliss is a savings tool designed specifically for the trans community, offering tools that help users itemize their goals and save up more quickly.
“It’s largely a platform that really gets the experience of a trans person,” Anthony said. “Finance is one of the most hostile industries toward my community. So it’s definitely a very needed product.”
Finally, there’s Solace (the platform that won at HackOut in 2019), a resource guide that offers current, credible information to help transgender people through whatever process of gender transition they desire. Euphoria says it is the largest app in the United States for trans people, containing more than 1.2 million words spanning more than 700 goals. Like the other products, Solace is free to use, but has a suite of subscription-only products as well through Solace Plus.
Soon, Euphoria will also be releasing Catharsis, a mental and emotional health platform designed for the trans community. This latest $252,500 raise will help the company roll out other products down the line too.
In a statement, Clinton said Anthony and fellow co-founder Patrick McHugh were empowering the trans community with their trio of platforms.
“Too many trans people in our country have gone, and continue to go, without access to critical resources and information,” Clinton said. “I’m proud to support Euphoria in its mission to lead us toward a better, healthier and more inclusive future.”
In addition to the backing from Clinton and other investors, Euphoria has announced that it has moved its headquarters down to Austin. The company was originally based out of Anthony’s hometown of Spokane, Washington, but she says the culture there wasn’t as welcoming as she would’ve liked.
“Candidly speaking, it’s a very difficult place to be someone like me up there. Difference and diversity isn’t necessarily their greatest import,” Anthony said. “Austin made a lot of sense because the cost of living is so similar, it’s emerging as an up and coming tech scene. But largely, during HackOut when we were down here for that one weekend, we just fell in love with the place and decided that if we ever were able to raise the requisite funds we would relocate [here].”
Euphoria also plans to grow its team. The company currently has just two full-time employees, but Anthony says the goal is to add at least another two part-time employees in the next few months, then continue to expand as the company raises more funding.
Long term, though, Anthony’s goals for Euphoria are fairly unconventional in the world of tech startups: “My biggest goal for Euphoria is that it’s obsolete,” Anthony said. “We’re dealing with a community that has an 81 percent suicide ideation rate, and a 41 percent suicide attempt rate. For us, the more people we can help, the greater likelihood those numbers go down. It’s probably not the most investor-friendly comment to make, but I’m not particularly interested in making a lot of money. I’m just interested in making sure more people like me are alive.”
