One in four mothers in Spain uses it; it has a presence in 180 countries, and this year it expects to reach one million euros in turnover, double that of 2023. With these figures, the Barcelona startup LactApp aims to consolidate itself as a reference app in the field of breastfeeding and motherhood, and is now focused on boosting its internationalization and strongly penetrating third markets, especially in the United States and Latin America.
Co-founded by breastfeeding expert Alba Padró and entrepreneur Maria Berruezo, LactApp's story began in 2012 "from the ground up," when Berruezo and her second baby were run over at five weeks old. With her daughter out of danger, she remained hospitalized for two months, a fact that hindered the continuity of her breastfeeding. Despite the obstacles, she managed to resume it, and she did so with the help of Padró, who was her tutor in a breastfeeding group.
As a result of the accident and that experience, Berruezo proposed to Padró to launch several initiatives, until they found the right one: an application about breastfeeding. "We made a match, with my knowledge part and her entrepreneurship part," according to Padró. Now, the app is positioned as an international reference in this field, answering users' questions through expert knowledge and drawing on Artificial Intelligence. The answers to the multiple questions that arise during breastfeeding emerge from a decision tree with more than 78,000 possible paths and 3,000 answers, which Padró and Berruezo began to break down point by point starting in 2014.
To launch the project, Berruezo and Padró invested an initial 6,000 euros of their own funds, with which they developed a prototype that was bought by 400 users. "We saw that it made sense and that it could work," explains Padró. Their commitment to the project resulted in a new version of the app in 2016, when its current co-CEO alongside Berruezo, Enric Pallarès, joined LactApp.
Since the launch of the current version of the application, the app has accumulated close to one million downloads worldwide. After having resolved more than 26 million queries since 2018, it aims to reach 400,000 active users per year. To pursue this goal, the company also plans to expand its workforce, now 30 employees, as Berruezo advances. This growth has been accompanied by an expansion of the issues the app addresses, motivated by the queries of the users themselves. Thus, the app has opened up to issues related to maternity and pregnancy, beyond breastfeeding, although it remains its central focus.
With the aim of adding more users, the company works with health insurance companies to reach their policyholders through them, and aspires to be able to offer its services also through the public system, something that is being studied. For its international expansion, LactApp has the United States and Latin America in its sights.
To improve its service, LactApp has integrated Artificial Intelligence into its platform: "We have two AI experts who work on the natural language of the app, also to facilitate the scalability of the project worldwide." For this, the application is translated into several languages and is available in 180 countries, but it is not enough: "It has to be localized in each country, and make cultural sense." And it is that each culture has its myths and customs about breastfeeding, as well as different specialists to turn to in case of doubts, pain or difficulties. Currently, the app is available in Spanish, English and Portuguese, and will soon also be available in Catalan.
LactApp has recently opened a center in Barcelona, which combines space for employees and for attending to queriesDespite the application being the central axis of LactApp, the startup develops other activities around motherhood and especially breastfeeding. In this context, it offers a university postgraduate degree on breastfeeding with Blanquerna, which has been attended by more than 500 professionals in a dozen editions. In addition, it organizes training courses in hospitals, as explained by Padró, who is also the author of several reference books on breastfeeding.
LactApp's activity is coordinated from its new center, which brings "stability and reputation" to the project. Located in Sants and with an investment of 200,000 euros, the premises have an upper floor for the thirty employees the company has, while its ground floor has been prepared to attend to consultations on breastfeeding as well as physiotherapy, psychology, speech therapy, and pelvic floor rehabilitation, among other services. Since opening in September, the center has served mothers from Barcelona and other municipalities, even from other countries, seeking answers from professionals who have become international references in this field.