By Ishpreet Khanuja
“I knew better was possible.”
This claim is not uncommon in the startup world. True innovation has almost always been born out of personal experiences and a desire for more effective solutions. With healthcare challenges, however, the rest of that story unfolds a little differently.
Pain and inconvenience have been an assumed part of fertility journeys for years, often being an expensive, time-consuming and disruptive burden to be borne without complaint. Infertility affects every one in five couples in North America. Yet, the current standard of care (in vitro fertilization) requires upwards of 20 self-administered injections over 14 days per cycle, which, if not timed perfectly, could lead to the failure of a very critical and costly shot at success. Have countless couples wondered if there was a better way? Yes. So, what fueled Latchmi Raghunanan’s conviction that ‘a better way’ was, in fact, possible?
In our recent conversation with Maman Biomedical founder and materials scientist Dr. Latchmi Raghunanan, we explored how her own fertility story inspired her to help rewrite the stories of those who suffer from the pain of repeated injections through Maman’s innovative drug-delivery patches and single-use microneedle devices. With her humane vision and the strategic leadership, she grounds each step in; Raghunanan is on her way to make drug delivery more compassionate for generations to come.
The Invisible Work
When Raghunanan turned 40 and realized she wanted to grow her family further, her own experiences of fertility treatments brought the gap into focus. The treatments were expensive, disruptive and inflexible, reshaping workdays, travel and daily routines around medication schedules.
For many patients, administering the injections meant relying on partners, family members or paid help, a dependency that is rarely acknowledged in clinical discussions. The anxiety that accompanies fertility treatment was treated as separate from the mechanics of care. Framed as a mere inconvenience, this was evidence of a long-outdated system failing patients, asking too much at an already vulnerable moment.
“I could see the solution clearly, and it was only a matter of time before I committed to solving it,” she shared. Other chronic conditions had long undergone innovation in drug delivery, with diabetes being the most well-known, including slow-release systems, patient-centric solutions, and a clear emphasis on reducing burden without compromising precision. As a materials scientist who had spent most of her adult life developing functional materials and shaping their properties, not to mention nearly four years working in medical device environments, she knew this was not a question of possibility but of priority. The gap was technical, regulatory, and cultural, and most importantly, solvable.
That started the journey to the development of what are now two complementary technologies designed to replace the most punishing parts of fertility treatment. Maman Port is a single-use microneedle device that replaces the traditional hypodermic needle, delivering prescribed fertility hormones without the pain or trauma of injection. Maman Patch builds on that foundation: a dissolving microneedle patch engineered to deliver hormones painlessly and over time, combining precise drug loading with sustained release.
The Roadmap from Idea to Reality
When Raghunanan decided to build Maman Biomedical, she understood the challenges ahead. She understood the regulatory burden of operating in a space like medical devices and was acutely aware that funding would be difficult, particularly without the backing of a university spinoff.
But all roads that lead to success begin with a roadmap, and Raghunanan had one in motion two weeks after incorporation. Grounded in her experience, she mapped out a project-driven plan that accounted for product development, IP strategy, regulatory pathways and funding milestones. She built the company publicly and deliberately alongside her co-founder and husband, who shares her project-management mindset.
The early days were demanding as the team went full-time from the outset. Grants, community support and non-dilutive funding played a critical role in keeping the company moving forward. Nearly two years in, Maman Biomedical has advanced rapidly, secured subsidized incubator space and is now fundraising to support the next phase as they gear up to bring its first product to market within the next two years.
Fundraising and Building Trust
Raising capital in MeTech is no easy feat, especially in the current climate. The financial requirements are heavier, timelines are longer, and the investor pool is narrow and often agnostic. Many investors are interested in the problem, but hesitant about the path, particularly at the early stage, where life sciences companies usually sit between proof and scale.
One structural advantage Maman Biomedical possesses is independence. Because a university does not back the company, all intellectual property is owned outright by the company. “That’s usually one of the first questions we get,” she said. “Do you own your IP? And the answer is yes—100 percent.”
As part of Maman Biomedical’s go-to-market strategy, the company is bringing a first-of-its-kind product that can demonstrate real-world demand and near-term viability, while still serving the larger platform vision. “We want this in patients’ hands sooner,” she admitted, remembering the women who tell her they wish they had access to the solution during their own treatment cycles. At the same time, she is clear-eyed about sequencing. The first product is not the end goal; it is a proof point, designed to make the larger vision real to investors who might otherwise struggle to place it.
Fundraising, she has learned, is not about convincing everyone at once. It is about meeting investors where they are, delivering milestones that matter to their decision-making frameworks and maintaining relationships over time. Many conversations that do not convert today are treated as part of a longer arc that Maman Biomedical is deliberately pacing toward.
Pitching, Perception and Reading the Room
Raghunanan has spent considerable time on the pitch circuit, and that experience has reshaped how she thinks about storytelling. While some founders dismiss pitching as a distraction from building, she sees it as essential, especially for founders without built-in credibility or prior connections.
Over time, she has learned to read rooms, tailor narratives, and adapt her delivery to the audience. She shared candidly about the challenges, including performance anxiety and the unspoken pressures of first impressions, “You need a really polished pitch when you present to investors. Sometimes it’s months before you get another chance, and if you want to go back, you have to show what’s changed. You can’t go back just because, ‘Oh, I had a bad day, I want to pitch again.’”
Instead of retreating from the process, Raghunanan has leaned into it, refining her delivery, observing what lands, and continuously improving her ability to translate complex science into stories that different audiences can engage with. This also shows the broader way she is building Maman, carefully, thoughtfully and with an acute awareness of context.
A Community of Learning
“When you know what you don’t know, it’s easy to find out,” she notes. That awareness shaped Raghunanan’s relationship with mentorship and community from the outset. Rather than looking for answers in isolation, she deliberately placed herself in rooms where others were already navigating similar terrain. Accelerators and incubators were environments where she could observe how people spoke about risk, how decisions were framed, and how expectations shifted across audiences.
“Being in those rooms changes how you articulate your business,” she says. Conversations with people who have built before provide insights into sequencing, timing, and trade-offs. At the same time, community can be a powerful way to surface blind spots early, before they become structural issues.
Raghunanan also speaks openly to the emotional weight of building a company in a highly regulated, deeply personal space. There are moments of doubt, frustration and exhaustion in every founder’s journey, and she does not pretend otherwise. What allows her to return to the work is having a support system that does not require her to put her best foot forward constantly.
“He allows me not to be strong all the time,” she shares, noting the role of her co-founder and partner, Roopchand Raghunanan, in making continuous progress possible. In an environment where unwavering resilience is put on a pedestal, Raghunanan claims she relies deeply on her ability to process difficult moments, release them and return to the roadmap with renewed clarity, something less glorified but perhaps more sustainable.
A Legacy of Kindness
Over the next decade, Maman Biomedical hopes to expand into other areas of health where treatment has long been accepted as something to endure rather than improve. Chronic conditions, long-term therapies and other care pathways where disruption of daily life has been normalized all fall within scope.
Unlike what you might expect from a founder in a market of such potential, Raghunanan’s lack of reliance on terms like disruption or dominance is refreshing. She speaks about kindness, not as an emotional pillar to her storytelling approach, but as a fundamental design principle. Fertility treatment, she argues, should not feel like an added punishment layered onto an already difficult moment. Once someone commits treatment, the system should meet them with care that respects their time, dignity and emotional reality.
The impact of Maman Biomedical’s potential success extends far beyond fertility. It will change expectations across sectors by proving that patient experience and scientific rigour are not competing priorities but inseparable fundamentals of the broader concept of care. In that way, Raghunanan’s work extends what medicine can deliver to how it should deliver.
Two years into Maman’s journey, she is still reimagining ‘better’, but now her sights are on a better, more humane perspective to healthcare altogether.
Companies like Maman Biomedical continue to inspire and have set the benchmark for success. Their story is one among many demonstrating the innovation ecosystem emerging across Canada, where lived experience, technical expertise and long-term vision intersect.
Through programs such as RevUp, Market Readiness, and Investor Readiness, Altitude Accelerator supports founders by providing access to practical resources, mentorship and capital-readiness pathways at critical stages of growth. Supported by the Ministry of Economic Development and Job Creation, our work is designed to reduce barriers and help founders focus on building solutions that respond to real-world needs.
Learn more about how Altitude Accelerator supports founders across their growth journey here.
