{"id":762229,"date":"2026-06-26T19:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T19:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/762229\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T19:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T19:53:12","slug":"how-tara-croft-secured-25-million-to-tackle-a-healthcare-blind-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/762229\/","title":{"rendered":"How Tara Croft secured $25 million to tackle a healthcare blind spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

For decades, childbirth has remained one of medicine\u2019s biggest paradoxes.<\/p>\n

While healthcare has been transformed by data, AI and predictive technology, the way clinicians monitor mothers and babies during labour has changed remarkably little since the 1960s. For Tara Croft, CEO of Australian healthtech company Oli, that was a problem worth solving. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve accepted childbirth as inherently unpredictable for a very long time,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019ve made advances across almost every other area of healthcare, yet in pregnancy and birth clinicians are still relying on technology that dates back to the sixties.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a reflection of clinicians\u2014they are exceptional. It\u2019s a limitation of the information available to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Founded after Dr Sarah McDonald experienced the traumatic birth of her son in 2012, Oli has spent almost a decade developing a wearable device that uses AI to monitor maternal and fetal signals in real time. Rather than relying solely on fetal heart rate, maternal heart rate and contractions, the technology is designed to identify invisible warning signs before an emergency unfolds.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, AI\u2019s greatest value is helping clinicians see what they couldn\u2019t see before,\u201d Croft says.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of waiting for a complication to happen, clinicians are signalled to invisible risk before anything occurs, giving them more time to prepare, intervene or potentially prevent an emergency from unfolding.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an ambitious vision that\u2019s beginning to attract serious backing. Oli has now secured more than $11.5 million in non-dilutive government funding, alongside more than $13 million in private investment. It\u2019s a significant achievement in a sector where women\u2019s health has long struggled to attract funding.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve worked incredibly hard for every dollar raised,\u201d Croft says. \u201cEveryone is touched by pregnancy and birth in some way. We all have a mother, are a mother or know a mother, yet historically it has been one of the most underfunded areas of healthcare innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n

She believes though, that attitudes are finally beginning to shift.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaternal health is not a niche healthcare issue\u2014it is the foundation for societal health and one of the highest-return investments available.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, globally, maternal mortality remains far higher than many people realise. Every day, the World Health Organization estimates around 800 women die from pregnancy-related causes, while postpartum haemorrhage claims the life of a mother every seven minutes, despite most of those deaths being preventable with earlier intervention.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can do better,\u201d Croft says simply.<\/p>\n

Beyond childbirth, Croft sees AI reshaping women\u2019s healthcare far more broadly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWomen\u2019s health has been chronically under-researched and underfunded for so long that we have a unique opportunity to leap from analogue to AI in one fell swoop.\u201d<\/p>\n

She believes the next decade will see healthcare move away from isolated appointments and snapshots of data towards continuous, personalised monitoring.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe future will be built around continuous understanding,\u201d she says. \u201cWomen\u2019s health is far broader than menstruation, maternal health and menopause. Cardiovascular disease, autoimmune conditions, osteoporosis and dementia are all examples where sex-specific biology influences outcomes. AI provides an opportunity to better understand these differences and deliver more precise and effective care.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s still a long road ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely changing, but there\u2019s still a long way to go. Female founders and women\u2019s health companies continue to receive a small proportion of overall investment\u201d despite them being \u201cthe next frontier.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Oli enters its final clinical trials across Australia and the United States, Croft is already thinking beyond the company\u2019s first application in postpartum haemorrhage. Future uses include predicting fetal distress, uterine rupture and labour progression.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, though, the technology isn\u2019t the point.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d love to see Oli in the hands of every clinician, every maternity team and every woman around the world, regardless of where she lives or her circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the broader vision for how technology continues to shape healthcare? <\/p>\n

\u201cTo date, the room has been built around the machine, but it\u2019s time the machine disappeared into the background while still being the signal the room can trust.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery birth should belong to the people in it\u2014and that\u2019s the future we\u2019re working towards.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For decades, childbirth has remained one of medicine\u2019s biggest paradoxes. While healthcare has been transformed by data, AI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":762230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500],"class_list":["post-762229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-health","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/762230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}