Closing the gap
A monthly appointment captures one moment in 29 days. Materai makes those 29 days visible for parents and the midwives caring for them.
Why Materai began
UK antenatal care manages risk across populations. The NHS timetable is evidence-based and well designed for typical pregnancy journeys. Individual pregnancies, however, do not follow averages.
A rising blood pressure pattern over 12 days can disappear in one appointment reading. Symptoms occurring together over a fortnight are hard to recall at a check-up. Subtle foetal movement changes for a first-time parent may be clinically important.
This information does not reach the midwife in time, not because parents are inattentive, but because there was no structured way to record and surface it between visits.
Materai provides that structure alongside, rather than instead of, clinical care. We are independently funded and building step by step, beginning with the parents and midwives who told us what they needed.
The team
Two founders from health technology and clinical data, approaching the same problem from different sides.
Nickel Blankevoort
CEO and Co-Founder
Nickel has spent years creating patient-facing digital health tools in the UK, focused on the relationship between clinical workflows and consumer health data. Before Materai, he led product at a UK digital health platform supporting NHS-adjacent services. His understanding of how clinicians use patient-reported data shaped Materai's dashboard.
Dr. Claire Obi
Co-Founder and Head of Clinical Product
Claire works in clinical informatics, with years of experience building health data pipelines for NHS-adjacent systems and a deep knowledge of antenatal care pathways. She guides each clinical product decision: what to track, what counts as a flag, and how to show findings usefully rather than alarmingly. Her direction keeps Materai focused on what clinicians need.
How we work
A small team making considered decisions and staying close to the people who use the product.
Clinicians first
Clinicians with antenatal care experience shape every tracking metric and flagging threshold. We add features not simply because they are possible, but because midwives say they would change how they work.
Built with users, not for them
Our early-access programme brings together parents and community midwives, who give direct feedback on every feature release. What you see now reflects what they said was missing from their antenatal care experience.
Privacy and data responsibility
Health data deserves the highest standard of care. We are ICO registered, comply with UK GDPR, and do not sell or share personal health data with third parties. Your data remains yours, accessible and deletable at all times.
Bootstrapped, deliberately paced
We chose to bootstrap at this stage. A careful pace gives us time to build the clinical relationships and evidence base maternal health requires before scaling. We are not pursuing a feature count race.
What guides us
Clinical honesty over feature talk
We do not call Materai a diagnostic tool or say that it detects conditions. It highlights patterns to discuss with a clinician. That distinction matters, and we will not blur it for marketing.
Both sides of the appointment
Many patient-facing health tools take only the consumer's view. We designed Materai for parent and midwife together. The same data supports both, presented in the format each needs.
Anxiety-aware design
Daily pregnancy logging can cause anxiety when every entry raises concern. We designed the check-in flow and flag messages to inform rather than alarm. Reassurance matters as much to the product as detection.
Questions about Materai or our approach?
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