At the questionable corner of sports entertainment and male fertility is Sperm Racing, a startup that recently closed a $10m seed round (we will try to resist the low-hanging puns here).
Sperm Racing is, unsurprisingly, the brainchild of an 18-year-old entrepreneur: Eric Zhu. And it’s exactly what it sounds like:
- Two contestants source samples of many million competitors (privately, of course) and those swimmers race until one crosses the finish line.
- The race track mimics a microscopic version of a reproductive system.
- High-resolution cameras capture everything in real time and verify results.
Zhu wants to turn these competitions into full-blown spectacles, involving fanfare like press conferences, weigh-ins, and play-by-play commentary — and he's making headway.
Sperm Racing is currently on a live college tour, and its streams and event recordings rack up hundreds of thousands of views.
This begs the obvious: Why?
Zhu wants to promote a dialogue on male fertility (which has been declining for decades) by gamifying it.
And the company's recent funding round highlights investor interest in the market, projected to grow around 55% to $7.18B by 2034.
The industry is already commanding a lot of VC attention, including companies like:
- Posterity Health, a virtual-first male fertility and sexual health clinic that closed a $13m Series A earlier this year.
- Legacy, a home sperm freezing and testing startup that raised $7.5m in new funding in late 2024.
- Fellow Health, a startup offering mail-in semen analysis tests that closed a $24m Series B in July.
Ultimately, Sperm Racing exists at the crossroads of a noble cause, a hot market, unique tech, and a sincere appeal to big, dumb fun. Say what you will, but companies like that don't bust on the scene every day.
Health And Wellness
