Ovum founder Ariella Heffernan-Marks named Best New Founder

Dr Ariella Heffernan-Marks, founder of women’s health AI startup Ovum, has been named Best New Founder, according to a Startup Daily report on the Startup Daily Best in Tech Awards 2026.

The report is a secondary account from Startup Daily. The awards’ own website, a primary source for the event, describes the Startup Daily Best in Tech Awards 2026 as a celebration of the Australia and New Zealand startup and scaleup community, covering 15 categories. It says winners were to be announced at a gala event at the Ivy Ballroom in Sydney on Thursday, 10 September.

Startup Daily’s report links the award to Ovum’s growth in women’s health AI. The supplied evidence does not include judging comments, a full list of winners, or independent assessment of Ovum’s technology.

Ovum has recently raised $4 million in seed funding, according to a Women’s Agenda report published on 23 June 2026. Women’s Agenda reported that the company said the funding had tripled its valuation. No valuation figure was provided in the supplied evidence.

The same report described Heffernan-Marks as a trained medical doctor turned entrepreneur. It said Ovum was working to use AI to address the women’s health gap and that, according to the company, it was building the “first-ever AI infrastructure for women’s health”. That claim is attributed to the company and is not independently validated in the supplied evidence.

Women’s Agenda also reported that since launching in August last year, Ovum had grown 30 per cent month on month, reached 20,000 downloads, captured 60,000 women’s health data insights and recorded more than 113,000 AI health conversations. Those figures were reported as company claims.

A separate Startup Daily page, also a secondary account, reported that Ovum had landed a $4 million seed round. The extract provided does not include further details such as investors, terms or planned use of funds.

The awards’ website says the Best in Tech Awards are now in their fourth year and have previously recognised companies including GO1, Hysata, Deputy, Goterra, Q-CTRL, Cauldron and Samsara Eco, as well as organisations including Startmate, LaunchVic and AgriFutures. It says the awards recognise founders, investors, startups and individuals contributing to the region’s technology landscape.

Ovum’s award and funding place it among a cohort of Australian and New Zealand startups being highlighted by the awards program, but the supplied evidence does not establish commercial outcomes, clinical efficacy, regulatory status or customer results for its platform.