The Future of Female Performance: Muse Capital Announces Launch of Revolutionary Optima Program Accelerating Women's Health Innovations in Sports

The Optima Program is the First Scalable Health and Performance Platform Empowering Women in Sports with the Tools They Need Today

LOS ANGELES, April 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Muse Capital and its sports advisory arm, Muse Sport, announced the launch of The Optima Program (Optima), a revolutionary program set to define the future of female sports performance. As the first scalable health and performance program of its kind, Optima recognizes the unique needs of elite female athletes and executives in professional sport and puts best-in-class tools directly into their hands, allowing them to optimize performance on and off the field.

A Muse Capital-owned initiative, Optima offers comprehensive, 360-degree physical and mental health support designed specifically for women. The program offers direct access to science-backed health innovations, personalized performance support, and meaningful data insights designed to elevate individual athletes and inform league-wide standards. Partnering with Muse Capital to provide the technology behind Optima is Flywheel Ventures Group, Inc.

Launching with an elite roster of category-defining companies, Optima includes:

• Midi Health (Women's Longevity)
• Cofertility (Fertility)
• Eli Health (Hormone Health)
• BeSound (Advanced Breast Imaging)
• Mavida Health (Maternal & Mental Health)
• Beekeeper's Naturals (Wellness & Immunity)
• Sequel (Performance Tampon Technology)
• Hugh & Grace (Hormone-Supportive Wellness & Personal Care)
• SISTERLY (Female Focused Supplements)
• Mahmee (Doula and Postpartum Care) 

"For too long, the sports industry has applied a 'one-size-fits-all' approach to performance that ignores the biological uniqueness of women," said Assia Grazioli-Venier, Co-Founder of Muse Capital. "With Optima, we are moving beyond research and into immediate action. We are providing women in sport with the validated, high-quality, science-backed solutions they deserve to optimize their health, their careers, and their longevity."

Optima launched in partnership with the Red Bull Italy SailGP Team as part of SailGP's Impact League initiative and is being offered to individual athletes and executives across the league. Led by Grazioli-Venier and Muse Capital co-founder Rachel Springate, Muse Sport backs multiple leading properties in professional sport, including the Red Bull SailGP Italia Team (the first female-led ownership group), Washington Spirit and the recently launched Women's Professional Baseball League. A visionary in the commercialization of women's sport, Optima was guided by Grazioli-Venier's deep industry knowledge and rigorous diligence, ensuring only proven, high-quality, science-backed solutions reach athletes.

"At Red Bull Italy SailGP, we are proud to support The Optima Program and to promote its services, expanding access to healthcare for women within SailGP and beyond," commented Cathy Ryan, Team Manager of Red Bull Italy SailGP. "Working alongside Muse Capital, under the leadership of our co-owner Assia Grazioli-Venier, allows us to further align with SailGP's Impact League and contribute meaningfully to its broader objectives."

With active conversations underway to expand Optima to additional global women's sports leagues and teams, Muse Capital is ensuring that women have everything they need to reach their full potential, both on and off the field. To inaugurate Optima, Muse Capital will be gathering with their esteemed colleagues and partners across women's sports and women's health in New York City on May 28^th.

"For decades, the unique needs of female athletes have been an afterthought or ignored completely. Cortisol imbalances – driven by intense training loads, inadequate recovery, and chronic stress – have measurable consequences for athletic performance, injury risk, and hormone health. Joining the Optima Program is an incredible opportunity for Eli to deliver real-time cortisol insights directly to the elite female athletes who need them, furthering their acceleration in sport," stated Marina Pavlovic Rivas, Co-Founder and CEO of Eli Health.

The launch of Optima comes at a pivotal moment in women's sports. While women's professional sports revenue is growing 4.5 times faster than men's, female athletes have continued to be underserved by sports science. Following recent multi-million dollar global investments in women's health research, Muse Capital and Optima are the first to bridge the gap between innovation and application, by placing cutting-edge technology in the hands of women right now.

"At Cofertility, we know the importance of supporting women through deeply personal health decisions. Through our model, where we expand access to fertility care by making egg freezing free when women donate half the eggs retrieved, we've worked with women and athletes across the country. Many have shared that pursuing excellence in their craft often meant feeling pressure to prioritize their goals at the expense of personal well-being or future plans. Optima is helping to rewrite that narrative, addressing the whole woman, so she doesn't have to choose between her ambitions and her well-being. Cofertility believes this wholeheartedly, and we're proud to be part of a program redefining what it means to support women in every arena," commented Lauren Makler, Co-Founder and CEO of Cofertility.

"Women in high performance environments are used to optimizing everything. But when it comes to breast screening, most have been left with outdated tools or none at all. BeSound is modernizing that. Every scan we do brings us closer to a world where no woman's cancer goes undetected, and Optima is the kind of program that gets why that matters," said Bailey Renger, Founder and CEO of BeSound.

A pioneer and leader in consumer technology, Muse Capital is an early-stage venture firm that identifies multibillion-dollar markets long before they reach the mainstream. With over 20 years of operating experience, the firm has backed category-defining companies across women's health, including Midi Health, a leading virtual menopause care clinic that recently achieved unicorn status with a $1 billion valuation, as well as Eli Health, Cofertility, Conceivable Life Sciences, BeSound, and Mavida Health, among others.

"While at Stanford, Greta Meyer (Sequel's Co-founder & CEO) and I realized the tampon, created nearly a century ago by a man, needed to be redesigned with performance and engineering in mind," added Amanda Calabrese, Co-Founder and CMO of Sequel. "We created the Sequel Spiral™ Tampon because it was the product we needed on game day, and now through The Optima Program, the world's top athletes can have tampons built for and by women just like them."

"At Mavida Health, we understand that high-performing women need specialized, comprehensive support for both their physical and mental wellbeing. We're proud to partner with Optima to bring evidence-based, personalized mental health solutions to elite female athletes," stated Sarah Oreck, MD, MS, Co-Founder and CEO of Mavida Health. "This program represents a meaningful step forward in addressing the unique mental health needs of women in sport and ensuring they have access to the care they deserve."

"Optima is solving one of the biggest gaps in women's sports – turning breakthrough innovation into something athletes can use every day. By putting these solutions directly into their hands, it creates immediate impact on and off the field. We're proud to help bring daily performance support to life through Optima," said Sara Jensen, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Hugh & Grace.

For more information on Optima, visit: www.theoptimaprogram.com.

About Muse Capital:
Muse Capital is an early-stage venture capital firm founded by Assia Grazioli-Venier and Rachel Springate, investing in overlooked and untapped consumer technology opportunities across the future of how we care, play, and live. For the past eight years, the firm has backed category-defining companies in multibillion-dollar markets traditionally overlooked by Silicon Valley.

About Muse Sport:
Muse Sport is the dedicated sports advisory and investment arm of Muse Capital, focused on supporting the next generation of sports properties and platforms. Its portfolio includes the Washington Spirit, Women's Pro Baseball League, SailGP, and Miami Pickleball Club.

SOURCE Muse Capital