Mate Fertility (Encino) — An Honest Editorial Review

Patient advisory (April 2026): Among fertility clinics in California, Mate Fertility Inc. is one of the more unusual entries in our directory. Based on public records and our own verification in April 2026, it is not a clinic patients walk into under that name today. The Mate Fertility consumer website (matefertility.com) redirects to a parked landing page, the Mate Fertility LinkedIn presence has been merged with Onto Health (a successor fertility network focused on Colorado and Chicago), and the Encino practice address — 16030 Ventura Boulevard, Suite 404 — is actively operated by The Fertility Institutes under Dr. Jeffrey M. Steinberg, MD, who was also Mate Fertility's founding clinical partner.

In plain English: patients researching "Mate Fertility Encino" after seeing it on a clinic directory, old article, or social-media reference are most likely looking at the legacy corporate record tied to a consumer brand that no longer operates an Encino storefront in 2026. Active reproductive endocrinology care at 16030 Ventura Blvd Suite 404 today is delivered by The Fertility Institutes — an independent, long-standing REI program that predates Mate Fertility.

Why This Listing Exists

A directory is only useful if it reflects what patients can actually schedule with. We preserve the Mate Fertility Inc. Encino listing for three reasons:

1. NPI continuity. The National Plan and Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) record for Mate Fertility Inc. (NPI 1720617707) remains on file with a practice address of 16030 Ventura Blvd, Suite 404, Encino, CA 91436-2754, taxonomy code 261QB0400x (Clinic/Center, Birthing), Director Oliver Bogner listed as authorized official, and an enumeration date of April 2020. Until an organizational NPI is formally deactivated, it persists in federal registries and in many downstream insurance and directory systems.
2. Historical continuity for former patients. Patients who had cycles, consults, or egg-freezing procedures at the Encino site during 2022–2024 may still see "Mate Fertility Inc." on past bills, claim explanations, or lab reports. Those patients need to know who currently holds medical records and how to route historical questions.
3. Search-intent clarity. A 4.8-star / 287-review aggregate score still appears in some third-party directories under the Mate Fertility Encino listing. Those reviews predominantly pre-date the consumer-facing brand's apparent wind-down and should not be read as a current assessment of care available at the address today.

About the Practice (History)

Mate Fertility was founded in 2020 in Los Angeles by brothers Oliver Bogner (CEO) and Gabriel Bogner (Chief Brand Officer), with Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg of The Fertility Institutes serving as the founding clinical partner and supervising REI. The company's stated mission was to bring accessible, lower-cost IVF and egg-freezing care into "fertility deserts" — underserved markets where patients would otherwise travel hundreds of miles to reach a reproductive endocrinologist — by upskilling partner OB/GYNs under REI supervision and opening satellite clinics branded under a single national name.

Published industry coverage from 2021–2023 (TechCrunch, dot.LA, Femtech Insider, Fertility Bridge) documented the company's early fundraising — a $2.8M seed followed by a ~$5.2M Series A in 2023 — and expansion beyond Los Angeles into Oklahoma City and other secondary markets. Egg freezing was advertised at around $5,000 and IVF in the $9,000–$10,000 range, materially below the national average for conventional cycles.

What Happened to the Brand

Based on publicly available 2025–2026 evidence we reviewed in April 2026:

• Consumer website status. matefertility.com redirects to a parked landing template rather than a functional clinic site. There is no current booking flow, physician roster, or pricing page accessible under the Mate Fertility brand.
• Oklahoma City operations. The Oklahoma City clinic originally opened as Mate Fertility now operates as Thrive IVF under Dr. Shaurin Patel, MD — a rebrand confirmed by the clinic's own current website and by third-party directory coverage. This indicates the Mate brand unwound at the OKC flagship rather than scaling further under the original name.
• Corporate identity. The LinkedIn page originally created for Mate Fertility now resolves to Onto Health, a separate fertility-care venture led by Dr. Roohi Jeelani, MD, FACOG, which in April 2026 announced a $20M Series A (per a GlobeNewswire release dated April 15, 2026) funded by ARTIS and Humania. Onto Health's own public materials primarily reference Rocky Mountain Fertility Center (Parker, Colorado) and a newer Chicago clinic — not an Encino, California location. The precise legal relationship between the Mate Fertility entity and Onto Health is not independently detailed in official announcements we were able to verify, and patients should not assume continuity of care.
• Founder transitions. Public LinkedIn and secondary-source profiles indicate that co-founder Gabriel Bogner has transitioned to a separate venture ("Butty") as founder and CEO, consistent with a wind-down of his operational role at Mate.
• Encino physical address. The same suite and phone number (818-728-4600) listed on the Mate Fertility NPI record are currently listed for and actively used by The Fertility Institutes / Dr. Jeffrey M. Steinberg, per current Yelp, Providence physician-finder, and practice-directory listings updated through 2025–2026.

We did not find verified, independently sourced reporting from LA Times, Business Insider, Bloomberg, Fortune, or a California regulator describing adverse patient-safety events, FTC action, or a formal bankruptcy tied specifically to the Mate Fertility Encino location during our April 2026 review. Where credible reporting exists, it is primarily positive-leaning coverage of the original 2020–2023 funding and expansion phase. Absence of adverse reporting in our search is not the same as certification of compliance; readers who recall specific coverage should consult the original source directly and weigh it accordingly.

The Practice at 16030 Ventura Blvd Suite 404 Today

The active reproductive endocrinology program at the Mate Fertility Encino NPI address in 2026 is The Fertility Institutes, under Dr. Jeffrey M. Steinberg, MD. Public sources describe the practice as follows:

• Medical Director: Jeffrey M. Steinberg, MD — board-certified in Obstetrics & Gynecology; fellowship trained in Reproductive Endocrinology; historically described as one of the early U.S. physicians trained by the original IVF pioneers in the United Kingdom
• Practice: The Fertility Institutes, with U.S. and international locations (Encino/Los Angeles, New York, Salt Lake City, Guadalajara, Mumbai)
• Address: 16030 Ventura Blvd, Suite 404, Encino, CA 91436
• Phone: (818) 728-4600
• Services commonly offered at full-service REI programs: IVF, ICSI, egg freezing, embryo freezing and frozen embryo transfer, preimplantation genetic testing (PGT), donor egg, donor sperm, gestational surrogacy coordination, and evaluation for male and female infertility

Patients seeking care at 16030 Ventura Blvd Suite 404 in 2026 will interact with The Fertility Institutes' intake, clinical, and billing teams — not with a "Mate Fertility" front desk. The Fertility Institutes is a distinct, long-running REI program with its own history, its own SART/CDC reporting identity, and its own patient-review profile. We do not publish a separate Fertlo editorial for The Fertility Institutes at the time of writing; patients evaluating that practice should verify Dr. Steinberg's current licensure with the Medical Board of California and board certification via the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology certification lookup, and cross-reference current outcomes through SART and the CDC ART report.

Before You Commit to Any DTC or Startup Fertility Brand

The Mate Fertility trajectory — rapid venture-funded expansion, promising pricing, brand contraction within three to four years, and residual legacy presence in NPI/directory systems — is not unique in the 2020s fertility-technology sector. For patients evaluating any direct-to-consumer fertility brand, national "network" clinic, or recently launched startup clinic, we recommend a short diligence checklist:

1. Verify SART membership. The SART Clinic Summary Report lists member clinics and their outcomes. Not all programs are SART members, and non-members are not held to the same voluntary reporting standard.
2. Cross-check the CDC ART data. The CDC ART Surveillance Reports are the federal standard and include most reporting U.S. clinics, SART member or not.
3. Ask who the on-site REI is and where the lab is physically located. Some DTC models rotate supervising REIs through partner OB/GYN offices; know who will actually sign off on your stimulation protocol and who will perform the retrieval.
4. Request an itemized cost estimate in writing. Clarify what is included in an advertised "IVF package" (monitoring, retrieval, anesthesia, lab, freezing, first year of storage, PGT, medications) and what is billed separately.
5. Ask about escrow and refund protections. If you pay for a cycle up front, what happens to your funds, frozen gametes, and medical records if the program closes, rebrands, or is acquired during your cycle? Written answers are appropriate to request.
6. Ask about embryo- and gamete-storage continuity. A credible program will have a named long-term storage partner (e.g., ReproTech, TMRW, a hospital tissue bank) and a documented protocol for transferring specimens if the program's operator changes.
7. Read recent reviews, not just aggregate scores. A 4.8/287 historical rating can be largely accurate for a brand's 2021–2023 operating window and simultaneously unhelpful for evaluating 2026 care at the same address under a different operator.

Active LA-Area REI Alternatives

If you began researching fertility care because you saw a Mate Fertility Encino reference, the Los Angeles basin has a dense set of actively operating programs patients commonly evaluate:

• California Center for Reproductive Health (CCRH) — three locations, including Encino (16633 Ventura Blvd), West Hollywood, and Valencia. Led by Dr. Eliran Mor, MD. See our California Center for Reproductive Health editorial.
• HRC Fertility Encino — 15503 Ventura Blvd, part of the HRC Fertility network.
• John Kuo, MD, PhD — IVF Fertility Center — 16055 Ventura Blvd, Encino. See our John Kuo editorial.
• Nurit Winkler, MD / Los Angeles Reproductive Center (Encino) — 16055 Ventura Blvd. See our Los Angeles Reproductive Center editorial.
• Pacific Fertility Center Los Angeles (PFCLA) — west LA program with a long SART reporting history.
• Reproductive Partners Medical Group — multi-site REI group across Redondo Beach, Westwood, and Orange County.
• CCRM Newport Beach — part of the national CCRM network, about an hour south of Encino.
• California Fertility Clinic — Mid-Wilshire, Los Angeles. See our California Fertility Clinic editorial.
• Abigail Armstrong, MD, FACOG (Santa Monica) and Alice S. Park, MD (Los Angeles) — individual REI editorials in our directory that may be useful comparison points. See Abigail Armstrong editorial and Alice Park editorial.
• USC Fertility and UCLA Reproductive Endocrinology — academic REI programs affiliated with their respective university hospitals.

Each of the above has a distinct ownership model, lab configuration, insurance contract footprint, and SART-reporting history. We recommend patients narrow to two or three, verify SART and CDC data, and schedule consultations before committing funds.

California SB 729 and Coverage Context

California's insurance landscape for fertility care shifted meaningfully at the start of 2026. Senate Bill 729 (SB 729), effective January 1, 2026, requires fully insured large-group health plans — those covering 101 or more employees and regulated by the California Department of Insurance or Department of Managed Health Care — to cover the diagnosis and treatment of infertility, including up to three completed oocyte retrievals and unlimited embryo transfers, with associated monitoring, lab work, and medications. SB 729 uses an inclusive statutory definition of infertility that expands access for LGBTQ+ individuals and single intended parents who would not meet traditional clinical definitions of infertility.

Self-funded employer plans (governed by federal ERISA and therefore exempt from state benefit mandates), small-group plans, individual market plans, and Medi-Cal are not covered by SB 729. Before scheduling with any California REI — including programs listed above — patients should confirm with their HR or benefits administrator whether their plan is fully insured and California-regulated, and request an in-network verification from the clinic's billing team. SB 729 coverage, where it applies, moves with the patient, not with a specific brand; a legacy NPI under a defunct consumer brand is not itself a "covered provider" for benefits purposes.

Considering At-Home Insemination?

Not every fertility journey begins in a clinical embryology lab. At-home intracervical insemination (ICI) is a lower-cost, private option that suits patients with no known fertility diagnosis — including single parents by choice, same-sex couples, and people who want to try a few cycles before committing to clinic-based care.

At-home insemination kits from MakeAMom come with step-by-step instructions for donor or partner sperm, require no clinic visit, and arrive in plain, discreet packaging. Many patients use them as a first step while evaluating which fertility clinic to engage for clinical workup.

If you have a known fertility diagnosis, have been trying for 12 months without success (six months if you are over 35), a physician has recommended IUI or IVF, or you are working with donor gametes that require clinical handling, a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist is the right next step — not a DTC fertility brand without a verifiable current clinical presence.

Patient Experience Caveat

The 4.8-star rating across 287 reviews that still appears in some third-party directories under the Mate Fertility Encino listing predominantly reflects the 2021–2024 operating window of the Mate consumer brand. Those reviews are historical data about a brand that, based on our April 2026 verification, no longer maintains an active consumer-facing presence at the Encino address under the Mate name. Patients should weigh them as historical context rather than as an assessment of care currently available at 16030 Ventura Blvd Suite 404, which is operated today by The Fertility Institutes.

For an independent view of current care at the address, patients should review recent 2025–2026 reviews of The Fertility Institutes specifically and cross-reference the SART and CDC data under that clinic's reporting identity.

Location and Contact

• NPI registry practice address: 16030 Ventura Blvd, Suite 404, Encino, CA 91436-2754
• NPI registry phone: (818) 728-4600
• NPI on record: 1720617707 (verify at npiregistry.cms.hhs.gov)
• Authorized official on NPI record: Oliver Bogner, Director
• Corporate mailing (BBB profile): 269 S Beverly Dr Suite 8, Beverly Hills, CA 90212
• Consumer website (matefertility.com): redirects to a parked landing page as of April 2026; no functional clinic booking
• Current operator at the practice address: The Fertility Institutes (Jeffrey M. Steinberg, MD)

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Mate Fertility Encino open and accepting new patients in 2026? Not under the Mate Fertility brand, based on our April 2026 review. The Mate consumer website redirects to a parked landing page, and the practice address (16030 Ventura Blvd Suite 404) is actively operated by The Fertility Institutes under Dr. Jeffrey M. Steinberg, MD. Patients seeking reproductive endocrinology care at that suite should contact The Fertility Institutes directly.

Is Mate Fertility Inc. a SART member clinic with published success rates? We did not find a current Mate Fertility Inc. (Encino) entry in the SART Clinic Summary Report under that brand name during our April 2026 check. Patients evaluating the current operator at the address — The Fertility Institutes — should search SART and the CDC ART report under that clinic's name, not under Mate Fertility, to review outcomes data. The SART Clinic Summary Report and the CDC ART Surveillance Reports are the two canonical sources.

I had a cycle or consult with Mate Fertility in 2022–2024. Who holds my records? Medical records and embryology/gamete storage responsibilities typically follow the physician of record, the operating clinical entity, and/or a contracted long-term storage partner. Because Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg was the founding clinical partner for Mate Fertility and continues to practice at the same address under The Fertility Institutes, that office is the most direct starting point for records requests tied to Encino-based care. For any corporate-level questions about Mate Fertility Inc. as a legal entity, the authorized official listed on the NPI record is Oliver Bogner, and the corporate mailing address on file with the BBB is in Beverly Hills. If embryos, oocytes, or sperm were placed in long-term storage during a Mate cycle, ask in writing for the current custodian, the storage contract terms, and any transfer-fee schedule.

What should I take away from the Mate Fertility story when evaluating any new DTC fertility brand? Three things. First, venture-backed fertility brands can contract or rebrand within a few years, so continuity of your medical records, your frozen specimens, and your paid-but-unused cycle credits should be contractually clear before you pay. Second, an impressive aggregate review score from an earlier operating window does not guarantee the same care at the same address today under a different operator. Third, the most reliable continuity anchor in U.S. reproductive medicine is the individual REI's board certification, state licensure, and SART/CDC reporting history — not a consumer brand name. Patients who keep those anchors in view tend to navigate brand transitions with less financial and emotional exposure.

Editorial note: Independently written by the Fertlo editorial team; not sponsored. Operational status, corporate history, and address continuity were verified in April 2026 using the NPPES NPI registry, the California Secretary of State business database (referenced via the BBB profile), current third-party directory and review platforms, and publicly available reporting from industry outlets. Readers should verify current operating status directly with the practice before scheduling or transferring funds. See our editorial policy.