Director at Bilbao Slush'D / Nordic Innovation / Writing about FemTech & Health Tech / RSA Fellow / Mercedes-Benz Global Fellow / MIB, MSc / Included VC Class '24 & Venture Institute '24 by VC Lab.
🚨 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐤: 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐅𝐞𝐦𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐍𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐁𝐢𝐠-𝐓𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲-𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐠𝐞 𝐄𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 🚨 Despite its enormous potential, femtech continues to struggle with funding—particularly at the growth stage. This issue isn’t just about capital, it's deeply tied to a systemic bias that overlooks women’s health innovation. 🎙️ As covered by Ida Tin, co-founder of Clue, on the Panelle Talks Podcast: “Late-stage femtech is almost impossible to fund because the capital simply doesn’t exist for this emerging category. Funds raised by women GPs for femtech often top out at $30-50M, which is far from enough to scale globally. What’s missing is a large enough cohort of femtech companies that can prove long-term success and attract bigger funds. But more importantly, the lack of ‘female life experience’ in many investment firms creates a bias that hinders the funding of these critical innovations. Male investors, who dominate the space, and are a much needed variable in the equation for change, often lack the perspective needed to see the urgent need for femtech solutions, limiting investment in a sector that impacts millions.” ✨ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐤: ✅ Only 2.3% of global VC funding went to women-led startups in 2023, and femtech got just a fraction (Crunchbase, 2023). ✅ 70% of femtech funding has gone to a few established companies, leaving emerging startups struggling (PitchBook, 2023). ✅ Women-created funds are usually capped at $30-50M, far from the $100M+ needed to scale femtech companies to unicorn status. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐇𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐅𝐞𝐦𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤: ⛔ Lack of Big-Ticket Investments: Femtech companies can't access the growth capital needed for global scaling. ⛔ The Investor Persona Problem: Men must actively invest in femtech and champion these solutions. ⛔ No Unicorns, No Playbook: Without major exits, femtech lacks comparables, making it harder to attract institutional investors. ⛔ Regional Disparities: While Europe and the US have seen success, regions like Africa remain largely overlooked. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐩𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲: 🚀 Femtech is projected to be $103B by 2030 (Frost & Sullivan, 2023). By unlocking growth capital, we can fuel the next wave of innovation in women’s health. Additionally, the opportunity for impact in the full value-chain of the healthcare industry specially in the Global South is a no-brainer. Femtech is not a niche industry, it is a life-saver for established generations and for those to come 🦄 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐖𝐞 𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞? 💡 Invest in Early-Stage Companies with incubators and angel networks. 💡Create Big-Ticket Funds by committing to $100M+ rounds. 💡Drive Diversity in VC through initiatives like Included VC to empower underrepresented founders. 💡Set Standards with Success Stories to create benchmarks for future growth. Report by Sie Ventures 🚀
Wow, this post really highlights the funding gap in femtech! 😮 Awesome insights, David! It's shocking to see how little of VC funding goes to women-led startups and femtech specifically. I know from experience, and this is why I love the idea of creating big-ticket funds for femtech. It seems like a crucial step to help these companies scale globally and create those much-needed success stories. 💖 ⁉️ Question: Have you seen any promising initiatives or investors who are actively working to bridge this funding gap in femtech? It'd be great to hear about some positive momentum in this space! 🚀
FemTech is a massive industry with nuanced verticals that could all benefit from largee checks, more exposure, and a better understanding of just how important (and valuable) solving these problems is. Great piece, David!
Rumman K.
2w
This is such a powerful and timely post—thank you for spotlighting the systemic challenges and untapped potential in femtech! It’s shocking to see how limited funding flows into femtech, despite its direct impact on over half the global population and its projected market potential of $103B by 2030. The barriers you outlined—lack of big-ticket investments, investor diversity, and regional disparities—are spot on.
Thank you David Cabezon Egurrola for sharing the report and good timing for the venture industry to think about their womens health company/female founder investment goals for 2025 😊
100% agree!
Aditi Mishra
2w
Very insightful! Thanks for sharing :)
Yes, yes, yes. This is a fantastic summary of the challenges and huge opportunities in this sector!
Emma Rees
2w
Well said! Karina Vazirova Dr. Sioned Fôn Jones Mayra Hurtado 🐝 Sastya Wardani we were all talking about this recently! There’s so much potential and some incredible founders in Femtech trying to pave the way for more innovative and doing it on shoestring budgets!
Steven Tsui
2w
David Cabezon Egurrola, a powerful message! Elite Connect Investment champions diversity. Let's connect, DM for VC strategies
Director at Bilbao Slush'D / Nordic Innovation / Writing about FemTech & Health Tech / RSA Fellow / Mercedes-Benz Global Fellow / MIB, MSc / Included VC Class '24 & Venture Institute '24 by VC Lab.
2wYou can download the European Femtech Report by Sie Ventures following the link: https://www.sie.ventures/femtech-report-download