For decades, if not centuries, of fighting for gender equality there’s still many of us are actively fighting for it till this day. For far too long, women have been underrepresented in research, innovation, leadership and decision-making. As a result, we live in a society designed for men as the default. Although we’ve seen much progress within the past decades, according to the World’s Economic Forum, the gender gap is expected to take 135.6 years to reach parity worldwide which is an extra 36 years from the previous year’s report thanks to the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the disparity.
With the current gap in gender equity, what are current ways that innovation and technology can be utilized to close it? That’s where FemTech comes in.
According to FemTech Focus, a non-profit organization founded to empower and bring together innovators in the industry, “FemTech” is defined as any technology, services, and products that improve women, females, and girls’ health and wellness. This includes addressing challenges that solely, disproportionately, or differently affect them.
Why Now?
There is already so much controversy surrounding the use of the term “FemTech” for good reason. Using a term that merges the words “feminine” and “technology” can be exclusionary to trans men and gender non-conforming people who are potential users of FemTech products and services themselves. It has also been argued that the term can silo women’s health away by categorizing it as a subsection of general healthcare or as its own niche in health tech. In an ideal world, it should be a given that women’s health is a part of overall human health however the reality is that we still have a long way to go.
A huge obstacle facing FemTech was the exclusion of women from clinical trials that dates back to less than 25 years ago when the FDA policy recommended excluding women “of childbearing potential” from Phase I and early Phase II drug trials which included women who engaged with contraception or were abstinent.
Currently only 4% of all healthcare research and development is in women’s health although women make up 50% of the global population. Books like Doing Harm and Invisible Women expose the biases against women and how much of what we have in the world right now was not designed with women in mind or considered. In addition, women control 80% of healthcare decisions in the US and spend 29% more per capita than men on healthcare. All these stats are just the tip of the iceberg and sheds light on why it’s so important to have a movement and a term to rally behind.
The FemTech Market
The most comprehensive women’s health map I’ve seen thus far was this one put together by Springboard’s Women’s Health coalition.
The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for FemTech is currently approximated to grow 17% from 2020 to 2026. FemTech Focus recently announced back in March 2021 that the FemTech industry is valued at over $1 trillion based on their market research. This statistic alone proves that women’s health and wellness is far from being niche and affects everyone beyond just women.
Within FemTech, there’s many verticals which include but are not limited to:
- Fertility & Reproductive Health
- Maternal Health & Motherhood
- Contraception
- Oncology
- Sexual Health & Wellness
- Mental Health
- Menopause & Longevity
- Auto-Immune & Chronic Diseases
- Menstruation
- Cardiovascular Health
- Uterine & Pelvic Health
The verticals in this industry can also be broken down a different way, by product type:
- Medical Devices
- Consumer Packaged Goods
- Diagnostics
- Therapeutics
- Telehealth Platforms
- Mobile Applications
- Wearables
FemTech has seen a lot of growth within the past few years including numerous exits and successful fundraising rounds. As pictured above some of the largest raises in the last decade according to Rock Health include fertility services companies like Future Family and Progyny. However a more recent FemTech exit not noted here was Modern Fertility’s recent acquisition by Ro which was reportedly a deal worth upwards of a $225 million.
According to Crunchbase, in 2020 alone the women’s health tech space received $1 billion which is a notable increase from 2019’s total funding amount of $625 million and has been consistently rising since 2016 when the total was $425 million.
Competition & Risks
As FemTech as an industry is still considered to be in it’s nascent stages, one of the biggest challenges for startups and founders in the space is breaking the taboos around women’s health and investments in FemTech have been historically low due to the lack of education, research, and attention in women’s health. Women’s health can still be seen as a “niche” sector and there’s still a lack of research in many areas within it.
Another big barrier in the industry is advertising and digital marketing censorship of many FemTech products, which unfairly targets advertisements for solutions that have to do with women’s physical or sexual health. Without being able to digitally market their products and services, many FemTech companies are forced to adapt in order to reach their audiences. A great example of this is a sexual wellness company, Awkward Essentials which has an extremely active Facebook group boasting over a thousand members filled with sexual health memes and shared experiences from their customers. Another example would be It’s August, a menstruation company which has whopping 140 thousand followers for their Instagram account apart from their private community which also has a thousand active members.
And how could we forget, a major struggle for not just female founders but FemTech founders alike is gender bias. According to Crunchbase, only 2.8% of funding went to women-led startups while in 2020, that fell to 2.3%.
Companies To Watch
My personal interests in FemTech are in the menstruation and maternal health. Here are some companies to watch in both areas:
Planera — Menstrual products that don’t compromise on sustainability. Planera has developed the first flushable and biodegradable pad that doesn’t hurt the environment.
Biomilq — Nutritious and environmentally conscious infant milk alternative that utilizes mammary biotechnology.
Irth App — Yelp but for maternal healthcare. With the pandemic shining a light on inequalities, apps like Irth are calling out the inequality of care that many moms of color face.
What’s next?
In order for FemTech to get the attention, resources, capital that it so rightly deserves, it’s time to debunk the idea that women’s health is just “bikini medicine”. FemTech is incredibly ripe to be disrupted and the historical lack of solutions for women and pent up demand for women’s health and wellness solutions makes this the perfect opportunity for FemTech companies to capture the market.
If you would like to join me in seeing how the space continues to grow follow me on Twitter and join the FemTech Focus community which includes FemTech founders, students, physicians and thought leaders.
