How Investors Can Build Profitable, Scalable Women’s Health Solutions
A Smarter Investment Approach That Builds Sustainable Healthcare Ecosystems
Welcome to the latest issue of the Femmehealth Ventures Publication. Your trusted source for insightful analysis of femtech innovations through an investor's lens, helping you identify the latest opportunities in women's health technology.
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Women’s health remains one of the most underexplored and underfunded sectors in healthcare despite its scale and significance. Despite accounting for half the population and representing a multi-trillion-dollar market, it remains chronically underfunded, creating massive gaps in care and innovation.
The problem isn't a lack of demand. Women’s health needs are vast and urgent. Yet, many investors still hesitate, assuming that the sector is too fragmented to scale. But what if the real issue isn’t fragmentation at all? What if it’s a failure to build investment models that reflect the full lifecycle of women’s health?
The Funding Gap: Misunderstanding or Missed Opportunity?
For decades, women's health has been treated as a collection of siloed specialities: fertility here, menopause there, primary care in between. Investors have mirrored this fragmented view, funding startups that address single life stages rather than integrating care across a woman's lifetime.
Without a shift that looks at women’s health holistically, funding will continue to be funneled into short-term, disconnected solutions that fail to address the complexity of women’s health as a whole.
Why M&A Alone Won’t Solve the Problem
Some believe that mergers and acquisitions (M&A) will be the answer to women’s health fragmentation. While M&A hasn’t been a major focus in Femtech, the landscape presents a real opportunity for more established companies to strategically acquire smaller startups in adjacent verticals. Joy Mpofu, Biotech COO and Femtech Founder highlights this shift:
“M&A hasn't been a major focus in Femtech, likely because the market is still in its early stages. But there is a real opportunity for more established Femtech companies, especially Series B+ in the US, to acquire smaller startups in adjacent verticals to better serve their customers. For example, a menopause-focused company could benefit from acquiring a hormone testing startup to offer a more integrated solution. As the space matures, I hope to see more Femtech companies coming together in different structural ways to create stronger, more comprehensive offerings for women”
For M&A to create real value, it must integrate different areas of women’s health rather than simply scaling individual specialties.
Investment Trends Shaping the Future
A promising shift is underway. Investors are recognizing that sustainable healthcare models require deeper engagement, not just one-time solutions. Maddi Holman, an investor at Daring Ventures, highlights a major trend:
“A significant investment trend reshaping women’s healthcare is the increased funding for diagnostic testing and remote patient monitoring tools. Historically, the focus has been heavily centred on fertility and menstruation. However, we are now seeing a shift toward developing solutions that collect data on:”
Hard-to-diagnose gynecological conditions (e.g., endometriosis, PCOS, hormonal imbalances)
Diseases disproportionately affecting women (e.g., autoimmune, neurological disorders)
Conditions impacting women differently than men (e.g., cardiovascular disease)
“This shift enables more personalized medicine, replacing outdated dismissals of symptoms with data-driven diagnostics and treatment. By collecting the right data, we can consolidate insights, run analytics, and enhance treatment strategies.”
Innovators Leading the Way
Despite historical underfunding, a new wave of companies is proving that women's health can be both impactful and highly scalable. Some of the players to watch include:
Dama Health – Personalised hormone therapy
Afynia – Blood test for endometriosis
Prickly Pear Health – AI-driven hormonal health analysis
Teal Heath - At-Home Self-Collect Cervical Cancer Screening
By leveraging technology, these companies are demonstrating that integrated, data-driven healthcare can provide sustainable long-term solutions.
The Path to Sustainable Women’s Health Ecosystems
The future lies not in isolated solutions but in ecosystems that engage women throughout their health journey. Holman emphasizes:
“The most successful femtech companies won’t just treat symptoms, they’ll build lifelong health engagement models that keep women connected to care.”
To achieve this, we need a fundamental shift in how women's health is funded.
4 Shifts Needed Now:
Redefine traction metrics: Investors must look beyond user acquisition and assess long-term engagement and retention.
Adopt hybrid revenue models: Companies should move beyond direct-to-consumer (DTC) models and build partnerships with employers, insurers, and healthcare providers.
Expand insurance coverage: Advocacy for broader insurance policies that include women’s health conditions is essential to making solutions accessible.
Invest in tech-enabled integration: Digital platforms that consolidate patient data and care pathways will be key to scaling impact.
A Call to Action: Will We Fund Women’s Health Like We Mean It?
The sector is at an inflection point, and how capital is allocated now will shape the future of care. Investors, policymakers, and healthcare leaders must shift from short-term, transactional funding to long-term, scalable investments that support women's health at every stage of life.
The opportunity is clear, the need is urgent, and the time for action is now.
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Disclaimer
The content in this newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, legal, or medical advice. Opinions expressed are those of the author and may not reflect the views of affiliated organisations. Readers should seek professional advice tailored to their individual circumstances before making decisions. Investing involves risk, including potential loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
As I said before, I believe companies are not investing more in female health because the return on investment is likely to be minimal.
Women are already about 80% of health services consumers. They are a (growing) 30 Trillion Dollar market, accounting for over 80% of purchasing decisions and most marketing ads are targeted towards women. If there was more money to be made from women, especially female health, investors would be throwing money at the sector. Women are great buyers and businesses love repeat customers.
Another issue is that a lot of female purchases are based on trends. From fitness, wellness, mental health and now femtech,women tend to spend money on what's trending. Given the time/cost of developing a health product or service, maybe getting it through trials and recieving legal approval, the investment may not be worthwhile if there is no guaranteed long term market. Whilst capitalising on trends is possible and highly profitable, it is still very risky.
I think one of the biggest issues in women's health today is companies capitalising on women's fears and insecurities in order to sell them products and services they don't really need. The average Western woman today has upwards of 3 or 4 prescriptions. Many of these businesses are not really trying to cure anyone.
Healthcare is a very profitable sector. However, it doesn't make much sense for private investors to invest in health solutions for women.
A major reason for this is (using the U.S as an example), the government already shoulders much of the burden. There are already organisations such as OASH specifically dealing with women's health issues. On average the U.S Institutes of Health spends most of its budget on women's health issues, almost 3 times that of men. The NIH research budget is 7 times that of men. This is also reflected in the number of Women’s health medical journals and published articles which have dwarfed that of men by a factor of 10 since the 1990s. Then there are the numerous Women’s Health NGOs. Women also already greatly utilise health services so there may not be much potential for growth in that area.
The picture is similar in most developed countries and developing countries are not very profitable.
Over all it would be difficult to convince private money to invest given that the potential upside seems very low.