Meet The Women Investors Supporting Early Women’s Health Innovators

2019 has so far been quite an exciting year for the women’s health tech space . Elvie raised the largest funding round in the Femtech category to date with $42M, led by private equity firm IPGL. In February, Extend Fertility raised a $15M Series A from Regal Healthcare Capital Partners. Just two months after that, Kindbody, the millennial-focused yellow branded fertility and women’s health clinic, secured $15M in a round co-led by RRE Ventures and Perceptive Advisors.

The inherent challenges of fundraising for a femtech startup as a female founder have been widely discussed, yet the category is slowly consolidating and getting more attention from the VC community. These women investors saw its potential in the early days and share their perspective on the opportunities in women’s health.

Trish Costello, Portfolia, Making A Bet On Women’s Health

The Portfolia FemTech Fund focuses on emerging technologies, products and services improving women’s health throughout their lives. Portfolia is making strategic investments in high-potential opportunities that are both profitable and increase women’s wellbeing.

Trish Costello, CEO of Portfolia, is incredibly motivated to make a difference in this field: “It’s a huge market (50B dollar) with many gaps and unmet needs. It’s a great opportunity to make money, and very few VCs are investing. Also, I want to invest in what I understand from my experience and that I know will improve my life and that of other women.”

Costello finds the menopause, pregnancy and childbirth spaces very interesting, as well as specific healthcare areas where women are impacted differently such as heart disease or pain management, and tends to stay away from the heavily invested areas, such as period tracking apps, most of which originally were founded and run by men.

Women are dying during labor, we have incredibly high C-section rates. There are huge opportunities for innovation addressing early detection of pre-clampsia, avoiding stress and postpartum depression, among other issues. In menopause, I’m excited about companies tackling everything from bladder issues to vaginal rejuvenation,” says Costello.

Costello insists that the biggest problem for femtech founders is that 94% of active capital is controlled by men: “They don’t always connect to the issues, and knowing the field is key as an investor. We need more women investors. As a founder, you should know the financial model behind your solution, find the right advisors, and approach investors with a track record in the space -don’t waste time with those that never invested in women or the space.”

The modern VC industry was developed at a time when women couldn’t even take out loans on their own. Portfolia is deconstructing how it works and defining what it could look like if it was designed today.

Sutian Dong, Female Founders Fund, Investing On The Brands Defining The Future Of Wellness

Female Founders Fund, also known as F3, looks at femtech more broadly and follows the trend around the confluence of health and wellness. They invested early in iconic companies including Maven (the first female-focused telemedicine platform), Thrive Global (founded by Arianna Huffington to tackle enterprise wellness) and Shine Text, a consumer self-care platform.

We believe that healthcare is becoming more holistic, driven by consumer demands that the industry evolves to recognize, first, that women are the primary decision-makers in healthcare choices for both herself and her family and secondly, that women expect an experience and brand that is more in line with best-in-class consumer brandsacross all product categories,” said Sutian Dong, Partner at F3.

Dong is excited about investing along significant life stages – from menstruation to fertility/pregnancy/postpartum to menopause to end of life planning. “As more entrepreneurs focus on areas of healthcare that have been traditionally dormant in innovation, you’ll start seeing more VCs – hopefully led by forward-thinking ones like F3 – start directing capital to these areas. We’re additionally excited to see more female fund partners lead their firms into health and wellness investing,” concluded Dong.

Tracy Warren, Astarte Ventures, Improving Health Outcomes for Women and Children

Astarte Ventures is focused on a category and operating model for venture that directly and positively impacts the health management options for women and children. Tracy Warren, Managing Partner, started the fund and investment activity in 2013 positioning themselves as experts in women’s and pediatric care. Astarte focuses on the proactive, engaged consumer health space and invests in prevention and early intervention solutions.

“The investment industry is 93% male, and middle to older range. Therefore if you focus on issues in female biology or reproductive health, you’ll find a certain lack of appreciation and even avoidance. We need to train new investors, create new models of investment, and prove financial returns,” said Warren.

Astarte invested in Maven because they see their care delivery model as the healthcare of the future: Tech-enabled convenience and accessibility without sacrificing quality. It covers the needs of busy, professional women who also have families. “What does their lifestyle demand? What’s the value proposition for employers?,” added Warren. Maven has cracked this code, which has resulted in incredible growth and a total funding of $42.3M.

Astarte also invested in Materna, a pelvic health solutions company focused on improving labor and delivery. Warren believes that problems such as pelvic floor dysfunctions leading to incontinence and other intimate health issues, should be categorized as “birth injuries” so that the current healthcare system focuses on achieving better long term health outcomes. Warren is also excited about maternal and infant nutrition, and looking into mental health, heart disease and diabetes through the female lenses to create customized solutions. She insists that we need more awareness and education. “Let’s not forget that we need to engage the investors that can take solid founders past Series B,” concludes Warren.

Donna Lecky, HealthVenture, The Importance Of Diversity In Investing

HealthVenture is a global foundry and venture capital firm dedicated to scale, seed and early stage digital health technology startups. Cofounder Donna Lecky invested in Total Mama, a platform for personalized and reliable health information for women that are pre, during and post pregnancy, as well as Mymee, a company that helps tackle complex autoimmune diseases with data, which largely impact women (more than 80%).

Lecky, who is passionate about the data protection and ownership conversation, emphasizes the importance of creating diverse VC communities: “There are stark differences regarding the amount of capital received by men as compared to women. Albeit true, however there needs to be a recognition that diverse women receive far less than their contemporaries.   There is plenty to go around so let’s share the experiences and the wealth. A diverse VC network supports a global network. Women can increase their support by creating opportunities for other women, develop their VC education and invest in them.”

Elizabeth Galbut, SoGal Ventures, Creating Gender Equity Through Financing

SoGal Ventures has backed successful women’s health companies such as EverlyWell and Unbound. Currently, the fund is exploring areas of women’s healthcare that are ripe for disruption: hormone optimization, postpartum depression care, postmenopausal care, and microbiome adjusted nutrition as medicine.

Elizabeth Galbut, Managing Partner, knows that this is just the beginning: “The total amount of capital flowing to femtech is still tiny and disproportionate relative to the addressable market opportunity. Women make up more than half of the world’s population and make 85% of healthcare spending decisions for themselves and their families. Globally, trillions of dollars are spent on women’s healthcare each year, yet in many areas of care, outdated approaches and barbaric standards of care still persist.”

Galbut is excited about emerging innovative models of care such as Tia Clinic (modern gynecology and wellness services) and Cherry Blossom Intimates (custom prosthesis for mastectomy patients) that are designed with women’s emotional and physical health needs in mind: “Impactful femtech innovation will require holistic solutions that go beyond an app, single product, or tech-enabled platform.”

Galbut also emphasizes that it is the VCs job to understand large markets: “There is tremendous work that goes into understanding the potential of technologies such as blockchain, AI, or genomics. If this research and learning-oriented mindset was applied to femtech by the venture community, startups revolutionizing women’s health would finally get fair access to the capital needed to scale these technologies and solutions.”

Anu Bhardwaj, How Blockchain Can Support Women’s Health

Anu Bhardwaj is the founder of Women Investing in Women Digital and an angel investor in MatterMission, a company that creates innovative solutions for women’s sexual and physiological well-being: “I used to call KegelBell the “Morgasm” company. I’m proud to have such a company in my portfolio that serves my needs. Bottom line is more women are investing in products they relate to that traditionally would not have gotten funded, be they crowd-funders, angel investors, venture capitalists or as limited partners.”

Bhardwaj emphasized the importance of collaboration with research universities that have a strong interest in commercializing innovations targeting women’s health and wellness. Finally, she sees potential in applying the blockchain to women’s health innovations: “I’m deep in the blockchain space and have seen ideas for innovative applications for IVF and various types of reproductive innovations. This would be a phenomenal application that can reduce time, cost, and maintain security. Another innovative company is tokenizing women’s health data near Mumbai, India, that we anticipate will lead to new pharmaceuticals and therapeutics serving women from within India and around the globe. My company Women Investing in Women Digital is actively looking for women innovating in the blockchain space, especially when the applications serve other women as it’s the case of the Femtech space.”