Issue 27: $10m for Allara hormonal chronic care | More FemTech funding for men | Flo Health's partner feature | Fertility add-ons get rated
Issue 27: $10m for Allara hormonal chronic care | More FemTech funding for men | Flo Health's partner feature | Fertility add-ons get rated
+ lots more in your weekly round-up of women's health innovation and FemTech news
Hi! Welcome to issue #27 of FutureFemHealth (w/c 23 October 2023). Our family is off to Ireland this Sunday for a week (which means it’s likely this newsletter will take a break too) - cue madly trying to pack clothes for all seasons and reminding myself how to keep a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old entertained on a flight. It’s a short one from London at least!
🌟 Coming up today we’ve got:
🤦🏻♂️ Why are men in FemTech securing more investment than women?
🔥 $10m for Allara, the women’s chronic care startup
❤️ Flo Health introduces ‘partner feature’ in its app
🔥 The new ratings system for fertility treatment ‘add-ons’
Got news to share from the world of FemTech and women’s health innovation? Let me know at anna@futurefemhealth.com
🤦🏻♂️You don’t have to be a man in FemTech - but it might help
Most of us will know the well-repeated stat that just 2% of funding is invested in female founders.
Now, new data from Sifted has found that even in FemTech, male founders are able to raise more money than women - despite 70% of FemTech founders being women.
Last year, 57 all-male founding teams in FemTech raised $731m, while 105 all-female founding teams raised $408m.
I had to read that twice - because while more all-female teams actually secured investment last year, they still raised a lot less than men. On those figures it’s $4.6m on average vs $9.2m by all-male teams.
And, this is despite the potential of the data being skewed by a huge raise by Kindbody in 2022 ($191m by founder Gina Bartasi).
So why might this be the case? Sifted points out that male founders tend to be more involved in fertility and cancer treatment start-ups which also tend to raise the most money (and I’d argue may also have a chance of not being perceived as ‘FemTech’ but more healthtech by VCs).
Another reason given is that some female founders may not request as much funding as male founders.
But - a glimmer of light. 2023 may well turn out to be the year that this trend reverses. Sifted’s data shows that year-to-date female-founded FemTech companies have raised $7.5m on average, versus $5.7m raised by men. Yay!
🚽 Do toilets count as women’s health innovation?!
Could more public toilets be a somewhat easy fix for a range of women’s health issues including urinary tract infections (UTIs) and kidney damage? And not to mention dignity for those with a weaker pelvic floor and bladder issues.
A new study by bladder care company Jude has found that two-thirds of respondents to its survey (67%) are deliberately dehydrating themselves because they worry about not being able to access a loo when out in public.
This has left 60% of respondents feeling stressed, worried, anxious or panic-ridden when unable to find a public toilet.
“I can wait up to an hour at the opticians wetting myself because they have no loos. I find it depressing that I can’t go out and relax. I often feel isolated,” said one sufferer.
Jude has now launched a campaign to call on government to acknowledge that poor toilet provision is a public health crisis.
Elsewhere though, another start-up is taking matters into their own hands. Female-founded Peequal, established in 2020, has raised £475k to design and create urinals for women. They’ve already set up their idea at festivals and events including Glastonbury.
Recently, Peequal has also been named by consultancy firm Beauhurst as the 10th highest growth FemTech start-up in the UK.
💰 Funding, deals and investment news
📌 US: $10m for Allara, the women’s chronic care startup. Allara’s virtual care platform connects women who have chronic hormonal conditions to qualified medical practitioners and registered dieticians. Over a third of women live with a chronic condition such as PCOS or endometriosis, and they often go undiagnosed and can lead to a range of health issues including infertility. The New York-based start-up, founded by Rachel Blank, will now expand coverage nationwide across the US. This Series A round was led by Google Ventures. (Source: Techcrunch)
📌 Germany: Femfeel menopause app acquired by Medice. Launched in 2020, Femfeel provides resources, courses and symptom tracking for menopause. German pharma company Medice says the app is a strategic fit for its portfolio. "Digital health solutions will continue to gain importance in the coming years. We see a lot of growth potential here and are excited to take an important step in this direction with the acquisition of femfeel," explained Dr Richard Ammer, Managing Partner. (Source: Medice)
📌 UK: Who are the highest growth FemTech startups? Consultancy firm Beauhurst has developed its own methodology to identify the UK’s top ten early-stage high-growth FemTech companies. Coming in at number one was London-based Viramal, a pharma company that provides relief for issues such as endometriosis and PCOS. (Source: Beauhurst)
🌟 More news from this week
📌 Flo Health period tracker introduces its most requested feature - ‘Flo for Partners’. App users can now share insights from Flo about their cycle, directly with their partners. This can help with planning or preventing pregnancy. In-app resources explaining cycles and symptoms will also help partners to understand more about hormones and body changes. Flo’s research found that 60% of women cite their partner’s limited understanding of their health as a pivotal factor affecting their relationship dynamics. “At its heart, Flo for Partners explains everything your partner needs to know — so you don’t have to.” (Source: Flo)
📌 Hey Jane virtual clinic expands to Hawaii. Online abortion and sexual health clinic Hey Jane is all about making abortion safe and accessible for those who need it. On Hawaii, accessing a clinic for abortion care may involve extra travel time than most, time away from work and family, or there may not be a clinic on every island. “At Hey Jane, we believe that no one in Hawaii should have to board a plane or travel long distances to get the reproductive and sexual health care they need.” (Source: Hey Jane on LinkedIn)
📌 Elvie makes Bloomberg’s list of top 25 UK startups to watch this year. From a list of 1,500 applications, pelvic health and breast pump makers Elvie has been included in Bloomberg’s list of innovative companies. (Source: Bloomberg)
📌 Tesco adds menopause support booklet to website: Grassroots campaigner Diane Danzebrink has worked with supermarket giant Tesco to add her ‘Understanding Menopause’ information booklet to the Tesco website. As they say…Every Little Helps. (sorry couldn’t resist). (Source: Diane Danzebrink on LinkedIn)
📌 How to get started in FemTech. This one’s for anyone aspiring to work in women’s health. Communications strategist Hannah Wrathall shares her helpful tips if you want a career in FemTech. (Source: Raising our voices newsletter)
📌 ’We can do better by women experiencing menopause’: Maven Clinic’s Chief Medical Officer Neel Shah makes the case for genuine support, understanding and care rather than magic pills and false promises. “Where their needs were once ignored, menopausal women are now being wooed…[in a] commercial gold rush” An excellent piece articulating what I can only see will become a bigger and bigger issue over the next few years. (Source: Time).
📌 Can you lead a VC-backed start-up and live a balanced life as a parent? Departing Clue co-CEO Carrie Walter’s resignation announcement earlier this month caused quite the debate on LinkedIn. While Carrie has chosen to leave to spend more time with her family, her honest conclusion that ‘you can have it all; but not all, all at once’ has led to an outpouring of thoughts about gendered roles, work/life balance and life in a startup - including from Clue co-founder Ida Tin. Whatever you think - this is a conversation that needs to be had. (Source: Carrie Walter on LinkedIn)
🩸 Research and women’s health news
📌 UK: Biggest cervical cancer drug advance in 20 years hailed. A trial has shown that using a course of existing, cheap chemotherapy drugs ahead of usual radiotherapy treatment could cut the risk of women dying from the disease or the cancer returning by 35%. The results were revealed at the ESMO medical conference. (Source: BBC)
📌 UK: New treatment ratings system for IVF add-ons. The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) has launched a new traffic-light style ratings system for fertility treatment add-ons. These ‘add-ons’, such as assisted hatching and time-lapse imaging, are typically an added cost for those going through already expensive fertility treatment. The new system will help patients make an informed choice about how effective an add-on might be in improving the chance of having a baby when undergoing fertility treatment. (Source: HFEA)
📄 Govt & policy news
📌 UK: A manifesto for menopause. The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Menopause has called on all political parties to commit to seven reforms ahead of the next General Election. They include a menopause health check at age 40 and mandated menopause action plans in large companies, as well as more funding for menopause research. (Source: House of Commons Library)
✅ Campaign of the week - “The Tampon Tax Back Coalition”
Eight period care brands including August, Cora, Lola, The Honey Pot, Rael, Here We Flo, Saalt and DIVA are collaborating to campaign against the ‘unjust tax’ in the US on period care products.
In 21 states across the US shoppers still pay sales tax on period products such as tampons, pads and menstrual cups. Here in the UK, a similar tax was abolished in 2021, although period pants maker WUKA is continuing to call for taxes to also be cut from their products.
In the Tampon Tax Back Coalition, brands are uniting to reimburse the sales tax on purchases directly to consumers.
“Text us a picture of your receipt and within 24 hours we will Venmo or Paypal you back the tampon tax you paid,” Nadya Okamoto, co-Founder of August, who spearheaded the coalition, told CNN. “Each brand will reimburse the customer of its product. August is coordinating this on the backend through a dedicated pool of funds from each brand.”
According to nonprofit group Period, also founded by August’s Okamoto, nearly one in four students in the United States struggle to buy period products and lower-income students and students of colour are more impacted by lack of access than White and middle-income students.
That’s all for this week! See you next time,
Anna