💌 Issue 72: $125m for Maven | prejudice for FemTech founders | Perelel acquires LOOM | the ROI on women's health in England

+ lots more in your weekly round-up of women's health innovation and FemTech news

Oct 09, 2024

💌 Hi! Welcome to issue #72 of FutureFemHealth, here to bring you your weekly news about women’s health innovation and FemTech (w/c 7 October 2024).

🌟 Coming up today we’ve got:

💰 Maven Clinic announces huge $125m Series F
👩🏼 New research uncovers prejudices for FemTech female founders
🔥 Supplement brand Perelel acquires educational company LOOM
📈 The return on investment for women’s health in England

Got news to share from the world of FemTech and women’s health innovation? Let me know at anna@futurefemhealth.com

“To build better healthcare for everyone, we must first build it for women and families”

three women sitting wooden bench by the tulip flower field — Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦 on Unsplash

Maven Clinic, the world's largest virtual clinic for women's and family health announced yesterday (Tuesday) that it has raised a $125 million Series F funding round led by StepStone Group, with participation from existing investors too. (Our full story is here).

This brings Maven's total funding to more than $425 million and a reported $1.7 billion valuation.

Maven operates across the reproductive health spectrum - from fertility, to family building, pregnancy, parenting and menopause. Its success highlights the real importance of comprehensive virtual care for women and families.

While this has been a decade-long journey for Maven founder Kate Ryder and her team - it’s clear that Kate has even more ambitious plans yet.

"Over the last 10 years, Maven has created and scaled a comprehensive virtual care model in one of the most underfunded sectors in healthcare,” she said.
"The next decade is about transformation. We now have the platform breadth, depth, and data required to create the scaled change this industry so sorely needs.
“With each member supported, we continue to prove that to build better healthcare for everyone we must first build it for women and families."

New research shows the prejudices faced by female founders

bokeh photography of closed signage — Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Ironically, the incredible funding round for Maven emerged on the same day as two new pieces of research underlined the obstacles for female founders in women’s health.

FemHealth Insights' research, featured in The Guardian, found that female-founded FemTech companies in the UK, US, and Canada raised 23% less capital per deal compared to male-founded counterparts since 2010.

Shockingly, female founders who used terms such as ‘empower’, ‘equality’ ‘gender gap’ faced more discrimination from investors, who perceived that they prioritised feminist ideals and social impact over financial returns.

The CensHERship campaign (co-founded by FutureFemHealth) also revealed widespread issues for FemTech founders accessing financial services. All 31 founders we surveyed reported challenges: from being refused bank accounts, paying over the odds on insurance, or having accounts blocked on payment platforms.

Béa Fertility’s at-home fertility kit is a case in point: founder Tess Cosad had to replace the word ‘vaginal canal’ with ‘birth canal’ to get past strict rules to sell on Amazon - ‘which seems insensitive and crass given we are a fertility product.’

Both of these findings highlight a need for change. After all, if we don’t remove the systemic barriers, who knows how many future ‘Mavens’ are being left on the sidelines and prevented from reaching their potential?

Find out more:

Read the full CensHERship research here and find out more about our plans for the campaign.
Want to hear Dr Brittany Barreto and researcher Ludovica Castiglia explore their research on gender bias in funding and how to change this? Join a free webinar on Wednesday 30 October 15.30hrs GMT / 11.30hrs ET Grab your free ticket.

💰 Funding, deals and investment news

Image: Perelel - two of the Perelel co-founders Victoria Thain Gioia and Dr Banafsheh Bayati

📌 US: Perelel acquires educational women’s health company LOOM. Supplement brand Perelel is billed as the first and only OBGYN-founded vitamin brand. This acquisition of the educational community platform LOOM will help it widen access to women’s health information and support, building its brand as a go-to on a range of topics. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

📌 UK: Maxwellia opens latest £2m funding round. Maxwellia specialises in turning proven prescription drugs into household medicine brands through a regulatory process known as ‘switching.’ It’s the only UK company dedicated to this and now has a portfolio of four women’s health brands. Today Maxwellia opens its latest funding round. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth - please note: this article is a paid partnership and contains information provided by Maxwellia. It does not constitute financial advice. Readers interested in investment opportunities should seek professional financial guidance)

📌 CANADA: Flora Fertility closes $1.5m funding to launch fertility insurance across US and Canada. The majority of fertility patients still pay for treatments out-of-pocket which can exceed $50,000. Flora Fertility is launching the first individually-owned fertility insurance across North America based on personalised risk assessments. Positioning itself as an alternative or addition to egg freezing, the start-up is initially targeting women aged 20-34-years-old. This pre-seed round was led by Toronto’s Highline Beta. (Continue reading: Forbes)

📌 UK: Actress Emma Watson invests in reproductive health company Hertility. With more than 600,000 women currently on gynaecology appointment waiting lists in the UK, personalised testing service Hertility offers much-needed help and reassurance. In an interview with TechCrunch, Hertility has revealed that actress Emma Watson, known for her interest in women-led initiatives, has invested in the start-up - bringing its total funding to more than $14m. (Continue reading: TechCrunch)

🌟 More news from this week

📌 MEXICO: Female entrepreneurs launch Mexico’s first FemTech Association. Wherever you are in the world the FemTech ‘movement’ is growing momentum (FemTech Across Borders lists representation in 42 countries and counting). Now entrepreneur Mayra Hurtado, CEO and co-founder of Hormony and Jazna Stannard, Former Director of Well4Tech have launched a community for Mexico. (Continue reading: Startups Magazine)

📌 The new Oura Ring 4 has slimmer sensors, increased accuracy and more sizes. Oura continues to add women’s health features to its popular smart ring. As part of this new launch, fertile window predictions are now included for those trying to conceive - although Oura emphasises this is not for use as a contraceptive and points to its partnership with Natural Cycles for that. (Continue reading: The Verge)

📌 US: Midi Health launches dedicated program for women with history of breast cancer. Confusion surrounds whether hormone therapy during menopause is safe for breast cancer survivors (or those with genetic mutations or family history). Women’s virtual care clinic Midi Health is introducing an industry-first ‘Survivorship Program’ to offer personalised treatment plans for this group of women, overseen by specialist clinicians who will work with a patient’s existing medical team to ensure integrated care. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

📌 GERMANY: The next era for Clue: As Audrey Tsang, the current CEO of period tracker app Clue, steps down, she tells Sifted about the challenges she’s faced during her tenure, achievements and hopes for the future of the women’s health app. (Continue reading: Sifted)

🩸 Research and women’s health news

📌 Why it’s time to uncouple obstetrics and gynaecology. Women’s health specialist Dr Elizabeth Poynor argues that a combined OB-GYN practice skews care towards reproduction and neglects many crucial aspects of gynaecology to the detriment of women’s health. Splitting the two, she says, would allow for more-rounded training in support in a fuller range of women’s health. (Continue reading: Time magazine)

📄 Govt & policy news

📌 UK: The return on investment for women’s health. Every additional £1 invested in England’s obstetrics and gynaecology services could generate a return on investment of £11, says a new report from from the NHS Confederation, Create Health Foundation and London Economics. Authors now call on Government to confirm that funding for the 10-year Women’s Health Strategy will extend beyond next year - which will be just two years into plans. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

✅ Jobs

📌 UK: Philanthropy Executive, Wellbeing of Women

Thanks for reading and see you next time! If you’ve missed any previous newsletter issues catch them all at futurefemhealth.com

Anna

Before you go: Would you like to support FutureFemHealth through sponsorship and get your brand in front of 1,500+ professionals, founders and investors in women’s health? I’m taking bookings from November onwards. For more info and a copy of our media pack drop me a line: anna@futurefemhealth.com