💌 Issue 102: $20m for dog-powered breast cancer detection | World-first urine-based HPV test | Clue study explores air pollution and menstruation

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

May 21, 2025

Hi! Welcome to issue #102 of FutureFemHealth, (w/c May 19 2025).

🌟 Coming up today we’ve got:

🐶 $20.3 million funding for a dog-powered breast cancer detection
🌎 World-first urine-based HPV test secures $34 million
💰 How women’s health can tap into a $150 billion pre-tax market
💨 Clue study explores how air pollution impacts menstrual cycles

Got news to share with our 8,000 global readers who are working in women’s health and FemTech? Or would you like to sponsor the newsletter and reach our audience? Reply to this email or let me know at anna@futurefemhealth.com

🐶 This start-up just raised $20m to advance a ‘dog-powered’ breath test for breast cancer detection

Dogs and AI are not your typical pairing, and not something I might usually cover at FutureFemHealth!

But one start-up is betting on these two things to help detect cancer - including breast cancer - before symptoms ever appear.

SpotitEarly is developing what could become the first at-home breath test to catch the four most common types of cancer - breast cancer, colorectal, prostate and lung.

The company just launched in the U.S with $20.3 million in new funding and the opening of its Series A round. (Read our full story here)

The test itself works quite simply: users breathe into a face-mask-style kit at home. From there, the sample - containing ‘volatile organic compounds’ linked to cancer - is analyzed by trained dogs with high scent sensitivity. Then, it’s passed through SpotitEarly’s proprietary LUCID AI platform, which includes an assessment of the dogs’ behavioral responses to help determine results.

And it looks like it works: an initial two-year clinical study published in Nature involved 1,400 people and demonstrated a 94% accuracy rate.

Curious about the canine component? Me too. SpotitEarly says that its dogs take just half a second to ‘clear’ a sample. A single lab facility staffed by its trained dogs could process over 1 million tests per year, that’s enough to cover the needs of a 4 million population of adults aged 40+ based on typical cancer screening guidelines.

“While there has been movement from emerging tech companies that have shown great promise for transforming the way we screen and detect cancer, they’ve lacked accessibility and precision,” says Shlomi Madar, Ph.D., CEO of SpotitEarly.
”The opportunity to bring SpotitEarly’s innovative tech and dynamic approach to the U.S., and to drastically improve how we conquer a complex and persistent disease that takes the lives of millions of Americans each year, is both a great honor and responsibility.”

Home-based diagnostics are gaining real momentum right now, particularly in women’s health. Just last week, Teal Health received FDA approval for its at-home HPV screening test, a major milestone in cervical cancer prevention. And both of this week’s funding announcements (see news below) are centered around at-home testing too.

The SpotitEarly tests will now need to be approved by the FDA in advance of commercial availability targeted for 2026.

💰 Funding, deals and investment news

📌 HONG KONG: PHASE Scientific secures $34m Series A for non-invasive diagnostics including women’s health. The global battle to eliminate cervical cancer takes another step forward, as PHASE announces a world-first urine-based HPV test — part of its broader push to make diagnostics easier, earlier and more accessible. The test shows a promising 93.4% sensitivity for precancerous cervical lesions and over 97% concordance with physician-collected samples. Backed by its PHASIFY™ biomarker platform, the biotech plans to use the funding to accelerate R&D and commercialization across women’s health and beyond into other diagnostics too. This round is the largest Series A funding in Asia’s diagnostic technology sector since 2019 and was led by a private equity fund managed by Value Partners Group. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

📌 U.S: NextGen Jane awarded $2.2 million NIH grant for endometriosis diagnostic. Endometriosis can be one of the most debilitating and underdiagnosed conditions affecting women's health today. It’s now well-known that the current standard of surgical confirmation of disease contributes to an average diagnosis time of nearly 10 years. NextGen Jane is tackling this problem with a non-invasive alternative: using tampon-collected samples to capture and decode the molecular signals shed from the uterine lining. The approach builds on the company’s broader platform, which combines next-generation sequencing with longitudinal sample collection to better understand the biological activity of the uterus over time. This marks the second NIH award for the company to further their research on endometriosis - it previously received $1.8M in 2020. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

🌟 Industry news from this week

📌 U.S: How Flex helps women’s health brands unlock $150B in hidden healthcare dollars. Women’s health products often fall outside insurance — making price a potential dealbreaker. But Flex, a fintech startup, is helping Femtech brands like Daye, Kindred Bravely and Embr tap into the $150 billion HSA/FSA market — that’s pre-tax dollars consumers can use on health essentials, saving them up to 30% off the price. Flex handles all the compliance work on the back end and makes it quick and easy for brands to accept HSA/FSA, with most brands able to go live in under an hour. It’s an untapped growth lever for startups, with brands seeing up to 30% conversion lifts, and 67% of customers say they wouldn’t have purchased without the option. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

📌 U.S: WHAM launches 'Innovator's Circle' network to speed up women's health innovation. Despite women making up half the global population and driving the majority of healthcare decisions and spending, companies focused on women’s health still receive only 2% of healthcare venture capital funding. This new network from the non-profit Women’s Health Access Matters (WHAM) brings together more than a dozen women’s health-focused investment funds to catalyze some magic. “By aligning early-stage investors with later-stage capital partners, we’re unlocking exponential opportunity for returns—and real health impact.” (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

📌 U.S: Frame partners with Labcorp to expand access to fertility testing and care. Frame’s virtual fertility care platform - combing clinical support with AI-powered care navigation - has already cut time to treatment by at least one month. Now, a new partnership with diagnostics giant Labcorp will add critical testing options, like hormone panels and semen analysis. Together, the two will tackle the known lag between testing and treatment in fertility and create an improved patient experience. (Continue reading: Hit Consultant)

📌 U.S: Who is next for Hims and Hers? Fresh from a $1billion raise, speculation is swirling on potential acquisition targets for the healthcare platform. CB Insights’ Jason Saltzman points to women’s health start-ups such as Seven Starling and Kindbody as ‘likely targets’ as Hims & Hers seeks to broaden its ecosystem. (Continue reading: Jason Saltzman on LinkedIn)

📌 GLOBAL: Why your FemTech start-up will fail. Founder Kanya Monoj wound up her startup recently. Now, after hundreds of conversations with VCs, founders and operators in women’s health she’s launched a four-part series on what she’s learnt. Beyond the provocative headline on this piece are some thoughtful reflections on the business models that work - and don’t - in the sector. (Continue reading: Kanya Monoj on Substack)

🩸 Research and women’s health news

aerial photography of city at daytime — Photo by Joshua Rawson-Harris on Unsplash

📌 U.S / GERMANY: How does air pollution impact menstrual cycles? New Clue study helps to explain. Air pollution is widely recognised as a risk factor for respiratory and cardiovascular conditions, but its effects on women's health - particularly menstrual health - have received comparatively little attention. Now, a major study of 2.2 million cycles from 92,000 Clue users across three countries has found that long-term exposure to air pollution (focusing on a fine particulate matter called PM2.5) is linked to irregular and longer cycles. Research partners from MIT and University of Colorado Denver matched cycle data with satellite pollution levels — revealing that while short-term spikes had little effect, more cumulative exposure disrupted menstrual patterns, suggesting potential hormonal impacts. It’s one of the largest studies of its kind, and a reminder to include menstrual health in broader public health policy. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

📌 U.S: AI identifies novel biomarker for aggressive breast cancer. Using AI to analyse 9,000+ samples, researchers at the National Institutes of Health found that changes in breast tissue structure — called “stromal disruption” — can predict which benign cases are more likely to progress to aggressive cancer, and up to three years earlier. Crucially, the marker is visible using standard pathology tools, offering a low-cost way to improve early risk detection and personalise prevention. (Continue reading: Inside Precision Medicine

📌 U.S: FDA clears its first blood test for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease, with Fujirebio's Lumipulse. Almost two-thirds of Americans living with Alzeheimer’s are women. This new diagnostic - intended for patients ages 55 and older who have already shown signs and symptoms of cognitive decline - makes earlier diagnosis easier and maximises chances for treatment options to slow the disease. (Continue reading: Fierce biotech)

📌 AUSTRALIA: ‘Historic moment’: $50 million donation for new endometriosis research institute. A world-first research institute will set up at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), thanks to a landmark donation by Australian entrepreneurial family, the Ainsworths. The institute will bring together top scientists, clinicians and philanthropists from England, Canada, Denmark, India and the US, to accelerate breakthroughs in diagnosis and treatments and enable more personalized care. (Continue reading: Women’s Agenda)

📄 Govt & policy news

📌 UK: Police could search homes and phones after pregnancy loss. New national guidance from the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) appears to suggest officers look for menstrual tracking apps or abortion drugs in cases of unexpected pregnancy loss. Critics have called the new guidance ‘shocking.’ (Continue reading: The Observer)

✅ Jobs

📌 GERMANY: Director of PR and Social (1 year fixed term), Clue

📌 UK: Head of Content (FTC), CoppaFeel charity

📌 U.S: Senior Product Manager, Women’s Health, Oura

📌 U.S: Chief of Staff, Seven Starling

📌 U.S: Marketing Manager, Perelel

That’s all for this week! See you next time. If you’ve missed any previous newsletter issues catch them all at futurefemhealth.com and do make sure to follow us on LinkedIn.