💌 Issue 84: $6.5m for Lady Technologies | World-first automated IVF lab | Embody the private-by-default period tracker
+ lots more in your weekly round-up of women's health innovation and FemTech news
Welcome to issue #84 of FutureFemHealth - and a special welcome to the 162 subscribers who have joined us since last week. If you missed our 2025 predictions piece, you can take a look at that here.
🌟 Coming up today we’ve got:
🏆 Lady Technologies secures $6.5m Series A to develop vaginal health platform
🩸 ’We can’t share your data - we don’t have it’ - we meet the founder of private-by-default cycle tracking app Embody
💰 Conceivable Life Sciences closes $18m Series A for world-first automated IVF lab
🤰🏼 15 US states selected for transforming maternal health model
But before that: Would you like to support FutureFemHealth through sponsorship and get your brand in front of nearly 8,000 professionals, founders and investors in women’s health? I’m taking bookings from February onwards. For more info and a copy of our media pack drop me a line: anna@futurefemhealth.com
🩸 How Anna Hall's Embody app is building the future of menstrual tracking
The intersection of women’s health, technology, and privacy has never been more urgent.
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, concerns about how menstrual health data is collected, stored, and potentially misused have come to the forefront.
And with an upcoming change in Presidency, those concerns show no signs of abating.
Founder Anna Hall is addressing this issue head-on with a cycle tracking app, Embody, specifically designed to prioritise user privacy without compromising functionality.
Unlike traditional period trackers that collect and store user data in the cloud, Embody uses a local data storage model.
Personal data is stored locally on users’ phones instead.
As Anna says: “We can’t share your data - we don’t have it.”
Embody is seeing traction for its idea. After a launch in August 2024 Embody has seen over 45,000 menstruators switch to Embody, with a surge after election day.
Continue reading our full story: FutureFemHealth
💰 Funding, deals and investment news
📌 US: Lady Technologies secures $6.5m Series A to develop vaginal health platform. Lady Technologies is best known for its pelvic floor trainer and fertility tracker kegg, which measures changes in cervical mucus to provide fertility insights. With this Series A, the start-up will expand insights to postpartum, contraception and beyond, surfacing vaginal health information that has been long overlooked. Relentless Consumer Partners led the round. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
📌 US: Conceivable Life Sciences closes $18m Series A for world-first automated IVF lab. Conceivable aims to make IVF more affordable for those who need it, increasing accessibility and improving outcomes. It's doing that by creating a world-first automated IVF lab - and it's just secured $18million in a Series A to continue it work ahead of a US launch in 2026. ARTIS Ventures led the financing with participation from new and existing investors, raising over $39 million to date. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
📌 EUROPE: Cycle tracking app femble raises €350,000 - and announces new strategy as B2B content platform. Femble’s founders have observed a strong trend towards exclusive digital communities. Coupled with the rise of genAI in videos, it’s pivoted away from its origins as a B2C period tracking app and will now empower doctors to share trusted content and knowledge with patients, particularly in women’s health. Funding came from angel investment. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth).
📌 US: Wellness startup Superpower buys women-focused Feminade. Created by founder Roya Pakzad in 2018, Feminade is a ‘digital health concierge’ to help women understand their hormones. The startup has now found the perfect acquirer in wellness brand Superpower which offers whole-body testing and curated treatments for personalised care. No deal terms disclosed. (Continue reading: Axios (paywall))
📌 GLOBAL: The business case for accelerating women’s health investment. An untapped market awaits in women’s health…but you probably already know that. This new report from Women’s Health Access Matters (WHAM) is a call to action for everyone else who needs to hear it about the next frontier of economic growth. (Continue reading: WHAM)
🌟 Industry news from this week
📌 US: Evernow partners with Clearblue to offer access to trusted menopause care. Clearblue’s ‘Menopause Stage Indicator’ caused quite the storm after launch in 2023 - with critics highlighting the unreliability of a ‘menopause test’. Evernow’s partnership means users will now have access to menopause-trained healthcare professionals who can explain their Clearblue test results and collaborate on a personalized care plan. (Continue reading: PR Newswire)
📌 US: Women’s health clinicians join Hippocratic AI for launch of AI agent app store. With no programming knowledge required, clinicians can design and deploy AI agents in under 30 minutes, followed by safety testing by the creator and Hippocratic AI staff. These agents will assist with specific healthcare needs such as (and depending on safety assessments) postpartum depression screening, preparing patients for treatment, or analyzing trends behind the scenes. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
📌 US: Insurer Cigna Healthcare partners with Progyny to expand fertility benefits. Availability of fertility, childbirth and family-building services have become a leading factor in job retention, with 61% of millennials saying these benefits drive company loyalty and 70% saying they would change jobs based on family-planning benefits. Progyny’s fertility and family-building services will allow more employers to meet this demand, via this partnership with Cigna. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
📌 GLOBAL: The role of digital therapeutics for hormonal health conditions. Unlike general health apps which primarily focus on fitness or wellness, digital therapeutics are clinically validated, often regulated and designed to deliver evidence-based medical interventions. Digital therapeutics are particularly promising for hormonal health - and in this guest article from founder Victoria Schoeffel, we hear about Belle Health which combines cycle tracking, symptom management and cognitive-behavioural therapy tools to help individuals better manage premenstrual disorders. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
📌 ASIA: 1337 Ventures introduces Asia’s first femtech-focused accelerator. Malaysia’s leading venture capital firm, 1337 Ventures, has launched Alpha Startups Inno4Her, an eight-week programme to support femtech startups to validate ideas, achieve product-market fit, and scale their businesses. (Continue reading: Digital News Asia)
📌 SINGAPORE: Supplements firm Nature’s Farm set to enter menopause space. After observing a ‘clear upward trend’ in demand for supplements in the 50+ age group, Nature’s Farm will introduce hormone support formulas and probiotics tailored for seniors. The business, which was established in 1982, says that its 50+ consumers now not only look for health support but aesthetic-related needs too. (Continue reading: Nutraingredients)
🩸 Research and women’s health news
📌 US: ‘AI Model of the Maternal Brain’ project awarded $1m funding from Chan Zuckerberg initiative. How does the brain change during pregnancy and motherhood? This project from UC Santa Barbara will create 3D models of the maternal brain that will adapt based on hormone levels, physiology and demographics. The models will identify patterns of brain evolution, uncover population-level differences, and predict postpartum conditions such as depression. (Continue reading: UC Santa Barbara)
📌 US: Bayer makes hot flash splash. Pharma giant Bayer’s hot flash drug candidate elinzanetant is playing catch up in the menopause space compared rival drug Veozah by Astella. However, it’s now shown good results in a phase 3 trial to reduce hot flashes in breast cancer patients. (Continue reading: Fierce Biotech)
📌 UK: Women seeking abortions after using ‘natural’ contraception. Beyond the headlines there is some interesting data emerging about shifting trends in contraception use in the last five years: most notably away from hormonal contraception and a 14% rise in women using no contraceptive method at all. (Continue reading: BBC, plus highly recommend The Lowdown founder Alice Pelton’s LinkedIn post adding crucial context on this story)
📄 Govt & policy news
📌 US: 15 States selected for transforming maternal health model. This pioneering pilot from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is a first-of-its kind experiment that could be applied to the rest of the country if successful. Running for a whole decade, the state Medicaid agencies taking part will develop a whole-person approach to pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum care. The goal is to decrease disparities in access and treatment. With the US in the grips of a maternal health crisis, and 40% of all births in the country covered by Medicaid, this is an important and promising program. (Continue reading: Healthcare innovation group)
📌 UK: ‘Unprecedented’ rise in abortion prosecutions prompts call for law change from medical leaders. Medical leaders are calling for reform of abortion laws in England and Wales after an “unprecedented” rise in women and girls being prosecuted for ending their own pregnancies. More than 30 groups have issued a joint statement after six cases in two years where women have appeared in court. (Continue reading: The Guardian)
✅ Jobs
📌 US: Various jobs, Allara Health
📌 US: Community and Content Coordinator, Dame
📌 US: Communications Intern, Society for Women’s Health Research
📌 UK: Director of Brand (12 months maternity cover), Flo Health
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.