💌 Issue 89: $6.9m for Level Zero | NHS contract win | New venture studio | $50m to cut Alzheimer's risk in women
+ lots more in your weekly round-up of women's health innovation and FemTech news
Hello and welcome to issue #89 of FutureFemHealth (w/c February 17 2025).
🌟 Coming up today we’ve got:
🔥 Level Zero’s $6.9m for continuous hormone monitoring device
🤰🏼 MUTU secures UK NHS contract for at-home postnatal programme
📈 Norway’s Femtech Studios launches venture studio
✅ The $50m research initiative to cut Alzheimer’s risk in women
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 March onwards. For more info and a copy of our media pack drop me a line: anna@futurefemhealth.com
🔥 The female founders leading the creation of “a whole new product category”
UK-US start-up Level Zero Health has just banked a $6.9 million investment to develop its continuous hormone monitoring device.
This pre-seed round is reportedly the largest in Europe for a female-founded team - that’s co-founder and CEO Ula Rustamova (who previously founded a wearable device company at just 16-years-old) and co-founder and CTO Irene Jia (ex-Philips).
So why is Level Zero attracting so much interest?
The start-up is pioneering continuous hormone monitoring, described by an investor as ‘one of the holy grails of diagnostics.’
Initially, Level Zero has said that its wearable patch will focus on IVF, potentially replacing up to 80% of traditional blood draws (this c. 12 min video from 2024 is a brilliant intro to Level Zero if you’re interested). Unsurprisingly a number of IVF clinics are already ready to get onboard.
But the potential goes far beyond IVF. Continuous hormone monitoring can be used in pregnancy and menopause care and more, helping to reduce in-person visits, optimizing prescriptions, replacing blood tests and cutting lab costs - making care more convenient and affordable.
On the consumer side, there’s also preventative health opportunities too - with the Level Zero team previously stating they want to make ‘your hormone data as available as your sleep data or step count.’
And while current trackers typically give you insights on your external ‘symptom’ (i.e sleep patterns, heart rate, energy levels), hormone monitoring may help to pinpoint root causes. Plus, the Level Zero founders aim for a 90+% correlation with their patch compared to measuring hormone levels through a blood test.
There’s still a wait for all of this of course - trials and regulatory approvals all lie ahead, with a projected market launch in 2028. However, Level Zero is also working on an intermittent monitoring device as a nearer-term solution.
And finally, Level Zero isn’t the only start-up to watch in this space. Persperity Health secured $4 million in 2024 for its hormone monitoring device using sweat; and big pharma is in on the category with the Bayer-Impli partnership.
💰 Funding, deals and investment news
📌 CANADA: Canadian menopause start-up Coral secures $4.1 million seed round. Coral’s virtual platform includes detailed health assessments, personalized care plans and a preventative, team-based medical care approach that combines prescriptions where necessary and lifestyle guidance. The founding team includes Anna Chif - previous co-founder of Canada’s largest telemedicine provider Dialogue. This funding round was led by Brightspark. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
📌 GERMANY: Menstrual underwear brand snuggs raises €5 million to reinvent period products. Founded in 2019, snuggs is present in nearly 3,000 retail stores in three countries and now plans to expand in key focus markets in the UK and Europe. The funding round was led by TripleB and brings total funding to €12 million since 2019. (Continue reading: Eu-startups)
📌 US: Epicore Biosystems scores $26M to expand sweat-sensing wearable technology. Epicore is tapping into the growing market for personalized health monitoring. It will now expand into new biomarker applications, including women’s health. This Series B was led by the Steel Foundation for Hope. (Continue reading: Mobi Health news)
📌 US: Swizzle Ventures launches $6.6m fund focused on women’s health and wealth. Founder Jessica Kamada has already invested in 10 companies out of its first fund, including pregnancy tracking startup Trellis Health, social platform alternative Diem and maternal mental healthcare provider Mavida Heatlh. Swizzle’s average check size is $100-$200k. (Continue reading: GeekWire)
📌 SPAIN / INTERNATIONAL: Nina Capital launches €50 million fund for early-stage healthtech. Previous investments from female-founded Nina Capital include women’s health platform The Lowdown. In this third fund, the firm will target early-stage (pre-seed to Series A) healthtech companies across Europe, the U.S, Canada, Israel and - for the first time - Australia. Check sizes range from €250,000 to €1.5M. Nina Capital now has over €100 million under management. (Continue reading: Tech.eu)
🌟 Industry news from this week
📌 UK: MUTU secures NHS contract for at-home postnatal programme. If you’re familiar with the challenges of selling into the NHS, you’ll know what a major win this is for the postnatal program MUTU. Its proven system will now be available to NHS patients in parts of the UK. Interestingly and separately, there is also now a consultation ongoing that may reform how healthtech companies are approved for use in the NHS. Smoother pathways ahead? (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
📌 NORWAY: Femtech Studios launches. The venture studio model in Femtech is growing in popularity with several new studios launching in the past year including Sweden’s Daya, Fierce Foundry in the US and Astrawell Venture Studio in the UK/US. This latest addition takes a hybrid approach that includes both startup incubation and industry consultancy. The team are already working with startups like Induvita (gynecological care) and Meno Clinic, (a menopause clinic). (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
📌 GLOBAL: Employers to add preconception care to combat rising fertility care costs - says new Maven report. Investing early in preconception care can save employers and employees the costs of potentially unnecessary IVF later down the line. Maven’s own approach to this has contributed to 30% of its members achieving pregnancy without assisted reproductive technology in recent years. This global snapshot surveys HR leaders and employers across the U.S, U.K and India and found 2 in 3 employers plan to invest in family health benefits within three years - a 44% jump since 2024. Yet with rising costs, 61% of those affected plan to increase access to preconception care. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
📌 US: Pelvital research shows efficacy of non-invasive treatment for stress urinary incontinence. For millions of women, stress urinary incontinence impacts their daily lives. While surgery is considered the most effective treatment, this new research suggests a non-invasive alternative, known as ‘transvaginal mechanotherapy’ could be just as effective. A small device used at home, such as Flyte by Pelvital, stimulates and strengthens pelvic floor muscles. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
📌 FRANCE: Google partners with France's Institute of Women's Cancers to improve women's health outcomes. This initiative will make use of AI to improve patient outcomes in breast and gynaecological cancers and improve our understanding of these complex diseases. YouTube will support by disseminating accurate health information and google.org is contributing $2 million to support postdoctoral researchers dedicated to improving breast cancer outcomes. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
📌 US: The rise of the menopause market. The advent of telemedicine, a lack of trained OB-GYNs who understand menopause and a growing consumer demand are three factors influencing the rise of a projected $27.6 billion market in menopause by 2033. (Continue reading: Modern Retail)
🩸 Research and women’s health news
📌 US: Wellcome Leap launches CARE Initiative - a $50 million research-led effort to cut Alzheimer’s risk in women. Two-thirds of Alzheimer’s patients are women. What if we could predict and prevent Alzheimer’s before symptoms even appear? This new program, led by renowned Neuroscientist Dr Lisa Mosconi aims to do just that - preventing over 54 million new cases by 2050. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)
📌 GLOBAL: Why global trade classifications need to change for menstrual products. Right now we don’t know how many menstrual products move across borders globally. Despite millions being sold each year, menstrual products don’t have their own code in the universal classification system known as Harmonized System (HS) codes. Instead, they’re categorized alongside diapers and baby wipes - so we can’t monitor trade flows and market gaps. But now, there’s a push to revise the codes. (Continue reading: The Sanitation & Hygiene Fund)
✅ Jobs
📌 SWEDEN/REMOTE (relocation support available): Frontend developer, Natural Cycles
📌 US: VP Finance / CFO, Cayaba Care
📌 US: Head of Member Growth and Retention, Cayaba Care
📌 AUSTRIA: Senior Metabolic Health Expert, Hello Inside
📌 UK: Commercial co-founder, Kove
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.
