Welcome to issue #166 of FutureFemHealth, (w/c October 5 2026) - your weekly briefing on the global women’s health market.
Hello from London, where I’m spending the next couple of days at Women’s Health Week. Tomorrow I’ll be moderating a panel on the censorship of women’s health content online - do say hi if you see me!
🌟 In this week’s briefing:
💰 Biotia raises $9m to tackle the diagnostic gaps in recurrent UTIs
🏆 Rejoni wins FDA approval for device designed to prevent uterine scarring after surgery
📌 Digbi brings menopause care into its broader health platform
🏛️ Europe’s medicines regulator sets out 10 priorities to change how medicines are developed for women
Share your news: anna@futurefemhealth.com
But first…
Where did the money go in Q3?
In case you missed it, on Monday we released our Q3 funding analysis, tracking $456.2m in disclosed funding across 45 deals during July, August and September.
Pro members can now also download the complete Q3 funding tracker, with every deal we tracked and classified this quarter.
We use our classification framework to look separately at the health need a company addresses and how much of its business is focused on women’s health. That allows us to capture companies improving women’s health outcomes, whether or not they explicitly position themselves as women’s health companies.
In the full analysis:
where the biggest Q3 cheques went
what’s being built at early stage
three Q3 stories across menstrual health, the microbiome and pelvic health
💰 Capital flows
📌 US: Biotia raises $9m to tackle the diagnostic gaps in recurrent UTIs. For women with recurrent or complicated UTIs, standard cultures don’t always identify what’s causing the infection - leaving some cycling through symptoms and treatment without clear answers. Biotia is using clinical metagenomics to identify pathogens that conventional testing can miss, and has now raised an oversubscribed $9m to expand its laboratory, pursue reimbursement and develop further women’s health diagnostics. The financing extends its previous Series A and takes total reported funding to $19.4m. (Continue reading: Biotia)
📌 NETHERLANDS: Flouria reaches €1.5m funding as it looks beyond its home market. After serving more than 1,000 women in its first year, Amsterdam-based digital clinic Flouria is preparing to take its hormonal health model into new European markets. It provides online specialist care across perimenopause, postpartum health and PMOS, from diagnosis through treatment and follow-up. New backing from Healthy.Capital brings total funding to €1.5m. (Continue reading: Flouria)
📌 UK: GLORIAH raises £600k to take vaginal dryness products into UK retail and the US. Edinburgh-based GLORIAH is building a consumer brand specifically around intimate health. The company has raised an oversubscribed £600k seed round as it prepares to launch on retailer Boots this month and enter the US later this year. Gabriel Investment Syndicate led the round. (Continue reading: GLORIAH)
📌 US: First $20m deployed from $100m push to halve maternal deaths. Less than a month after we covered Olivia and Tom Walton’s $100m commitment to US maternal health, the first money is moving. Arkansas and Kentucky will each receive $10m over five years to expand maternal healthcare, with a focus on rural access, workforce, home visiting, postpartum support and better maternal-health data. (Continue reading: Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies)
🌟 Industry moves and strategic shifts
📌 US: Digbi brings menopause care into its broader health platform. Specialist menopause platforms have helped establish the category, but their next competitors may not be other women’s health companies. Digbi Health, a telehealth platform providing metabolic, obesity, gastrointestinal and inflammatory care through more than 300 employers and health plans, has now added HRT to its offering. Women can now access HRT alongside metabolic care, while employers can add menopause through an existing relationship rather than buying another standalone solution. (Continue reading: Digbi Health)
📌 UK: SheMed expands beyond weight loss with PMOS care. When women-focused GLP-1 provider SheMed launched, one question was whether it would herald a new wave of VC-backed weight-management companies built specifically for women. Its latest move points to another possibility: weight loss may instead be the entry point into broader women’s metabolic health. SheMed has launched at-home screening and clinical support for PMOS (formerly PCOS), connecting hormonal testing with its existing metabolic and prescribing care. (Continued reading: SheMed)
📌 US: Rejoni wins FDA approval for device designed to prevent uterine scarring after surgery. Intrauterine adhesions - sometimes associated with Asherman syndrome - can develop after procedures including fibroid removal and can lead to infertility, pregnancy loss and menstrual problems. Rejoni’s Juveena hydrogel temporarily keeps the uterine walls separated as they heal, and has now secured FDA approval. We last covered Rejoni in June when it raised $25m specifically to prepare Juveena for approval and commercial launch. (Continue reading: Rejoni)
📌 GLOBAL: Bayer launches Menopause Advocacy and Policy Alliance. Bayer has launched a global alliance focused on improving menopause policy, care and workplace support, backed by a new assessment across 12 countries that found no market yet has a fully mature and coordinated approach. (Continue reading: Bayer)
📌 US: Oura postpones much-anticipated IPO amid market uncertainty. Smart-ring maker Oura has put its planned Nasdaq listing on hold, with CEO Tom Hale saying the company has the “luxury of choosing our moment”. The postponement delays what would have been a rare public-market test for a consumer health company with a predominantly female customer base. (Continue reading: Oura)
🩸 Research and women’s health news
📌 US: NIH awards up to $9.26m to build predictive models of how vaginal tissue changes across women’s lives. Part of the $21m hormone research initiative we covered recently, this Virginia Tech-led project will combine clinical data, experimental research and computational modelling to understand how hormonal changes reshape vaginal tissue from pregnancy and postpartum through menopause and ageing. Ultimately, researchers want to predict who may be at greater risk of pelvic health problems - opening the door to earlier prevention and more targeted treatment. (Continue reading: Virginia Tech)
📌 UK: £2.3m trial targets persistent endometriosis pain. The University of Aberdeen and NHS Grampian are leading a five-year NIHR-funded trial of a remotely delivered pain-management programme for women whose endometriosis pain persists despite surgery or medication. The study will test whether multidisciplinary support can offer a scalable option for patients who exhaust conventional treatment pathways. (Continue reading: BBC)
📄 Policy watch: risks and opportunities
📌 EUROPE: Regulator sets out 10 priorities to change how medicines are developed for women. Europe’s medicines regulator is preparing a new women’s health roadmap after bringing together regulators, industry, researchers and patients to identify where change is needed. Priorities include better representation of women in clinical trials, sex-disaggregated data, greater inclusion of pregnant and breastfeeding women, and considering women across different ages and life stages throughout a medicine’s development. The final roadmap, including concrete deliverables and timelines, is due by the end of 2026. (Continue reading: EMA)
📆 Save the date
📌 Women’s Health Europe Forum. Paris, France. November 27. A full day bringing together 200+ key players from across the European women’s health ecosystem.
📌 Three ways to connect with SOSV’s deep tech community this November:
The SOSV Deep Tech Summit (Nov 4–6 | Free | Virtual) will bring together 100+ iconic speakers and 5,000+ attendees to explore what’s next in AI for the Physical World, Human Health, and Climate Resilience. Hear from Nobel Laureate and CRISPR co-inventor Jennifer Doudna, Harvard longevity researcher David Sinclair, MIT’s Russ Tedrake, DCVC’s Matt Ocko and many more. Register Now
The Deep Tech Co-Founder Search (Week of Nov 9 | Free | Virtual) will bring together 500+ founders, scientists, engineers, and operators looking for the right people to build deep tech startups with. Participate with or without an existing project. Register Now
The Deep Tech VC–Founder Matchup (Week of Nov 16 | Free | Virtual) will connect 1,000+ attendees, including 500+ investors, through curated 1:1 meetings across climate, health, and other deep tech sectors. Register Now
That’s all for this week! If you’ve missed any previous briefings catch them all at futurefemhealth.com and do make sure to follow us on LinkedIn and you can connect with me directly on LinkedIn.
Anna
