Issue 46: Bladder leaks go primetime | The Flex Co. secures investment | Why are men downloading Flo Health?
+ lots more in your weekly round-up of women's health innovation and FemTech news
Hello! You’re reading issue #46 of FutureFemHealth, here to bring you your weekly news about innovation in women’s health and FemTech (w/c 25 March 2024).
🌟 Coming up today we’ve got:
✅ Bladder leakage on primetime TV - go Jude!
📈 The Flex Co gets multi-million dollar investment
🩸 Why are thousands of men downloading period tracker Flo Health?
❤️ Ovarian cancer diagnosed by online search behaviour
Want to get your brand in front of our community of nearly 800 decision-makers and highly-networked individuals in women’s health and FemTech? Drop me a (no obligations!) line at anna@futurefemhealth.com to find out more.
✅ Bladder leakage on primetime TV - go Jude!
Congratulations to bladder care supplement start-up Jude, whose founder Peony Li appeared on BBC 1’s Dragon’s Den last week.
A standout moment for me was this question from Dragon Sara Davies:
“Why are none of the leading vitamin companies doing this already?”
To which founder Peony Li replied:
“Because they weren’t aware of how many people are actually suffering from this issue.”
The punchline of course, is that one in three women experience urinary incontinence and it’s now an estimated $50 billion category.
That’s some blindspot.
Yet often the first step towards more attention is destigmatisation. And how incredible to see a ‘taboo’ such as bladder leakage being discussed on primetime TV? I was so pleased when Dragon Sara Davies chipped in to say her and all her postpartum mum friends had experienced it too.
So did Jude secure the Dragon’s Den investment? If you didn’t watch, I won’t spoil the ending - but if this update by Peony is anything to go by the future for Jude is looking bright.
❤️ I need your help! (one minute ask!)
I love writing this newsletter for you every week - and I’d love even more people to discover it (we’re sitting at nearly 800 subscribers now!)
So, if you’ve ever found my content valuable, gained a new insight or got a sense of community through FutureFemHealth, please could I get your help to tell people about it?
Here’s the link so that you can give it a shout-out on LinkedIn as your favourite weekly newsletter 😉…
🌟➡️ https://www.futurefemhealth.com/
Just a few words from you really will make a difference. You’re the best, thank you!
💰 Funding, deals and investment news
📌 US: Period care brand The Flex Co secures multi-million dollar investment. The power of relationships in action - Model Kate Upton was a The Flex Co. customer who DM’d founder Lauren Schulte Wang to say how much she loved the brand. Fast-forward and their conversations blossomed into Upton and her baseball player husband Justin Verlander investing in the company (exact amount undisclosed). The Flex Co will now expand from menstrual discs into sustainable Bamboo Pads and Bamboo Liners. (Source: Beauty Independent)
📌 US: $3m for women’s nutrition start-up Chiyo. When I was pregnant I knew more about what not to eat (raw cheese) than what I should be eating - and as a new mum my shelves were filled with recipes to cook baby rather than how to replenish me. But start-up Chiyo knows the importance of nourishing food for women throughout fertility, pregnancy and postpartum. Launched in 2021, it delivers nutritious meals as part of an holistic approach to fertility care. With new $3m investment it will now expand to self-guided nutrition programs and a ‘first of its kind’ research database of nutrition for women’s health. Chiyo also aims to scale through clinics and hospital systems. Investment was led by Bread & Butter Ventures. (Source: Tech Crunch)
📌 ISRAEL: First women’s health-focused VC fund in the country announces its first close. Kidron Capital is led by two female GPs and will span three geographies - Europe, USA, and Israel. It will focus on early-stage women’s health start-ups. (Source: Maria Gajda Horowitz on LinkedIn)
🌟 More news from this week
📌 Flo Health shares staggering results of ‘Flo for Partners’ feature. Last year, period and cycle tracker Flo Health launched its most requested feature - ‘Flo for partners’. It’s now revealed that 11,000 partners a day are installing Flo. And, interestingly, data shows that men have a 40% higher retention rate for using the app than their partners. “What we’re seeing is that male partners are so engaged in learning about their partner’s menstrual cycles. Our ambition is that this leads not only to better communication between partners, but better empathy for female health in society as a whole.” (Source: Dmitry Gurski on LinkedIn)
📌 Heather Hirsch MD launches digital AI ‘twin’ for menopause support. Trust in healthcare is key - especially when it comes to integrating AI. But what if you could ask questions to a ‘real doctor’? Heather Hirsch MD and Real Doc AI cofounder Nihar Ganju have launched ‘Heather AI’ - a conversational AI model trained on actual patient questions to provide expert answers about menopause and midlife. (Source: Heather Hirsch MD on LinkedIn)
📌 Mooncup headed for first supermarket. In 2002 founders Eileen Greene and Kath Clements created a world-first reusable silicone menstrual cup. More than two decades later (and a year after Mooncup was acquired by &SISTERS) retailer Asda has become the first supermarket chain to stock the Mooncup beginner. (Source: Mooncup)
🩸 Research and women’s health news
📌 Online search behaviour could help detect ovarian cancer. Up to 70% of ovarian cancer cases are diagnosed late - often because symptoms are vague and seem innocuous. Now a small study by Imperial College London and UCL noted a difference in search patterns nearly a year before GP referrals. The team will now raise funding for a larger study (and I’m sure lots of debate on ethical and privacy issues), giving hope for better early disease detection. (Source: Evening Standard)
📌 NHS AI test spots tiny cancers missed by doctors. There’s a 90% five-year survival rate for breast cancer patients if their tumours are still smaller than 15mm when discovered. The ‘Mia’ AI tool analysed mammograms of more than 10,000 women - spotting breast cancer in 11 women missed by human doctors. Mia was built over six years by Kheiron Medical. (Source: BBC)
📌 Targeting ‘hibernated’ cells could prevent breast cancer relapse. While breast cancer survival has doubled in the UK in the last 50 years - there are still sadly 11,000 deaths a year. Now a breakthrough by scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research has found some cancer cells evade initial treatment by becoming dormant - only to ‘wake up’ in a later relapse. The team now believe that if we can prevent these cells from becoming dormant in the first place, we could stop more breast cancer from recurring. (Source: Institute of Cancer Research
✅ Jobs
📌 US: Content Director, Carrot Fertility
📌 UK (London): Engineers, Gaia Fertility
📌 UK (London): Product Manager, Unfabled
📌 UK (Glasgow): Marketing Executive, LU Innovations
That’s all for this week!
Before you go - here’s that link again to help me shout about FutureFemHealth: https://www.futurefemhealth.com
See you next time,
Anna