Issue 15: FemTech Barbie | £2.5m for the at-home Béa fertility kit | healthtech female founders on the rise
+ more in your weekly women's health innovation & FemTech news
Hi! Welcome to issue #15 of FutureFemHealth, here to bring you your weekly news about women’s health innovation and FemTech (w/c 30 July 2023).
Coming up in today’s (super-packed) issue we’ve got:
Béa Fertility’s new £350 at-home fertility kit
$18m for US women’s health clinics HerMD
The expected ‘major buildout’ of women’s healthcare
And lots more too. But first…
You can’t escape Barbie at the moment, but did you know that Barbie’s creator, Ruth Handler, was an original FemTech innovator too?
Yep! After leaving Mattel in 1973, Ruth went on to create a first-of-its-kind breast prosthetic for women who had undergone mastectomies.
As a breast cancer patient herself, and after buying (and trying) every prosthetic breast option on the market, Handler found herself disappointed with the options.
Like many female founders, she took matters into her own hands and solved the problem.
By 1980, sales for the ‘Nearly Me’ prosthetic had surpassed $1 million, and 11 years later, Handler sold her company to Kimberly-Clark.
"When I conceived Barbie, I believed it was important to a little girl's self-esteem to play with a doll that has breasts," Handler once said, per The New York Times. "Now I find it even more important to return that self-esteem to women who have lost theirs.”
👩🏽💻 Headlines
🔥 £2.5m for Béa Fertility - the £350 at-home fertility kit
UK start-up Béa Fertility will launch the at-home Béa Fertility Treatment Kit, thanks to £2.5m of new investment led by Octopus Ventures.
After lots of recent news about how AI can improve the success rates of IVF, it’s great to see a start-up focused on helping people to avoid IVF altogether where possible.
Béa Fertility’s solution, priced initially at £350, allows for intracervical insemination (also known as ICI) at home.
Two reasons I think this is good news:
Accessibility is IVF’s big problem. Private IVF is expensive and NHS IVF availability is inconsistent. So an affordable at-home kit will open access to many more people. Béa Fertility has also revealed it’s partnering with the NHS and will pilot in South Fulham via one of the Govt’s Women's Health Hubs.
IVF is an excessive procedure for many people and we want to avoid it where possible. For unexplained infertility (approx 1 in 4 cases) in particular, full-blown IVF may not be required so ICI can be a stepping-stone before IVF is attempted. Béa’s kit allows this to happen at home cheaply, or can be prescribed by the NHS to hopefully reduce the number of people in the IVF queue. Plus, for single people and/or LGBTQ+ couples or individuals where there are no fertility challenges at all, then ICI at home is a great solution provided donor sperm is available.
Continue reading: You can read more about Béa Fertility and the new treatment kit on their website, and I also wrote a longer version of this piece on LinkedIn.
🔥 The Boston Consulting Group is advising investors to take note of women’s health.
They say:
“We believe that this is just the beginning of what is likely to be a major buildout of women’s health care services. Over the next five years, three critical episodes should be on investors’ radar: pregnancy, fertility, and menopause. Personalised, digitally enabled platforms that provide a continuum of care will emerge as the winning model.”
Continue reading: BCG
🔥 The portion of women health tech founders is on the rise.
The share of women founders rose more in the last six years in the health tech sector than in any other sector. As of 2022, the portion now stands at 22%, up from 15% in 2015 and contrasting with an overall women founder percentage of 15% across all industries. However, women of colour are still underrepresented both in healthtech and overall.
Continue reading: Axios - paywall
🌟 More news
USA | $18m for women’s health clinic company HerMD. They plan to expand in-person clinics, add mental health services and grow ‘HerMD University’ which trains providers in menopause and sexual health (since data shows only 20% of OBGYNS in the US are trained in these topics). (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth on LinkedIn)
GERMANY | Pelvic pain app Hale secures €350k. Currently operating in Italy (though based in Berlin), the start-up offers plans to help with pelvic pain, and will expand across Europe in 2024. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth on LinkedIn)
GLOBAL | It’s time for a billion dollar women’s health fund. Supernode Ventures’ Jessica Federer says: “I don't want to wait another 30 years to see changes in women's health. I want to see it in three years. We can completely change the field of women's health.” (Continue reading: In Vivo)
UK | Science-backed activewear brand Oya launches a new collaboration to feature on the Unfabled platform. Noteworthy because Oya is specially designed to help support gynaecological health and Unfabled is a dedicated cycle-care online marketplace. (Continue reading: Oya on LinkedIn)
USA | Hormone health app Aavia launches a new planner feature to help women to optimise their lives around their hormone cycles. They say: “90% of our Aavia members told us that they wanted to know when to workout and what to eat to feel their best throughout their hormone cycles.” (Continue reading: Aavia)
USA | Lansinoh takes on the wearable breast pump market Available now and in stock exclusively at Target. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth on LinkedIn)
USA | Fertility baseline test now available for home use from US grocery chain. Noteworthy because this is the first time a test like this has been cleared by the FDA for sale. The team behind it are 2San which has partnered with distributor Proov to launch the tests in the Hy-Vee grocery stores. (Continue reading: Women of wearables)
JAPAN | The FemTech community of Japan has mapped the FemTech landscape in the country. 55 companies are identified - with nearly half covering fertility and infertility. (Continue reading: FemTech community of Japan).
🌟 Latest resources
A five-step framework for how to answer the ‘why you?’ question as a founder (from VC Nicole deTommaso on Instagram)
Want to improve your design UX? Apply for sponsorship from product and design experts Guidea and their dedicated FemTech UX program Femovate. So far, 30 FemTech start-ups have been sponsored! (Apply before 18 September 2023: Femovate)
#HiringWednesday is a fab newsletter that shares the latest jobs in women’s health and can help founders find talent. (Check it out here: #HiringWednesday on Substack)
🩸 Research and women’s health news
The start-up hoping to grow human eggs in labs from stem cells.
Biotech firm Conception says it’s ‘on the cusp’ of groundbreaking research that would allow human eggs to be created from stem cells. Conception has so far raised $40m for its work and is one of a handful of start-ups working on this. The technology, called in-vitro gametogenesis (IVG), would give women the opportunity to have children well into their forties and fifties, eliminate barriers for couples suffering from infertility, and potentially allow male-male couples to have biological children. However, with no results or research published, there is some skeptism about the progress - as well as ethical concerns about how this might work in practice. (Continue reading: npr.org)
UroMems tests its implant device to treat stress urinary incontinence.
The biotech company has produced a smart, automated artificial urinary sphincter. The device was tested on men last year and this new study test it on a female for the first time. Results will contribute to a clinical trial in Europe and the US. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth on LinkedIn)
Biotech Ziwig has developed a saliva-test for endometrosis
The test measures biomarkers in saliva and aims to provide a diagnosis in 8-10 days. Currently without this test, diagnosis in the UK averages 8-10 years! The test will now go for ongoing investigation and validation. (Continue reading: Labiotech)
Research among Kenyan schoolgirls shows menstrual cups can dramatically support improved women’s health. Teenage girls were less likely to acquire certain kinds of vaginal infections and were more likely to have a healthy vaginal microbiome versus other period products. The study, by the University of Illinois, will now continue for a second year, and there are hopes that results could also be relevant for other countries too. (Continue reading: news-medical.net)
New postpartum depression pill showing ‘statistically significant improvements’. The hope is that this will lead to US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the first oral, at-home, neuroactive steroid therapy to treat postpartum depression. (Continue reading: Business Wire)
✅ Campaign of the week
Have you seen the Menovest?..
I first heard of the ‘Menovest’ when it picked up some snipey headlines last year when police officers from the Met tried it out.
Essentially, it’s a vest which gives wearers the chance to experience what it’s like to have a hot flush. Yes, it’s a bit of a novelty, but honestly I think it’s a brilliant conversation-starter, especially in the corporate world.
The Menovest was on tour last week over in the US for its latest campaign.
Find out more over at Over The Bloody Moon.
That’s all for now. Until next time,
Anna
Got news to share from the world of FemTech and women’s health innovation? Let me know at anna@futurefemhealth.com