Meet XX Combinator - the new small grant fund backing the future giants of FemTech
A new opportunity for pre-seed and seed stage start-ups in women's health
A new equity-free grant fund dedicated to early-stage FemTech start-ups is preparing to launch for 2025.
In its first fund, XX Combinator will award grants of between $10,000 - $50,000 to 10-20 pre-seed and seed stage start-ups innovating in women’s health. Corporate organisations and angel investors are currently being invited to donate to the fund to reach its goal of $500,000.
The idea was conceived by co-founders Dr Valerie Cai, Yvie Lock and Lauren Walker, who have backgrounds in healthcare, start-ups and investment.
Lauren said:
“What we see as critical right now for FemTech is small-ticket funding to get this incredible pipeline of startups off the ground.
“Looking at the current state of FemTech, we identified two key bottlenecks: insufficient women's health research and insufficient early-stage funding. In the EU market alone, 43.8% of FemTech businesses have not raised any venture capital at all, while 36.8% are at pre-seed or seed stage (according to Sie Ventures).
“We see small-ticket grants as a "small-but-mighty" pivotal step to unlocking new traction and new growth in the industry.
XX Combinator will be open to businesses developing healthcare and/or life sciences solutions that target real-world problems with commercial scalability and significant potential to improve women’s lives.
Alongside the grant funding, the cohort will have access to weekly group check-ins, founder mental health support, advisor networks (including clinicians and operations experts), as well as regular workshops and ad-hoc support.
Lauren continued:
“Women’s health is a complex thing. We go through so many physical and mental changes across different life stages. Couple this complexity with inadequate scientific research, historical underinvestment and changing societal expectations, and you’re presented with one of the most overlooked markets poised for innovation today.
“This is the premise behind XX Combinator, where our goal is to back the future Giants of Femtech. We aim to give our companies the support that’s missing - funding, access to Femtech-specific expertise and Beta-Customer Networks.”
Applications will open shortly for founding teams to apply. They will need to have at least one female C-Suite member. Applications are invited globally and XX Combinator aims to announce and fund the initial cohort by mid-2025.
XX Combinator is currently building out its network and is looking for people with expertise across healthcare, investment and entrepreneurship. To find out more and get involved as a part-time advisor — let the team know via this form.