💌 Issue 142: Muse deploys its portfolio into sport | ovarian cancer triage | peptides emerge | Eka closes €91m fund

The global weekly briefing on women's health innovation and Femtech

Welcome to issue #142 FutureFemHealth, (w/c April 13 2026) - the global weekly briefing on women’s health innovation.

🌟 In this week’s briefing:

• ⛹🏽‍♀️ Muse Capital launches Optima, bringing its women’s health portfolio directly into elite sport.

• 🏆 Proseek Bio raises $1.5m to commercialise its ovarian cancer detection test.

• 💰 Eka Ventures closes €91.5 million Fund II to back UK startups focusing on health, wellbeing and sustainability.

• 🔥 Protocole emerges from stealth and raises $6m to build clinical-grade peptide platform

Share your news: anna@futurefemhealth.com

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But first….

Last week I introduced FutureFemHealth Pro - a new paid layer focused on deeper analysis on where women’s health is going.

I’ve been so pleased with the response - FutureFemHealth Pro even made it into Substack’s global ‘top 10 rising publications in Health and Wellness’!

But more importantly for me, a group of founder, investors, operators and leaders across the space have now joined FutureFemHealth Pro - spanning everything from diagnostics and digital health to non-profits and global health organisations.

I’ll send the first Pro piece later this week, where I’ll be breaking down the key signals from Q1 - what the funding data, company activity and broader market shifts are actually telling us about where the sector is heading, including a downloadable spreadsheet of all the deals including my notes on each.

Looking ahead, Pro is where I’ll now be sharing:

• deeper dives into specific areas (like PCOS)

• more context and analysis behind the headlines

• and the thinking that doesn’t fit into a weekly briefing

This weekly newsletter will continue as normal - but this is the direction FutureFemHealth is evolving in.

If you’d like to go deeper, you can join FutureFemHealth Pro here and receive the first piece later this week:

*P.S I know a few people had issues with their bank processing the payment for FFH Pro, do get in touch at anna@futurefemhealth.com and I can help you resolve this!

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💰 Capital flows: where are investors placing bets?

📌 AUSTRALIA: Proseek Bio raises $1.5m to commercialise its ovarian cancer detection test. With 80% of surgeries for suspected ovarian cancer coming back benign, Proseek Bio says better diagnostics are urgently needed. Its test aims to support earlier and more precise clinical decision-making, while improving referral pathways and cutting unnecessary surgery. The OC-Triage identifies specific glycoproteins that indicate a future likelihood of ovarian cancer. The company says there are future applications beyond ovarian cancer in endometriosis triage and more. This seed round will fund the next stage of development as Proseek moves towards clinical lab deployment and validation. Funding for this round came from Edale Capital, Scale Investors, AngelLoop, AusHealth and others. (Continue reading: Women’s Agenda)

📌 US: Wavelet Medical raises $7m in seed funding to commercialise fetal brain monitoring technology. Fetal monitoring during labour still relies on heart rate - an indirect signal that can be inconclusive and lead to both missed distress and unnecessary C-sections. Wavelet is developing what it describes as the first non-invasive system to measure fetal brain activity directly, using AI to reconstruct EEG signals through the abdomen during labour. This funding came from venture studio Aegis Ventures, which is partnering with the company to help bring the technology into clinical use, bridging the gap between deep tech and real-wordl deployment. (Continue reading: Fierce Healthcare)

📌 US: Incyclix Bio raises $5m Series B extension to advance cancer drug trial. Treatment-resistant cancers remain a major challenge, particularly in breast and ovarian cancer where patients can stop responding to existing therapies over time. Incyclix is developing a new drug designed to target these resistance pathways, with its lead programme currently in early-stage clinical trials. This additional funding, led by Hatteras Venture Partners, will support the next phase of development as the company works toward further clinical validation. (Continue reading: GlobeNewswire)

📌 UK: Eka Ventures closes €91.5 million Fund II to back UK startups focusing on health, wellbeing and sustainability. In the last year, Eka Ventures has backed women’s health and wellbeing startups Hesta Health, Cyclana Bio and DITTO daily from this fund. According to Eka this raise establishes it as the UK’s largest early-stage impact VC, where it invests in companies that deliver both commercial and societal benefits in health, wellbeing and sustainability. The oversubscribed fund has been backed by leading LPs, including British Business Bank, Better Society Capital, Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation, The Health Foundation, WRAP, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, John Ellerman Foundation, and The Vivensa Foundation. (Continue reading: EU-startups)

📌 US: Protocole emerges from stealth and raises $6m to build clinical-grade peptide platform. There’s early signs of women’s health companies expanding into the emerging (and somewhat controversial) peptide space. Peptides - small proteins used in areas like metabolism, recovery and longevity (including GLP-1 drugs)- are growing in popularity but loosely regulated. As a result many people are sourcing them through compounding pharmacies or “research use only” channels, which raises concerns around safety and quality. Protocole wants to solve for both access and trust - positioning itself as a more structured alternative, offering clinician-guided protocols with products fulfilled through regulated pharmacy partners. The funding, led by Rare Capital, will support expansion of its clinical infrastructure. (Continue reading: Fitt Insider)

🌟 Industry moves and strategic shifts

Photo by Quino Al on Unsplash

📌 US: Muse Capital launches Optima, bringing its women’s health portfolio directly into elite sport. This programme pulls together many of Muse Capital’s own portfolio of startups across menopause care, fertility, hormone tracking and breast imaging - including Midi Health, Cofertility and Eli Health - and gives athletes access to them in one place. For example, Eli Health’s hormone tracking tools can provide real-time cortisol insights, helping athletes better understand stress, recovery and performance. Piloting with the Red Bull Italy SailGP Team, the model is about taking existing women’s health products and putting them directly into high-performance environments. It’s effectively a curated marketplace built from Muse Capital’s own portfolio, applied to the fast-growing world of women’s sports - where revenues are now growing 4.5 times faster than men’s, yet female athletes continue to be underserved by sports science. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

📌 US: Sibel Health secures FDA clearance for wireless maternal monitoring platform. The ANNE Maternal uses wearable sensors to continuously track maternal and fetal health without the wires of traditional systems - meaning more mobility and comfort during labour. It moves away from the static, bed-bound monitoring that’s long been the norm. Backed by $17.5m from the Gates Foundation and already being tested in countries including India and Nigeria, the platform is being built for both US care settings - where outcomes remain uneven - and lower-resource environments globally. It’s a good example of how maternal health innovation is starting to focus not just on new tech, but on how that tech actually gets used in the real world. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

📌 US: Waters Corporation secures FDA clearance for at-home cervical cancer screening kit. Self-collection for HPV is moving more into the mainstream, particularly after policy shifts and endorsements in recent years. The Onclarity self-collection HPV test, allows patients to take samples at home and mail them to a lab for analysis, aiming to expand access to screening for those who are currently under-screened. (Continue reading: PR Newswire)

📌 US: Maven Clinic expands fertility programme to focus on earlier diagnosis. There’s a huge opportunity in fertility to help patients identify issues sooner, move to the right care faster and avoid costly IVF where possible. Maven is adding upfront lab testing, condition-specific care pathways - starting with PCOS - and integration with wearable data from the Oura Ring. It’s recognition that earlier, more data-driven support can manage costs and outcomes for employers, as well as do the best for patients too. (Continue reading: PR Newswire)

📌 US: Inito launches multi-hormone fertility reader for home use. Most at-home ovulation tests only track LH and provide a simple yes/no result, but Inito’s device is designed to show how hormone patterns change across the cycle, with the goal of giving a more complete picture of fertility. Its new InSight Wireless Reader tracks four key hormones - including estrogen, LH and progesterone - aiming to move beyond traditional single-signal testing. With built-in Wi-Fi, users can start a test and receive results in the app when complete. Backed by a dataset of over 40 million tests and peer-reviewed research, and positioned as “lab-grade” at home, it’s an example of the broader move towards more continuous, data-rich fertility tracking. Inito previously raised a $29m Series B in late 2025. (Continue reading: Business Wire)

📌 US/ GLOBAL: Is Sun Pharma prepping a $12b offer for Organon? Rumours are circulating that women’s health focused pharma company Organon is set for acquisition, with shares jumping as much as 18% on initial news. India’s largest pharma company Sun Pharma is said to be eyeing up the deal, to help it with US and European expansion and into specialty drugs with stronger pricing power and thinner competition. All rumours only for now but we’ll keep tracking this story. (Continue reading: First Word Pharma)

📌 PORTUGAL: First ever map of the ecosystem in Portugal. The team at FemTech Portugal have mapped 21 innovators in nine categories across the country’s ecosystem. Tellingly, six entire areas including chronic conditions, aging and bone health and cardiovascular health have no one building in them. The overwhelming majority of Portuguese FemTech sits at idea or early stage - however there is one unicorn too (Sword Health including Bloom) and almost nothing in between. (Continue reading: FemTech Portugal on LinkedIn)

🩸 Research and women’s health news

📌 GLOBAL: Researchers discover new type of cell that’s seen only during pregnancy. Researchers have discovered a previously unknown type of cell that appears only during pregnancy - and, for now, they’re not entirely sure what it does. The cells were found in placental tissue and may play a role in how the body supports and regulates pregnancy, but their exact function remains unclear. It’s an early-stage finding, but one that reminds us just how little we know about female physiology and how even fundamental aspects of pregnancy biology are not yet fully understood. (Continue reading: Live Science)

📌 DENMARK: 300,000 women invited to the country’s largest survey of women’s health. Researchers at Aarhus University are inviting 300,000 women aged 35–60 to take part in one of the country’s largest surveys on women’s health and wellbeing. Covering areas from sleep and pain to work and healthcare experiences, the study aims to better understand how women’s health develops over time - and why women tend to live more years in ill health than men. With follow-up planned in five years, the project is a great example of a growing push to build more representative, long-term data. (Continue reading: Aarhus University)

📄 Policy watch: risks and opportunities

📌 US: Maternity care is being “unbundled” - and it could reshape how pregnancy is paid for. For decades, prenatal care, delivery and postpartum support have been covered under a single bundled payment. But from 2027, that model will be broken apart, with each visit, scan and intervention billed separately. Advocates say this better reflects modern, more complex pregnancies and team-based care. But others warn it could lead to more fragmentation, higher costs and new incentives that favour intervention over prevention — particularly for low-risk pregnancies. At its core, the shift highlights a bigger tension: how to pay for maternity care as it becomes more specialised, data-driven and distributed. Maven’s Neel Shah MD breaks down what happens when health care outgrows the system to pay for it. (Continue reading: Maven Preprint)

📌 US: Estrogen patch shortages leave patients scrambling. More than 1 million US women begin menopause each year, but for decades fewer than 5% have used hormone replacement therapy. Now, demand is rising fast - particularly after the FDA removed the black box safety warning in November - with a surge in use of estrogen patches to treat symptoms like hot flashes, mood swings and sleep disturbances. But supplies can’t keep up and patients are struggling to access the hormone replacement therapy, with some forced to switch treatments or go without. The FDA has flagged the issue, but industry sources say the shortages could last for up to three years. Patch use surged by 26% in February, showing how quickly access can break down, even for common treatments. (Continue reading: Reuters)

📌 UK: New Women’s Employment Ambassador role announced as workplace health drive begins. A near-record high of 1.48 million women in the country are currently economically inactive due to long-term sickness. Women’s health campaigner and broadcaster Mariella Frostrup has now been appointed in a newly-created role of the Government’s Women’s Employment Ambassador. The appointment comes ahead of the upcoming Women’s Health Strategy refresh and as businesses are being encouraged to publish voluntary action plans to better support employees experiencing menopause symptoms. The Government says £1.7 billion is currently lost each year due to sick days, lost productivity and women leaving the workforce because of the menopause. (Continue reading: Gov.UK)

📆 Save the date

📌 AUSTRALIA: Breaking the silos: the women’s health medtech summit. Sydney, May 27-28.
This inaugural event is dedicated to addressing long-standing gaps in research, innovation, and policy affecting women’s health in Australia. The program brings together leading voices shaping the national conversation on women’s health in MedTech - spanning media, policy, research, and industry - to drive real system change.
🎟️ Tickets here.

📌 UK: CensHERship - women’s health marketing, storytelling and fundraising. London, April 21, 3.45pm BST.
A panel and workshops exploring the specific marketing challenges that founders in women’s health face when it comes to building a brand. Featuring my CensHERship co-founder Clio Wood!
🎟️ Register here.

📌 VIRTUAL: Menopause 2.0 ‘Understanding perimenopause before menopause’. May 6.
Women of Wearable’s third annual virtual conference on menopause, this year featuring speakers from Natural Cycles, Amissa Health, Mayo Clinic and more.
🎟️ Tickets here.

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That’s all for this week! If you’ve missed any previous newsletter issues catch them all at futurefemhealth.com and do make sure to follow us on LinkedIn and you can connect with me directly.

Anna