💌 ŌURA files for IPO | Gaia to scale | Maven expands | MPs debate censorship

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

Welcome to issue #148 of FutureFemHealth, (w/c May 25 2026) - the global weekly briefing on women’s health innovation.

🌟 In this week’s briefing:

• 🔥 ŌURA files confidentially for US IPO.

• 💰 Gaia Fertility raises $100m debt facility to scale operations across the US

• ✅ Maven Clinic launches integrated women’s health platform with GLP-1 therapy and hormone support

• 💬 MPs debate censorship of women’s health content

Share your news anna@futurefemhealth.com

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This week’s newsletter is powered by ieso.

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💰 Capital flows

📌 US: ŌURA files confidentially for US IPO. Almost two years ago, ŌURA revealed that women had become the majority of its user base for the first time following major investment into women’s health features. Since then, the smart ring company has continued to scale rapidly - reaching a reported $11bn valuation last year, selling more than 5.5m rings to date (with half sold in the last year alone) and reportedly on track to hit 5m paid members this quarter. The company has expanded at pace into menstrual cycle tracking, fertility insights and menopause-related features, making it one of the clearest examples of how women’s health can become a major commercial growth driver. (Continue reading: CNBC)

📌 US: Gaia Fertility raises $100m debt facility to scale operations across the US. The fertility industry operates on a ‘fee-for-service’ model where patients pay for procedures. Gaia flipped this on its head, underwriting the IVF risk itself, meaning patients get flexible financing plans and protections on costs built in. As demand grows for more affordable fertility options, Gaia says it has now surpassed 1,100 memberships and has partnerships with 200+ clinic locations. This credit facility follows a $14 million Series A round raised in January 2025, led by Valar Ventures, that brought Gaia’s total equity funding to $37 million across three rounds. (Continue reading: Crunchbase)

📌 US: Nourish raises $100m Series C for AI-native metabolic health clinic. Virtual nutrition platform Nourish has secured a $100m Series C to expand its AI-powered metabolic health clinic, with investors betting on long-term nutrition and behaviour-change infrastructure alongside the GLP-1 boom. The company combines virtual dietitian care, metabolic health services and AI tools, and says it now supports more than 10,000 registered dietitians with payer coverage reaching over 200 million lives. The round was led by Menlo Ventures. (Continue reading: Nourish)

📌 AUSTRALIA: Baymatob raises AU$6.5m for maternal health monitoring platform Oli. Baymatob’s Oli platform uses AI-powered monitoring to detect early warning signs for serious pregnancy and labour complications, including postpartum haemorrhage, stillbirth and uterine rupture. The Sydney-based company says the funding will support wider hospital adoption of the platform, which is designed to help clinicians identify maternal and fetal risk earlier during labour and birth. This Series A3 round drew funds from Scale Investors, the University of Sydney, and Clare Ventures. (Continue reading: Forbes)

📌 INDIA: Cloudnine Hospitals to acquire Apollo Cradle and Apollo Fertility in ₹1,550 crore (c. $160m) healthcare deal. This acquisition will combine two of India’s largest maternity, fertility and paediatric care networks, further consolidating women’s healthcare infrastructure in one of the world’s fastest-growing healthcare markets. (Continue reading: The Health Colossus)

📌 AUSTRALIA: Factory Capital to invest $25m in women’s midlife health. The Sydney-based firm will open a US-based research institute and seek to make five to 10 business investments in the untapped peri- and post-menopause healthcare market. “What we’re really doing is creating a market” says partner and managing director Anna Samuelsson. (Continue reading: Capital Brief (paywall))

🌟 Industry moves and strategic shifts

📌 US: Maven Clinic launches integrated women’s health platform with GLP-1 therapy and hormone support. Maven appears to be differentiating itself from purely transactional GLP-1 prescribing platforms as it pitches continuity of care all inside one clinic model. It’s positioning weight-loss medication as part of a broader women’s health journey, since it argues that women’s metabolic health is deeply tied to hormones, reproductive history and life stage - meaning GLP-1 treatment should account for factors such as PCOS, postpartum recovery, perimenopause and fertility planning, not simply BMI. (Continue reading: Nutrition Insight)

📌 US: Dry Days Health urinary incontinence clinic goes in-network with BlueCross BlueShield Maryland. Virtual pelvic health clinic Dry Days Health has become in-network with CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield Maryland, expanding insurance-covered bladder health care access to more than one million women in the state. The move reflects broader momentum around urinary incontinence as investors, providers and payers increasingly recognise pelvic health as a major chronic care category rather than simply a quality-of-life issue. Earlier this month alone, UroMems raised $60m for its smart implant, BlueWind Medical secured $47.8m for its urinary incontinence device, and NinaMED launched in Australia with $13.75m for overactive bladder therapy. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

📌 UK: Cyclana Bio granted Health Research Authority approval. This 500-patient clinical observational study aims to improve understanding of the disease physiology of endometriosis - a condition that affects 1 in 10 women. It will look at a tissue level at those with endometriosis compared to healthy women, in order to uncover the basic biology of endometriosis, allowing Cyclana to then prioritise novel druggable targets for therapeutic developments. (Continue reading: Medtech Insights)

📌 UK: Pharmacy2U launches dedicated women’s health hub backed by GenM’s menopause accreditation system, MTick. The online pharmacy says the platform brings together more than 200 menopause-friendly certified products alongside education and care support covering the 48 recognised signs of menopause. The move reflects how pharmacies and retailers are increasingly repositioning women’s health as a long-term consumer healthcare category combining clinical guidance, ecommerce and curated product discovery into a single digital experience. (Continue reading: Pharmacy Business)

📌 UK: Unfabled makes grocery debut with Sainsbury’s supplement launch. Health and wellness is expanding into our everyday routines. Supplement brand Unfabled has entered grocery retail for the first time with national retailer Sainsbury’s under the grocer’s new ‘New and Trending’ plinth, which showcases brands who are emerging through consumer demand. Unfabled previously expanded into 700+ Boots stores nationwide after the pharmacy contacted the start-up after seeing its viral success on TikTok. (Continue reading: Grocery Gazette)

📌 US: Bryan Johnson expands biohacking focus into women’s health. The longevity entrepreneur says a new project with partner Kate Tolo will explore biomarkers linked to fertility, PMS, perimenopause and endometriosis, signalling growing interest from the consumer longevity movement in women’s biology. The experiment will allegedly cost $2m a year to run. (Continue reading: Unilad)

🔒 From FutureFemHealth Pro

📌 This week in Pro: Why urinary incontinence may finally be becoming a true healthcare market. We explore how reimbursement, payer economics and consumer demand are reshaping pelvic health innovation. Read it here.

→ Upgrade to access Pro analysis, market intelligence and deep dives.

💡 Perspectives

📌 Mental health isn’t separate from women’s health - so why is it still treated that way? At every stage of a woman’s life, mental and physical health are inseparable. That’s why mental health doesn’t sit alongside care - it also shapes how women move through it: whether they engage, follow through, or drop out of their care programme altogether. Yet in women’s health, accessing it too often means going elsewhere. In this feature, ieso’s Dr Clare Palmer explains why integrated mental health support matters and what it looks like practically. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth - partner content)

📄 Policy watch: risks and opportunities

📌 UK: MPs debate censorship of women’s health content online. During a Parliamentary debate this week, MPs discussed the growing evidence that medically accurate posts on topics including menstruation, menopause and vaginal health are being suppressed online or misclassified as “adult content”. The discussion marks another sign that the issue is now being recognised not simply as a social media moderation problem, but as a healthcare access, equality and digital regulation issue. (Continue reading: Daily Express)

📌 UK: MP failed by NHS appointed first maternity advisor. An MP whose own experience of giving birth was part of the biggest review of maternity failings in NHS history has been appointed as the government’s first maternity adviser. Michelle Welsh, Labour MP for Sherwood Forest, will work with families, the government, the NHS and maternity organisations to push for “better, safer care for mothers, babies and families”, the Department of Health said. (Continue reading: BBC)

📌 AUSTRALIA: Government announces an additional $8.4m investment into women’s health information and education through Jean Hailes for Women’s Health. Aiming to counteract the rise of misinformation, this funding will support evidence-based health resources, research, professional education and national awareness campaigns, including Women’s Health Week and the National Women’s Health Survey. It builds on a previously announced $800million women’s health package. (Continue reading: Health Gov)

📆 Opportunities & support

📌 VIRTUAL: A women’s health program for global startups, 2 June, 3pm CET / 9am ET. Join the program announcement for the new Eir Accelerator, organised by Anastasiya Markvarde together with Jessica Federer, a leading in women's health and MD of the Women's Health Fund, who acts as advisor for Eir. Eir Accelerator is run by the Women's Health Hub Finland and is accepting women's health startups globally for its free program that provides support with fundraising, scaling and pilot opportunities.
🎟️ Register for the live launch event

📌 VIRTUAL / UK: The Nexus women’s health collective - supported by Barclays Eagle Labs. Apply before 15 June for a new nine-month cohort of 30 companies building in women’s health. You’ll be surrounded with mentors, investors, finance expertise and a tight peer groups, so you’ll leave the programme stronger, better connected, and ready to raise.
🎟️ Find out more and apply to the programme

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