💌 Issue 86: Systole Health's $2m boost for heart health | Voice AI in ultrasound | 'pads on a roll' | Roon launches menopause guidance

+ lots more in your weekly round-up of women's health and FemTech news

Hello and welcome to issue #86 of FutureFemHealth (w/c 27 January 2025).

This week’s newsletter is brought to you in partnership with SOSV - one of the world’s most active VC investors in women’s health. Read on for details of an exciting event from SOSV happening next week for founders and investors in women’s health.

🌟 Coming up today we’ve got:

• ❤️ Systole Health secures $2 million pre-seed funding for women’s heart health

• 🧻 Egal raises $4m Series A for 'period pads on a roll' concept

• 🤰🏼 Sonio adds voice recognition to AI-powered ultrasounds

• 📲 Roon launches expert menopause guidance in AI-powered app

But before that: Would you like to support FutureFemHealth through sponsorship and get your brand in front of nearly 8,000 professionals, founders and investors in women’s health? I’m taking bookings from February onwards. For more info and a copy of our media pack drop me a line: anna@futurefemhealth.com

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📆 100 VCs meet 100 FemTech startups…

Next week, the global venture firm SOSV is running a FREE, virtual matchmaking event, dedicated to women’s health, which is already on track to connect 100 investors with 100 founders.

SOSV is one of the world’s most active VC investors in women’s health, supporting over 20 startups including Kegg, the fertility and vaginal health tracker that recently raised $6.5M.

Join the matchup: this online global event is for you if you are a startup founder (pre-seed up to series B) or an investor (VC, CVC, FO, syndicate, angel investor) in women’s health. Matchup meetings will run virtually from February 3-7 and registration is open til Feb 3.

Free registration is open now to SOSV Women’s Health Matchup here:

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❤️ Why we need more heart in women’s health

Image: Lauren McConnell, COO and founder of Systole Health and Dr Simin Lee, CEO and founder of Systole Health.

Despite being the leading cause of death for women worldwide, heart disease remains an underserved and misunderstood area of women’s health.

Start-ups such as Bloomer Tech, Hello Heart and Devyn Health are working to change this, but it’s still a field that is overlooked.

That includes among women too. Although deaths from heart disease are 13 times the rate of breast cancer, women tend to think the opposite.

That makes the work of early-stage companies in this space even more vital. Especially when you consider that, according to recent Pitchbook data, there’s still only around 20 early-stage companies solely focused on this area.

Enter Systole Health, a new start-up tackling women’s heart health with a fresh approach.

This week, the company announced a $2 million pre-seed funding round led by Benchstrength (Read our full story here).

Unlike traditional care models, Systole Health focuses on community over one-on-one consultations. The company brings women who are at risk for heart disease into virtual group coaching sessions, where they receive personalized medical care and guidance from doctors and health coaches in a supportive, peer-driven environment.

"At Systole Health, we've seen how this model can do more with less and unlock the power of community for our patients," says Dr. Simin Lee, CEO and founder of Systole Health.

"This is exactly the kind of solution needed to truly move the needle for women's heart health.”

With current pilots in Massachusetts and Florida, Systole now plans to uses its funding to expand, secure strategic partnerships and build out an early clinical team.

Heart disease is known to be preventable in many cases — but that comes down to awareness, education and action.

The opportunity to make a difference here is vast.

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💰 Funding, deals and investment news

Image: co-founder and CEO of Egal, Penelope Finnie

📌 US: Egal raises $4m Series A for 'period pads on a roll' concept. Egal is making it easier for public bathrooms to provide period products alongside toilet roll. Egal’s ‘pads on a roll’ solution is already available in 1,700 US schools, airports in the US and UK, and libraries, museums and zoos. This Series A was led by the Bauer Family Office’s Technology for Humanity. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

📌 US: Allara Health raises $26 million Series B for hormonal health virtual care platform. One in 3 women battle a chronic hormonal condition in their lifetimes, including PCOS, endometriosis and hypothyroidism. Allara offers a team of experts to provide virtual evidence-based care including medical expertise, lifestyle management and community support. Index Ventures led this round. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

📌 US: PinkDx raises additional $5 million to advance gynecological cancer diagnostics. Each year in the United States, an estimated 1.5 million women present with general symptoms including bloating, pelvic pain and abnormal bleeding, for which the cause is not clear. Over 100,000 women in the U.S. are ultimately diagnosed with a gynecological cancer each year. PinkDx, which launched in April 2024, is developing solutions to replace invasive, painful diagnostic procedures, avoid unnecessary clinic visits and reduce delays in getting answers. This $5m in second close Series A funding was led by Catalio Capital Management, LP, The Production Board and Mountain Group Partners and brings PinkDx’s total funding to $45 million since launch in April 2024. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

📌 US: Progyny acquires parental leave benefits program BenefitBump. Progyny already providers fertility, family-building and women’s health benefits to employees via their employers. This acquisition is a value-add for clients and helps the estimated 90% of parents who want greater support to manage responsibilities at work and home. Deal terms not disclosed. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

📌 US: Portfolia closes third women’s health fund with expert LP base. Firm founder and Chief Executive Trish Costello has said that Fund I and II are ‘meeting and exceeding expectations’ and Portfolia is now in over 60 companies in women’s health or adjacent sectors. This third fund was closed at $4.15 million from 249 investors. (Continue reading: Venture Capital Journal)

🌟 Industry news from this week

📌 FRANCE: Sonio adds voice recognition to AI-powered ultrasounds. ‘Sonio Voice’ eliminates the need for manual data entry and uses voice recognition to transcribe, analyse and input ultrasound data in real-time as sonographers perform exams. This helps optimize workflows, reduce administrative burdens, and free up healthcare professionals to focus on delivering even better patient care. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

📌 US: Roon launches expert menopause guidance in AI-powered app. The health education app recently secured a $15m Series A for its doctor-led Q&A concept. ‘Roon Menopause’ is the latest in a series of women’s health launches alongside fertility, PCOS and endometrisis. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

📌 CANADA: 'Painless IUD' gets first launch in Canada. The Yanae® copper IUD and its flexible painless inserter comes to market thanks to new women’s health pharmaceutical company 49Care. The IUD makes use of Crossbay’s Crossglide technology. The IUD was first launched in France two years ago and is also approved in Ireland, but this is the first time it will be available in Canada. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

📌 CANADA: myStoria launches fertility education and support platform. The experience of fertility care can often feel like a maze of fragmented systems, endless appointments and overwhelming decisions. myStoria’s subscription-based platform provides tools to help patients advocate for better care, access education and find community support. (Continue reading: FutureFemHealth)

📌 US: Tia eyes expansion with new health system partners. Primary care and women’s health company Tia has said it’s moving into a ‘growth phase’ with its virtual and in-person services and expansion into more U.S. Tia CEO Felicity Yost also says a fundraise is in sight for the near future. (Continue reading: Fierce Healthcare)

📌 US: Meta censored abortion pill information. Multiple organisations that provide online abortion pills in the US have reported their accounts recently suspected or posts blocked. While Meta has denied this has been the result of any recent policy or enforcement changes it has conceded some moderation has been ‘over-enforcement.’ (Continue reading: Tortoise)

🩸 Research and women’s health news

📌 US: Fewer than 1% of U.S clinical drug trials enroll pregnant participants, study found. Analysis by Brown University researchers found that most studies exclude participants who are pregnant, potentially leaving critical safety and efficacy questions unanswered. (Continue reading: Brown University

📌 GLOBAL: Menopause research is globally underfunded. It’s time to change that. Even as recently as 2023, the overwhelming majority of studies in the field of ageing do not consider menopause. The NIH has since established a separate category for menopause research and begun a strategy for menopause research. But, few funders seem to be following in the NIH’s footsteps. (Continue reading: Nature)

📌 CHINA: AI ‘can spot cognitive decline linked to menopause.’ In a study published in the journal Menopause, machine learning algorithms were tested for their ability to spot subjective cognitive decline in 1,264 nurses. Existing testing is largely based around lab testing. (Continue reading: Pharma Phorum)

📄 Govt & policy news

📌 US: FDA webpages on clinical trial diversity removed after Trump orders. Removed pages include recent draft guidance from the FDA recommending medical device sponsors to consider sex- and gender-specific data in clinical studies. (Continue reading: MedTechDive)

📌 US: TheSkimm brings back ReproductiveRights.gov content after health site vanished. The .gov site, which outlined women's rights to abortion and contraception under US law, disappeared shortly after President Trump’s inauguration. (Continue reading: TheSkimm)

📌 GLOBAL: Trump’s global gag rule on abortion care will damage women’s health, rights, and futures. Since Trump returned to power this month, his reinstatement of the “global gag rule” means the end of funding for any non-US based global health and development organisation that provides or advocates abortion care. One in three women of reproductive age live in countries that will be affected by the global gag rule. This opinion piece sets out the impact through the eyes of one health programme in Africa. (Continue reading: BMJ)

✅ Jobs

📌 UK: Senior Retail Account Manager, International, Oura

📌 US: Machine Learning Data Scientist - Women’s Health, Oura

📌 CANADA: Chief People Officer, Knix

📌 GERMANY: Senior Android Engineer, Clue

📌 UK: Copywriter (Menopause), Manual (Menopause Care)

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That’s all for this week! See you next time. If you’ve missed any previous newsletter issues catch them all at futurefemhealth.com and do make sure to follow us on LinkedIn.