Entrepreneur
Solving for women isn’t niche. It’s how you build better tech
By Karishma Patel, Cofounder & Chief Brand Officer at Ema
Let’s get this out of the way:
Women’s health isn’t a niche. It’s the blueprint.
Not just for healthcare. For technology, period.
We’ve been sold the idea that designing for women is somehow “specialised,” when in reality it’s the most rigorous, emotionally complex, and systemically relevant design challenge we have.
If your product can support the mental load of a woman in 2025, across her health, her schedule, her household, her job, and her identity, it can support anyone.
This isn’t a hypothetical. It’s my lived experience.
At any given moment, I’m juggling ten things minimum.
A work fire drill, school logistics, a forgotten birthday gift, my own hormonal shifts, plus whatever I’m pretending isn’t stressing me out. I’m not exceptional.
That’s normal for most women I know. And it’s exactly why I say:
If you solve for women, you don’t just solve for a demographic.
You solve for complexity. And complexity is the true test of good design.
When AI Meets the Mental Load
Watching how my husband uses AI versus how I do was a lightbulb moment.
He’s efficient, direct, and task-based. Give it a prompt, get an answer.
For him, it’s a tool. For me? It’s a lifeline.
I’m not asking AI to write a quick memo. I’m asking it to help me make 20 micro-decisions across five domains of my life, in the gaps between meetings, meltdowns, and a thousand open loops.
Tech built to be “neutral” ignores the layered realities of real life. At best, it’s incomplete. At worst, it’s lazy.
Because “neutral” still defaults to the dominant paradigm. And it usually doesn’t look like me.
The Brands That Get Her Are the Ones That Win
One of the best examples I’ve seen of someone truly building for women is Willow.
They took the standard breast pump, something that’s long been clinical, stationary, and honestly kind of dehumanising, and reimagined it as something mobile, wearable, and woman-centered.
They understood that postpartum women don’t have the luxury to sit still five times a day. They gave her the power to move. To parent. To be.
That’s what happens when you build from the inside out.
When you stop asking “how do we make this more efficient?” and start asking “what does this feel like for her?”
Now we get to take that even further.
With Ema powering AI inside Willow’s app, we’re going beyond supporting her pump experience.
We’re supporting her whole experience. Her questions about her baby, her emotions, and her own body. Because her life doesn’t show up in chapters, it shows up all at once.
If You’re Not Actively Solving for Women, You’re Actively Forgetting Them
Let’s be clear. Building for women isn’t just about branding or targeting.
It’s a product decision. An architecture decision. A data decision.
If you don’t start with women in mind, you solve for a simplified use case. You risk build something flat because you’ve ignored the edge cases that are actually the real cases.
And those who still see women’s health as niche?
I’m not here to convince them. The numbers speak for themselves.
Women drive 80 percent of healthcare decisions, hold trillions in spending power, and carry most of the emotional labor in families.
If that still doesn’t register as an opportunity, then we’re probably not building for the same future.
And that’s okay.
There’s a growing group of investors, founders, and operators who do get it.
They’re the ones shaping what comes next. They’re the ones we hand pick to sit at our table.
What We’re Really Building
At Ema, we’re not here to solve a “problem.” We’re here to support a person.
That’s why we built Ema on the biopsychosocial model. A tripod of physical, mental, and social health. Knock one leg out, and the whole system wobbles.
We want Ema to know when you’re headed for burnout before you do.
To see that your calendar is overloaded, and suggest shifting something. To understand that your weekly walk is more than just a habit. It’s how you decompress.
That kind of emotional intelligence isn’t extra. It’s essential.
Because so much of women’s health has been framed as a checklist of problems to fix.
Menstruation. Pregnancy. Menopause.
We treat each one like a fire to put out instead of what they are. Life stages to understand.
Ema’s job isn’t to fix you.
It’s to know you.
To grow with you.
To be there.
Beyond the moment of crisis, in the quiet middle, where so many women are left to figure it out alone.
Build Better or Get Left Behind
If you want to build better tech that is more resilient, more human, and more relevant, start here.
Start with the woman whose life doesn’t fit neatly into one use case.
Start with the mother, the founder, the daughter, the caregiver.
Start with her.
Find out more about Ema at emaapp.co
The Women’s Health Innovation Summit (WHIS) has announced that submissions are open for the 2026 Innovation Showcase, giving early and growth-stage start-ups the chance to present their solutions to the most influential audience in women’s health.
Taking place October 13–15 at Encore Boston Harbor in Everett, Massachusetts, WHIS brings together more than 1,000 decision-makers from across the women’s health ecosystem — investors, payers, health systems, pharma leaders, and employers — all under one roof.
Selected companies will pitch live on stage to an audience with the funding, expertise, and connections to accelerate their growth.
Past participants have walked away with investor introductions, commercial partnerships, and clinical collaborations that moved from conversation to contract.
WHIS is where the women’s health ecosystem comes together to get deals done,” said Sarah Rowlands, marketing director.
“The Innovation Showcase puts promising start ups directly in front of the people who can take them to the next level.”
The showcase sits at the heart of a three-day programme spanning digital health, therapeutics, diagnostics, and consumer health.
Previous attendees have included representatives from Mayo Clinic, CVS Health, Eli Lilly, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Alumni Ventures, Muse Capital, and Maverick Ventures, among hundreds of others.
Applications are open now. Start-ups can submit at
www.whisusa.com/attend/start-ups
About WHIS
Now in its eighth year, the Women’s Health Innovation Summit is the largest global gathering of senior leaders shaping the future of women’s health.
Organised by Kisaco Research, WHIS unites providers, health plans, employers, regulators, pharma, investors, and innovators to increase deal flow, expand reimbursement, improve access, and deliver better health outcomes for women at every stage of life.
WHIS 2026 takes place October 13–15 at Encore Boston Harbor, Everett, MA.
Learn more at www.whisusa.com
Five women-led startups will compete for a share of a £30,000 prize fund in Imperial’s WE Innovate final on Monday 15 June 2026.
The finalists are building businesses to tackle challenges in areas including vaccine technology, epilepsy care and the destruction of “forever chemicals”.
The WE Innovate programme, run by Imperial Enterprise Lab, is a targeted pre-accelerator open to teams led by students, recent alumni and early career researchers who identify as women.
The programme supports 25 women-led teams through six months of masterclasses, business coaching, one-to-one expert support and peer mentoring.
The top five teams will compete to win a share of the £30,000 prize fund at the WE Innovate Grand Final Showcase at Imperial on Monday 15 June 2026 from 18:00 to 21:00.
Tickets are free and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
This year’s final also marks the second year of WE Innovate National, a growing UK-wide programme that has expanded the WE Innovate model built at Imperial to other parts of the country.
Alongside Imperial, Queen’s University Belfast, Swansea University and Loughborough University are each hosting their own grand final showcases on their campuses.
The four showcases are collectively contributing to a shared national ecosystem focused on supporting women-led innovation.
WE Innovate National is set to expand to seven universities next year, supporting 175 women-led startup teams across the UK.
AlphaVectors Biotech is developing a lipid nanoparticle platform to enhance the stability of RNA vaccines at room temperatures.
Lipid nanoparticles are tiny fat-based particles used to deliver genetic medicines into the body. RNA vaccines use genetic instructions to help the immune system recognise a disease target.
Current RNA-based therapeutics rely on lipid nanoparticles that need storage at between -20°C and -80°C and high dosing. This increases distribution costs and leads to significant wastage, limiting scalability, deployment and accessibility in lower-resource markets.
AlphaVectors Biotech says its technology can lower the need for temperature-controlled supply chains, reduce costs and improve the scalability of RNA vaccines for wider deployment.
The startup is led by Dr Apanpreet Kaur, an Imperial alumnus with a PhD in chemical engineering.
Epile-X, by NeuraVance Labs, is working on a platform that could provide continuous, real-world brain monitoring for people with epilepsy.
More than 630,000 people in the UK live with epilepsy, according to the charity Epilepsy Action.
Epilepsy is a neurological condition that can cause recurring seizures. EEG, or electroencephalography, is a test that records electrical activity in the brain.
Current diagnosis relies on EEG recordings in clinical settings and patient-reported diaries, which may miss seizures that happen during daily life.
The startup says its technology combines a wearable EEG with AI-driven analysis to capture daily brain activity and support improved diagnosis and more personalised treatment decisions.
Epile-X is led by Ester D’Alterio, an innovation, entrepreneurship and management MSc graduate from Imperial.
FluoroCycle is developing technology for low-energy chemical destruction of PFAS, breaking down “forever chemicals” at 10 times lower temperatures than current incineration methods.
PFAS are synthetic chemicals found in air, water and soil. Some studies have linked exposure to them to health risks including thyroid disease, reproductive illness and cancer.
The startup aims to make PFAS destruction more affordable by providing its technology as an onsite engineered unit, allowing customers to save on energy and transport costs while cutting their carbon footprint.
FluoroCycle is led by Amanda Fogh, a research associate in Imperial’s department of chemistry.
Waypoint is building a video game controller for visually impaired players to hear and feel popular games, including Super Mario and Minecraft.
At least 2.2 billion people globally have some form of vision impairment, according to the World Health Organisation, while estimates show around 43 million people have complete blindness.
Waypoint says only 0.001 per cent of video games are fully playable for blind gamers.
The startup’s technology uses computer vision and AI to read the game screen and translate key information into sound, vibration and touch for a fully immersive experience.
The founders say it is the first game controller designed to make video games fully playable for blind players.
Waypoint is led by Bana Quronfuleh, an innovation design engineering MSc student at Imperial.
Snitch is developing an accountability-based app that allows friends to cut down their screen time together.
UK adults spend an average of 4.5 hours a day online on personal smartphones, tablets and computers, according to Ofcom’s Online Nation 2025 report.
Young adults spend more than six hours online on average. Some research suggests excessive screen use may have a negative impact on mental and physical health.
The app allows users to join accountability groups and set shared limits across their most used apps.
When one person scrolls, the group’s combined timer counts down. The founders say this helps build awareness, encourage reflection and create small behavioural shifts by making screen use a shared responsibility.
Snitch is led by Asha Bakhai, a design engineering MEng graduate from Imperial.
Indian pharmaceutical giant Sun Pharma has agreed to buy Organon for US$11.75bn in a deal aimed at expanding its women’s health and biosimilars business.
Organon, which was spun out of Merck in 2021, has built a portfolio of more than 70 women’s health and general medicines products, including biosimilars, sold in the US and about 140 other countries.
The acquisition would give Sun Pharma a broader presence in biosimilars, which are medicines designed to be highly similar to existing biological drugs, and strengthen its position in women’s health.
Dilip Shanghvi, executive chairman of Sun Pharma, said: “Organon’s portfolio, capabilities, and global reach are highly complementary to our own, and we believe that bringing the two organizations together can create a stronger and more diversified platform.”
The companies said the combined business would generate annual revenue of US$12.4bn, operate across 150 countries and rank among the top three companies globally in women’s health.
They also said it would become the seventh largest biosimilar player.
Sun Pharma said the deal would help grow its innovative medicines business and expand its biosimilars offering.
It added that the combined company would have 18 large markets each generating more than US$100m in revenue.
Organon’s largest markets include the US, Brazil, Canada, China and countries in the European Union. The company also has six manufacturing facilities across the EU and emerging markets.
The deal follows market speculation that began on 10 April, when Indian media reported that Sun Pharma had submitted an all-cash offer for Organon.
A later report said the offer had been revised to US$13bn. Sun Pharma shares rose about 7 per cent on India’s National Stock Exchange after the announcement.
Sun Pharma said it would acquire all of Organon’s issued and outstanding shares in cash, using a combination of available cash and committed bank financing. It also estimated synergies of about US$350m within two to four years of completion.
The company said the acquisition would strengthen its cash generation, with EBITDA and cash flow set to nearly double, supporting efforts to reduce the net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.3 times resulting from the deal. EBITDA is a measure of operating performance before certain costs are deducted.
Organon reported revenue of US$6.2bn last year and adjusted EBITDA of US$1.9bn. It also reported debt of US$8.64bn, down from US$9.5bn when it separated from Merck, and a cash balance of US$574m.
In November, Organon announced plans to sell its JADA System, designed to control and treat abnormal postpartum uterine bleeding or haemorrhage, to Laborie Medical Technologies for up to US$465m. Net proceeds from the sale will contribute to Organon’s cash balance as of 31 March 2026.
Organon will merge with a subsidiary of Sun Pharma, with Organon surviving the merger. The boards of both companies have approved the transaction.
Carrie Cox, executive chair of Organon, said: “Following a comprehensive review of strategic alternatives, our Board determined that this all-cash transaction offers compelling and immediate value to Organon stockholders.”
The transaction is expected to close in early 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and Organon stockholder approval.
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