FemHealth Ventures closes US$32m fund to back women’s health innovators

The US venture capital firm FemHealth Ventures has closed a US$32m debut fund to “reimagine” women’s health.

FemHealth Ventures aims to invest in women’s health innovations, focusing on drugs, devices, diagnostics, and digital applications.

The firm says it is the first one of its kind to “reimagine” women’s health to include conditions that affect only women, affect mostly women, or appear differently in women.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the US$32m fundraising came in above the firm’s goal but below the US$50m hard cap as the new venture firm faced obstacles raising its first fund.

Speaking at an Aspen Ideas: Health event in June, FemHealth Ventures managing partner Maneesha Ghiya said she wanted to make a change as she found that women’s health was often overlooked, but she said she was also motivated by her near-death experience she had after giving birth to her daughter.

“I had major complications with my delivery and I almost didn’t make it,” Ghiya explained.

“I had an emergency C-section and although my daughter was healthy, I didn’t feel well. It wasn’t until the next morning that my obstetrician walked in and realised that I had been bleeding internally the whole night and they had missed it.

“She rushed me into the OR and brought in three additional surgeons and they spent two hours with me open trying to find the source of the bleed. They couldn’t find it. They took me to the ICU and I had 10 transfusions. They told my husband they didn’t think I would make it.”

She continued: “Fortunately, my body started catching up with the bleed and I was able to recover, but there are many women that are not so fortunate.

“I felt the way for me to have the most impact, having been a healthcare investor, was to create a vehicle focused specifically around women’s health.”

With FemHealth Ventures, Ghiya said she is looking to back innovators who are developing companies specifically within women’s health.

“We feel there’s a substantial opportunity to do more in this category, have an impact and bring forward extremely compelling innovations to the broader market,” she added.

“A multitude of possibilities for innovation in women’s health exist. We are here to help bring them to life.”