By Melissa Wallace, co-founder, Fierce Foundry

For decades, women’s health was treated as an afterthought, underfunded, under-researched, and often dismissed as “niche.”

Yet the irony is staggering: women make up 51 per cent of the population and drive nearly 80 per cent of consumer purchasing decisions.

The gap is rarely about market potential, because we know it is huge! It comes down to who holds the capital, who sets the governance, and whose lived experiences shape investment decisions.

Many of us see this as an opportunity, and now a growing wave of organisations are working to rebuild the investment landscape with women at the centre. Fierce Foundry, How Women Invest, The Fourth Effect, Female Founders Fund, All Raise, and countless grassroots angel networks are proving that women at the table means change.

The organisations are creating new pathways for women to become investors, supporting founders with more transparent funding relationships, and shifting the narrative on what it means to scale a business.

THIS is what is laying the foundation for the next generation of femtech innovation.

More Women Investors Changes Everything

People invest in what they understand and relate to.

When a woman develops a breakthrough medical device for PCOS patients, a male investor may not immediately recognise its value, even if the numbers are strong.

That’s not about blame, it’s about perspective.

When women step into investment roles, the impact is measurable:

Backing overlooked markets.

Female investors have been early champions of companies once ignored by traditional VCs.

Female Founders Fund backed Maven Clinic when “women’s health” wasn’t on Sand Hill Road’s radar.

Elvie, a pioneer in connected breast pumps and pelvic floor trainers, scaled globally because women investors recognised the scale of the problem and the purchasing power of women.

Without women at the table, these companies may have never broken through.

Bringing a wider lens of critical thinking.

Women tend to evaluate opportunities across multiple dimensions: returns, customer well-being, and long-term sustainability.

This broader perspective surfaces both risks and opportunities that can otherwise be missed. It’s not “soft” thinking; it’s smart investing.

                     Melissa Wallace

Delivering results through leadership.

Data shows that women-led companies outperform their leadership counterparts.

A BCG study found startups founded and co-founded by women generate 10 per cent  more cumulative revenue over a five-year period, despite raising less capital.

Women investors see that performance potential early and help accelerate it.

This isn’t about charity. It’s about smarter bets and the numbers back it up.

The Blueprint for Change

The question isn’t whether FemTech will thrive. It’s what needs to shift for it to thrive faster. From my perspective, three things are critical:

1. Pathways for Women to Become Investors. We need more women with capital, and that means more exits for women founders, broader education on accredited investing, and new models that democratise access to wealth.
2. A Redesign of Venture Structures. Traditional VC models were never built with women in mind. They reward hypergrowth at any cost, punish flexibility, and replicate outdated power dynamics. At Fierce Foundry, we’re experimenting with venture studio models that align with how women actually lead; embedding shared services, designing with empathy, and even considering how work cycles could align with women’s hormonal cycles for exceptional performance.
3. A Culture of Networks, Not Gatekeepers. Fundraising is rarely about one pitch; it’s about the introductions that compound over time. By building “networks of networks,” grounded in transparency and reciprocity, we ensure women founders gain access to capital where it has historically been blocked.

Lessons From the Frontlines

For FemTech founders, the challenge isn’t just finding any investor, it’s finding the right investor.

The wrong money can derail a company just as quickly as no money.

The most successful women founders I know focus on three things:

1. Invest in aligned capital. Before taking money, research who your investors are, what they’ve funded, and how they show up for founders. The best partnerships are 10-year marriages, you need conviction on both sides.
2. Build with transparency. Women founders are often asked tougher questions, but the best defense is clarity. Own your numbers, your risks, and your strategy. The right investors will respect honesty over spin.
3. Leverage networks strategically. Don’t just network for introductions, network for champions. Each “no” can lead to two or three more conversations if you leave the door open. The founders who excel are the ones who convert networks into ecosystems of support.

At Fierce Foundry, I’ve seen this firsthand.

The women we work with not only find capital, but they also attract investors who believe in them as much as in the product.

That’s when the flywheel starts: funded women lead to exits, which lead to new women investors, which fuels the next generation of founders.

A Future Worth Building

If the investment landscape reached true gender balance, FemTech wouldn’t be a “category”, instead, it would simply be part of the mainstream.

We would see more women founders funded, more exits leading to more women investors, and workplaces redesigned to reflect how people actually thrive.

That future is not hypothetical.

I see glimpses of it every day at Fierce Foundry, where women are co-building companies with us from idea to exit.

The more we expand pathways for women investors, reimagine venture models, and build networks of networks, the faster we get there.

The next decade could be the tipping point for FemTech if we choose to rebuild the system with women at its core.

And when we do, the industry won’t just thrive. It will redefine what innovation looks like for everyone.