Femtech is here to stay: macro factors that influence the market

It isn’t a surprise that femtech investing continues to grow and catch the attention of European early-stage investors, says Dr Pooja Sikka.

Global investing in femtech has grown by 15 per cent compared to December 2021, and it is forecasted the global femtech market will be worth US$103bn by 2030.

Femtech has caught the attention of investors like us over at APEX Ventures – where our medical fund’s investment team is more than half women, some of us working mothers.

Initially, it might have appeared as a fad or a passing trend, but in my experience as a clinician and an investor, femtech is a trend here to stay because, after all, it’s symptomatic of a number of confounding macro factors:

1. More women are choosing to start their families later, and in the workplace, women are rising in competitive senior professional roles, which often demand a degree of consideration around fertility and family planning.

For example, ‘when is the right time to have a family…’ ‘will my opportunities at work be affected by having a family’ ‘should I freeze my eggs?’ and maybe even ‘ will I face prejudice for having children? Can I and should I delay having a family?’.

These conversations are happening, maybe previously in consultation rooms with their doctors, but now more often more openly in society.

Taking control of your chances of conceiving is now a reality, but requires advice and planning, and technology from providing health information, tracking menstruation, and diagnostic devices has already made it to market and is rapidly scaling.

Apps such as Peanut and health tech solutions such as Levy Health and Hormona are paving the way for a community of women to seek and share information, as well as track their menstruation and hormones.

Not all tech is proving to be evidence-based, but more health tech companies are seeking to combine consistent medical advice with digitally-led information and become regulated solutions.

2. As reproductive medicine becomes better understood, IVF and other infertility treatments are improving. The supply chain is becoming lower cost and more couples, including same-sex couples, are more frequently choosing to start a family later.

As the fertility industry grows with fierce competition between providers, technology at all parts of the pathway will improve outcomes and, therefore, a good investing space.

The most exciting development has, however, been the financing of fertility treatments and the introduction of insurtech companies like Gaia Family, which leverages accessible tech to help women to insure against the costs of future assisted fertility.

3. There is now overwhelming recognition both by women themselves and more recently by employers that perimenopause and menopause are physiological states which can lead to stress and mental health problems, alongside physical symptoms which can be challenging to deal with, especially in the workplace.

Solutions such as Peppy, Vira Health and Midday by Lisa Health are developing products that employees and consumers are able to access, which all promote non-pharmacological options that typically in the past haven’t been leveraged enough in primary care.

Technology and clinical services side-by-side is creating not only better awareness but real support and solutions for women that just weren’t accessible a generation ago.

4. For investors motivated by impact investing, and let’s face it – everyone is getting on the ‘bandwagon’ whether they really value it or not – women’s health, even in high-and-middle-income countries, is facing huge inequalities, especially in deprived and underserved communities.

In 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) found that although women in the European Union live longer than men, they spend more of their lives in poor health – women spent 19 years of their life in poor health compared to 15 years for men.

In the UK, the government consulted and published Our Vision for the Women’s Health strategy for England, which addresses where the gaps are and the role of tech in improving access.

Tech has the potential to drive real change here and bring better understanding and therapeutic intervention to conditions such as endometriosis, adenomyosis and post-pregnancy complications, leading to intractable pain and pelvic and bladder issues, which women are embarrassed and hesitant to talk about but which interfere with daily life.

5. Whilst cancer awareness is higher than other women’s health problems, early diagnosis still remains an issue globally.

Breast cancer was still the most common cancer in women worldwide, contributing 25.8 per cent of the total number of new cases diagnosed in 2020.

We know that early recognition of breast cancer, ovarian, cervical and endometrial cancer leads to preventable deaths. Better access to tech which supports awareness, prevention, improved and lower cost screening and diagnostics dovetails with the therapeutic innovations emerging and provides an exciting investment space.

In ovarian cancer, for example, which often presents late with painless bloating and abdominal discomfort, there are innovators globally developing effective low-cost screening diagnostics, and similarly, the rise of liquid biopsies to recognise cancer remains exciting especially as increased competition and M&A activity will help to drive down price.

So femtech is slowly embedding into how we invest and into society as a whole. Not only have early-stage investors and VCs helped these investment opportunities to become realised – there have been 105 femtech company exits to date – and continue to do so, but investors are also supporting women’s progression and gender equality.

In parallel, as health tech sees a new era of direct-to-consumer tech rising as well, more women are getting a voice and improving their awareness and care for themselves.

There are, of course, a few that conflate this with a feminist ideology, but more and more, this kind of thinking is being phased out, particularly as more women in tech are being backed and femtech flourishes.

 

Dr Pooja Sikka is a GP and venture partner at APEX Ventures, an Europe-based early stage venture capital fund investing in healthtech, deeptech and fintech start-ups.