Entrepreneur
Investment roundup: Calls for investment in global gynaecological health, $5m for endometriosis blood test, and more
Femtech World explores the latest business and investment developments in women’s health.
Calls for investment in global gynaecological health
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) is calling for investment in global gynaecological health as a critical issue of equity and rights..
In a new policy position statement the RCOG is calling on governments, non-governmental organisations, and donors to champion gynaecological health as a political priority on the global health and to prioritise sufficient and long-term investment in effective interventions to address the unmet need for quality gynaecological healthcare.
The evidence base around the scale of gynaecological conditions is limited and as a result, it is likely that the global burden of gynaecological conditions is significantly underestimated.
The RCOG position calls for investment in research and improved data collection for gynaecological conditions as well as establishing international definitions, targets and indicators to reduce variation in data quality and hold governments and donors to account on progress.
The college states that as the 2030 deadline for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals approaches, governments, non-governmental organisations and donors have a crucial role to play in promoting gynaecological health as a critical issue of equity and rights.
Afynia raises CAD$5m to commercialise endometriosis blood test
Biotech company Afynia Laboratories recently raised CAD$5m to progress its pipeline of women’s health diagnostics initially focused on endometriosis.
Existing options like diagnostic surgery are invasive, expensive, and often delay diagnosis up to 10 years. Afynia has developed a microRNA-based assay called EndomiR, which utilizes novel biomarkers to detect signs of endometriosis in the blood.
This can offer a less invasive, less expensive, and more accessible molecular test for endometriosis.
This investment from and collaboration with Bio-Rad Laboratories will accelerate Afynia’s growth and provide a long-term partner to bring EndomiR to patients around the world.
Femasys secures distribution partnerships for commercialisation of Fembloc in Spain
Biomedical company Femasys has secured strategic distribution partnerships for FemBloc – a first of its kind, non-surgical permanent birth control – in Spain.
Comercial Medico Quirurigca, SA (CMQ) will expand its commercial portfolio to include FemBloc, alongside other Femasys products in northern Spain, while Durgalab will handle distribution in the southern region.
Kathy-Lee Sepsick, Femasys CEO and Founder commented: “Today’s announcement marks a significant milestone in our mission to bring innovative technologies to women worldwide, as we expand globally with the first introduction of FemBloc through our partnerships in Spain.
“Our distribution partners bring extensive expertise in women’s healthcare, having previously represented the Conceptus Essure product (acquired by Bayer).
Noom expands into hormone replacement therapy
Digital healthcare company Noom is expanding into Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) to provide support for women as they navigate menopausal hormone shifts.
Noom is providing support and tools for women in menopause including FDA-approved and compounded medication options using bioidentical hormones proven to provide relief from menopause symptoms, personalised content designed to guide women on topics such as medication tracking, access to a library of resistance-training workouts, and continuous guidance and support from coaches, clinicians and the community.
Virtual roundtable on funding in femtech
Daya Hub is holding a virtual roundtable on funding in femtech with a focus on East Africa. The event will take place on Thursday, 20 March, 2025.
The event will bring together key stakeholders stakeholders including investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, and innovators to explore the funding landscape, challenges, and opportunities in the femtech sector in East Africa.
Attendees will have the opportunity to gain insights from investors on what they look for in women’s health innovations and to discover alternative financing models, including venture capital, grants, and impact investment.
Networking and discussion opportunities will be key to the event, with opening remarks by Daya Hub East Africa representatives.
Topics discussed at the event will include access to capital; investor perspectives; alternative financing; gender & funding bias; and, policy and regulations.
My Normative announces Women’s Health Research Award
My Normative recently announced the launch of the Next Generation Women’s Health Research Award. Through this award, My Normative has committed to funding up to five projects per year for the next five years, in which researchers receive funding for a “Starter” technology implementation for prospective research across expertise and domain areas that impact women differently and disproportionately.
The Starter product offers a cost-effective and participant-friendly way for researchers to get their feet wet collecting and analysing sex and gender data.
The product is structured to facilitate sex and gender specific insights and not require researchers to be experts in women’s health. Researchers will collaborate with My Normative to implement their specific study protocol and deploy seamlessly with the companion app to their study participants.
“In order for scientific research in the health and life sciences to move forward in a way that is equitable across sex and gender, we must make it easier for innovators and researchers to include and accurately represent sex and gender in scientific research at scale. In particular it is urgent that we remove barriers to this new generation of passionate innovators who want to account for sex and gender in the research process but might need a little extra support to get started” said CEO and co-founder, Danika Kelly.
Award applications are now open. To apply, please visit mynormative.com/awards to get started or reach out to Allison Swelin, Director of Growth at allison@mynormative.ca.
Women’s Health Week USA 2026 has unveiled its first populated agenda, anchored by an opening keynote from Kate Ryder, Founder and CEO of Maven Clinic, and featuring a cross-sector lineup shaping the next phase of scale in women’s health.
You can view the full agenda here.
Taking place May 13–14, 2026, at the New York Academy of Medicine, Women’s Health Week USA brings together the full women’s health ecosystem to focus on one central question: what does it take to move women’s health from innovation to institutional scale?
Kate Ryder will open Day 1 with a keynote drawing on her experience building Maven Clinic into the world’s largest virtual clinic for women’s and family health.
Under her leadership, Maven has partnered with employers and health plans to deliver care across fertility, maternity, postpartum, paediatrics, and menopause at scale.
Her perspective sets the tone for a program centered on commercialisation, partnership, and sustainable growth.
Beyond the opening keynote, the newly released agenda reflects the sector’s growing maturity.
Across two days, the program features 70+ speakers, with representation from leading organizations including the FDA, Planned Parenthood, CVS Health Ventures, Samsung Next, NIH, WHO, and Maven Clinic.
Sessions span investment and deal flow, clinical innovation, regulation, data and technology, and market expansion, alongside dedicated pitch sessions and curated 1:1 matchmaking designed to turn insight into action.
The agenda has been built to facilitate meaningful connections across the ecosystem, with partnerships positioned as the primary driver of scale.
As women’s health continues to attract institutional capital and global attention, Women’s Health Week USA 2026 offers a clear snapshot of where the market is heading, and who is shaping it.
The full agenda is now live, with additional speakers and partners to be announced in the coming months.
View the full programme here.
Calla Lily Clinical Care has partnered with Merck to support the intravaginal drug delivery platform Callavid in an effort to improve how vaginal medicines are given.
The collaboration will continue development of Callavid, described as a leak-resistant device that addresses challenges with self-administered vaginal therapies.
Callavid uses a small, tampon-shaped device with an integrated absorbent liner. It is inserted, remains in place during drug absorption, then is removed.
The platform is intended for use with medicines in fertility treatment, oncology and hormone therapy. Administration via the vaginal route can prompt patient anxiety about positioning, dosing accuracy and leakage.
The partnership is the first industry collaboration for the Callavid technology, which was developed by Calla Lily Clinical Care.
Thang Vo-Ta, co-founder and chief executive of Calla Lily Clinical Care, said: “This collaboration with Merck marks an important milestone in the development of Callavid, our novel vaginal drug delivery platform.
“Merck’s scientific heritage and forward-looking approach to innovation make them an ideal partner as we work to address long-standing unmet needs in women’s health.
“By improving how vaginal therapeutics are delivered and experienced, Callavid has the potential to enhance both patient outcomes and quality of life.
“We see this collaboration as a meaningful step towards translating our technology into real-world clinical and patient impact.”
Calla Lily Clinical Care is seeking to develop what it describes as the world’s first drug-device combination product to prevent threatened miscarriage and for IVF luteal phase support, the phase after ovulation when the body produces progesterone to support early pregnancy.
The device is also being developed to deliver therapeutics for oncology, menopause, infectious diseases and live biotherapeutics to reduce repeated antibiotic use.
Dr Lara Zibners, co-founder and chairman of Calla Lily Clinical Care, said: “Our initial engagement with Merck through the Merck Innovation Challenge in October 2024 was an important moment of alignment around the need for more patient-centric innovation in women’s health.
“As both a clinician and a patient, I have seen how profoundly drug delivery can shape treatment experience.
“This collaboration builds on that early dialogue and reflects a shared interest in rigorously exploring new approaches that may improve how therapies are delivered and experienced by patients.”
Stanford graduates’ startup Clair is building a wearable hormone tracker for women, offering continuous, non-invasive monitoring.
The company, Clair, founded by Jenny Duan and Abhinav Agarwal, aims to build what its founders describe as a research-led, privacy-focused tool to help women see how hormone levels affect daily life.
Duan and Agarwal met in spring 2025 and began working on Clair shortly after. Over the past six months, they have been developing the technology and refining the company’s mission.
The device is designed to address gaps in women’s healthcare. Women remain underrepresented in medical research and clinical trials, leading to limited data and slower progress in understanding women’s health conditions.
According to Clair advisor and Stanford Medicine professor Brindha Bavan, hormone tracking in reproductive healthcare “improves our understanding of the function of and communication between the brain’s pituitary gland and ovaries or testes.
The pituitary gland is a small organ at the base of the brain that produces hormones regulating many bodily functions. The ovaries and testes are the primary reproductive organs that also produce sex hormones.
Hormonal health affects not only fertility and reproduction but also mental health, metabolism, energy levels and overall wellbeing.
Bavan said hormone tracking can “provide insight into menstrual cycle patterns and can aid with both diagnosing and assessing treatment for [various] conditions.”
“[Clair enables] patients [to] gain insight into their personal hormone fluctuations over different time periods,” Bavan said, “and share this information at healthcare visits to better understand and correlate any medical issues they are facing and avoid repeat blood draws.”
The device, which resembles a bracelet worn on the wrist, will connect to a mobile app, allowing all data processing to occur directly on the user’s phone rather than in external data centres.
“The device connects with an app so all of the processing happens on the app itself, not in a data centre like other devices. This is especially important given the current political climate around data privacy,” Agarwal said.
Clair also plans to pursue FDA approval and position itself as a medically credible device rather than solely a lifestyle product. The company is planning to launch a clinical trial at Stanford Medicine this spring.
Duan’s interest in women’s health and technology began as a Stanford undergraduate. At TreeHacks in 2024, she built apps focused on endometriosis, a condition where tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows outside of it.
She said a course on Philanthropy for Sustainable Development was particularly influential. “It was this class that sparked my interest in building a solution in [the women’s healthcare] space,” Duan said.
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