Entrepreneur
Why Scotland’s first femtech forum could be a major breakthrough
Ahead of this week’s Women’s Health Innovation Forum, Priya Oberoi tells Femtech World how the conference could shape the future of femtech and start a dialogue around gender inequality.
Last year Scotland became the first country in the UK to have a Women’s Health Plan designed to improve access to healthcare and reduce women’s health inequalities.
This year the female-founded venture capital firm, Goddess Gaia Ventures, brings together innovators from all corners of the women’s health innovation ecosystem in Scotland’s first femtech conference held in Edinburgh on March 24 and 25.
Organised following a competition set up by the Scottish Government, the event will be opened by the Scottish Minister for Public Health, Maree Todd, and aims to discuss health inequalities and how innovation can improve the women’s health sector.
“It’s a celebration of amazing, unrepresented, female founders,” says Priya Oberoi, founding general partner at Goddess Gaia Ventures. “It’s a real honour that we’re doing this in Scotland and that we have the first women’s healthcare minister there to support us. This shows that Scotland takes this seriously. This is our chance to encourage, excite and empower founders and students to start innovating more in this field.”
Recent cultural shifts, sparked by movements such as #MeToo and a growing interest in diversity and inclusion have hugely benefitted the femtech sector. However, none of them have had the same impact as the pandemic. Prolonged lockdowns have shown how women are affected disproportionately and highlighted the challenges they face every day, while also being more likely to be made redundant or lose their jobs.
“I think Covid has accelerated a wind of change,” explains Priya. “There needs to be more specialised funds, investing in women’s health because money can actually change that narrative. The pandemic has shown us that we need to focus on founders who create impactful solutions that help society.”
As a mixed-race cancer survivor, Priya wanted to make a change in the healthcare system.
“Goddess Gaia came through my own trauma”, she admits. “I felt like I could not be the only woman in the world who’s having those problems. So, I wanted to make this experience better for somebody else out there and Covid gave me the time to actually sit down and bring my thoughts together.
“The conference is another step forward and we’re happy to play our part in that,” Priya adds. “There is nothing, I think, that can compare to being in person with people and discussing what the real problems are.”
The lack of investment is not the only issue. Women’s health inequalities are more prevalent than ever, especially when it comes to women of colour. The fact that the Women’s Health Innovation Forum is the first of its kind ever held in Scotland shows in itself that femtech lags behind other similar sectors.
Priya points out that: “We’re seeing that more innovation is coming from women, which is fantastic. But there’s still an unconscious bias when they’re trying to raise money.
“It’s as if women are set up to fail. We need to change the lexicon and give everyone an equal chance. We helped develop the Covid vaccine, so why can’t that innovation be used in women’s health and all these wonderful, great minds come together and think of more technological and scientific changes.”
As the managing director of Holoxica, a 3D holographic visualisation company, Wendy Lamin hopes that the forum will be just the start of a bigger change.
“My heart makes a triple leap, because it is the very first women health tech event held in Scotland,” she says. “This is about creating ripple effects because we’re going to be throwing a pebble in the pond and the ripples need to keep on blowing.”
Her company has a long history in 3D holographic visualisation and recently applied it to 3D video conferencing. “We want to humanise, digitise and democratise healthcare communications in 3D, so that somebody in remote places, such as the Highlands, could have access to the best possible doctor anywhere and have a better understanding of what the underlying issue is,” explains Wendy.
“I hope that through the various stories of all these diverse women at the forum, there will be aha moments and bulbs going on. What I’m very adamant about is seeing VCs – venture capitalists – invest here in Scotland and more particularly, seeing diverse underrepresented founders getting more access to investments.”
Priya says that she would like to see policy changes and more innovation between the intersection of science, technology, and femtech.
“Hopefully, in six month’s time someone else will do another conference and then another one, so that we can keep that momentum going,” she adds. “There are so many amazing founders out there creating stuff. They just need to be funded so they can get to the next level.”
Register for the Women’s Health Innovation Forum here.
You have until Friday to nominate your femtech company of the year.
The award is one of 10 featuring at Femtech World’s third annual awards event, which attracts entries from across the UK, EU and Europe.
The Company of the Year Award is for companies that have demonstrated exceptional leadership in tackling women’s health needs through groundbreaking products, services or platforms that are shaping the future of global femtech.
If your company is driving innovation, impact and growth in this space, this award was made for you.
About the sponsor: Femovate
The category is backed by Femovate, the global femtech incubator using design to fuel innovation across every stage of a woman’s health journey, from proactive prevention through to personalised treatment.
Femovate has invested over US$2 million in design capital, working side-by-side with founding teams to bring market-ready solutions to life.
The startups it supports have collectively raised US$120 million, launched 30 products, and secured seven FDA clearances.
Why enter?
The Femtech World Awards are free to enter.
Winners and shortlisted companies receive extensive coverage across all Femtech World platforms.
Winners will also receive a trophy and the opportunity to be featured in an interview for the publication.
Find out more about the Femtech World Award and enter here by 4pm BST on Friday 17.
By Chaitra Vedullapalli, founder and president, Women in Cloud
Today’s leaders are carrying more than responsibilities.
They are carrying caregiving roles, financial pressures, legal complexities, and the quiet emotional weight of sustaining performance in unpredictable times.
And yet, most leadership forums still focus on productivity, growth, and scale, rarely addressing the human systems that enable sustained leadership.
At Women in Cloud, we believe the next generation of leadership will not be defined by endurance alone, but by discipline, preparation, and self-respect.
That is why we are proud to announce the #WICxWellness Summit 2026: The Disciplined Advantage.
This is a wellness summit focused on leadership preparedness.
Why This Summit Matters Now
Across our global community, a clear pattern has emerged.
- More professionals and executives are quietly navigating:
- Life-threatening health crises, personally or within their families
- Financial stress caused by medical, caregiving, or business shocks
- Legal and healthcare decisions with long-term consequences
- Career interruptions due to caregiving responsibilities
- Chronic exhaustion, grief, and emotional isolation
These experiences are widespread, yet rarely discussed in executive settings.
#WICxWellness 2026 brings these realities into the open with compassion, clarity, and practical guidance, so leaders can prepare, adapt, and continue forward without breaking.
This is wellness as a leadership discipline.
What We Will Explore
This year’s summit is designed to provide grounded, immediately applicable insights for founders, executives, and senior leaders.
Executive Function Under Chronic Stress
Keynote with Jennifer Brown
Focus Areas:
- Understand how chronic stress alters judgment, focus, and emotional regulation
- Identify early warning signs of cognitive overload in leadership roles
- Adaptability as a Cognitive Anchor: Navigating rapid change without compromising decision-making.
- Resilience Through Connection: Building human-centric teams to mitigate the stress of uncertainty.
- Navigating Change with Emotional Intelligence: Regulating stress responses to maintain clarity and empathy.
- Systemic Agility in High-Pressure Environments: Creating foundations of psychological safety that protect organizational function
Labs That Matter (And What to Do With Them)
Fireside Chat with Chelsey Galipeau and Chaitra Vedullapalli
Focus Areas:
- Which health tests are worth the time and investment
- Interpreting results without panic
- Preventive strategies for executive longevity
- Avoiding unnecessary medical spending
Caretaking Without Collapse
Panel With Karen Fassio, Anca Platon Trifan, Scilla Andreen, Clara Schroeder, Sheena Yap Chan
Focus Areas:
- Managing family and professional demands without burnout
- Setting humane boundaries
- Building sustainable support systems
- Ending silent sacrifice in leadership
Food as a Stability System (Not a Diet)
Fireside Chat with Nancy Watt and Meagan T. Copelin
Focus Areas:
- Nutrition for sustained energy and clarity
- Blood sugar and decision-making
- Realistic eating during travel and stress
- Food as operational resilience
Autoimmunity, Hormones & Cardiac Risk in Real Life
Fireside Chat with Dr. Linda Bing
Focus Areas:
- Managing invisible health risks
- Hormonal transitions and stamina
- Flare prevention at work
- Energy mapping for leadership performance
A Different Kind of Leadership Conversation
At Women in Cloud, we have learned something fundamental:
Performance is visible. Discipline is invisible.
Yet discipline determines whether leaders can serve, build, and lead over decades, not just quarters.
The Disciplined Advantage is about building that resilience intentionally.
Through science, lived experience, and practical frameworks, this summit equips leaders to:
- Anticipate strain instead of reacting to a crisis Design sustainable work rhythms
- Protect cognitive and emotional capital
- Lead from grounded strength
This is leadership infrastructure for the next decade.
Join Us
If you are a founder, executive, technologist, or senior professional navigating complexity and determined to lead well without sacrificing your health, clarity, or longevity, this summit is for you.
The #WICxWellness Summit 2026 is where performance meets preservation. Where ambition meets sustainability. Where leadership becomes truly durable.
We look forward to welcoming you. The Disciplined Advantage begins here.
Secure your spot: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wicxwellness-summit-2026-tickets-1981616382945?aff=oddtdtcreator
Femtech World is continuing the search for a company to be crowned Startup of the Year.
The award is one of 10 to feature at the third annual Femtech World Awards.
The Startup of the Year Award celebrates an early-stage company making a bold impact in women’s health through innovation, vision and execution.
The winning startup will have demonstrated strong potential to transform care, accessibility, or awareness in women’s health with a scalable solution.
Consideration will be given to innovation, market traction, inclusivity, impact and the ability to address unmet needs.
The award is sponsored by Future Fertility.
The company is transforming fertility care with AI-powered solutions that close critical information gaps along the IVF journey.
Its clinically validated, non-invasive tools analyse oocyte images to predict each egg’s reproductive potential, supporting decision-making across key pathways: VIOLET™ for egg freezing, MAGENTA™ for IVF-ICSI, and ROSE™ for donor programmes and egg banks.
These reports deliver personalised insights into egg quality and ploidy potential, empowering patients and clinicians to make more informed decisions regarding next steps.
Today, Future Fertility’s technology is used in more than 300 clinics across 35+ countries.
Developed with the world’s largest oocyte image dataset linked to reproductive outcomes, Future Fertility’s AI models generate quality scores that not only guide treatment planning and manage expectations, but also serve as objective, actionable KPIs for labs—driving improved outcomes and transparency in fertility care worldwide.
The awards are free to enter, with winners receiving a trophy and an interview with Femtech World.
Find out more about the awards and enter for free here.
Entrepreneur2 weeks agoThree sessions that show exactly where women’s health is heading in 2026
News4 weeks agoLuna and Kindbody partner to bring data-driven insight to women’s health and fertility care
News4 weeks agoFemtech World Awards announces deadline extension
Fertility4 weeks agoMenstruation costs £20,359 a lifetime, sparking calls for Government action
Menopause3 weeks agoCalifornia plans US$3.4m menopause care overhaul
News4 weeks agoHalogen Ventures surpasses 100 investments in female-founded startups
Menopause3 weeks agoWatchdog bans five ads for women’s heath claims
Pregnancy2 weeks agoHow NIPT has evolved and what AI NIPT means in 2026
Pingback: Scotland appoints women’s health champion to tackle gender inequalities - FemTech World