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Femovate announces 30 new femtech start-ups for its 2024 UX design sponsorship programme
Experts in UX design and product strategy from Guidea will work with the 2024 Femovate companies to help them grow and develop
Guidea, an award-winning, women-led UX design agency, has announced 30 new early-stage femtech companies for its 2024 UX design sponsorship programme, Femovate, selected from 130 applications across six continents.
Launched by Guidea in 2022, the Femovate programme has invested more than US$1m in femtech innovation through its UX design sponsorship programme, and elevates promising femtech start-ups by giving them the same kind of services that Guidea provides to the top Fortune 100 companies.
The global femtech market was valued at US$51bn in 2021 and is forecast to reach US$1tn by 2027, according to FemTech Landscape Report. Research from the World Economic Forum found that women-focused research could yield an economic return of over 40 times its investment.
Despite this rapid growth and massive opportunity for investment in the industry, research from McKinsey & Company revealed that due to bias surrounding the needs of women, femtech companies only receive three per cent of all digital health innovation funding.
Experts in UX design and product strategy from Guidea will work closely with the 2024 Femovate companies to help them improve and accelerate the efficiency, usability and accessibility of their products.
The complimentary services provided by Guidea will help burnish the credibility of the 2024 Femovate companies, putting them in a far stronger position to acquire new funding and media opportunities.
UX design support may include researching and testing digital designs, identifying areas for differentiation in the market, collaborating with industrial designers and engineering teams to create user-centric products that exceed expectations, and delving deeply into the patient, provider and customer journey.
“Femtech is the industry that will change the world,” said Guidea co-founder and CEO, Theresa Neil.
“We see incredible promise with the start-ups we’re sponsoring while understanding the challenges they face bringing innovation to generally taboo health topics. Femovate can provide a small but powerful boost for these companies to jump to the forefront of femtech and bring solutions to millions of women globally.”
The 30 companies selected for the 2024 Femovate programme include:
Breast health
- Deeplook Medical: Revolutionising radiology for cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment, with their FDA-approved, patent-protected software. The shape recognition software accurately measures, segments, and displays the density of soft tumor masses in Mammograms, Ultrasounds, CT scans, and MRI images — with just one click.
- iSono Health: Transforms breast cancer screening by combining automated ultrasound and artificial intelligence (AI) to empower women and physicians with accessible and personalised breast health monitoring.
- KnowBra: Uses AI and computer vision for post-mastectomy bra fitting. The platform automates insurance claims and offers zero-touch fittings. KnowBra’s solution reduces discomfort, boosts confidence, and guarantees a proper fit.
Cardiovascular
- Armor Medical: A biomedical device company that dares to innovate better health for all. The company’s groundbreaking wearable device, Maternal aRMOR, is revolutionising early obstetric haemorrhage detection, offering objective, real-time monitoring to enhance patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.
Chronic conditions
- Afynia Labs: Developer of an at-home screening test that will shorten the path to diagnosis and treatment for endometriosis.
Fertility
- PherDal Fertility Science: Stands at the forefront of innovative reproductive healthcare, dedicated to transforming fertility assistance with groundbreaking and accessible solutions. The company’s flagship product, the PherDal Kit, is a patented, sterile, FDA-cleared over-the-counter option, meticulously designed to empower individuals on their path to parenthood.
- Plan Your Baby:A global fertility and pregnancy telehealth clinic providing end-to-end clinical, digital, affordable, effective, personalised and fast solutions for fertility and pregnancy-related problems.
Hormone health
- Iameno: An end-to-end hormonal health management platform leveraging AI, data and sciences to provide daily step-by-step personalised guidance and action plans to women going through hormonal changes impacting their physical, emotional and cognitive health. Our mission is to create a new generation of women who are smarter about their health.
- Impli: Developer of subdermal implants that monitor fertility hormone levels frequently and in real-time so that clinicians can make better decisions during the IVF treatment. Clinicians need more data points to deliver precision care to move the dial on success rates and increase women’s safety.
- Proov: A proactive fertility testing platform that helps couples identify the leading causes of infertility at home. Proov is the only FDA-cleared test to confirm ovulation at home. It combines simple urine-based diagnostics with an easy-to-use app to give women a clear view of their menstrual cycles and fertility status.
Maternal health
- BB Imaging: A telesonography® provider that connects healthcare facilities and their patients with remote, expert sonographers. By combining a facility’s existing resources with FDA-cleared and HIPAA-compliant technology, TeleScan can bring high-quality prenatal ultrasound care to all patients.
- Ciconia: The first AI-based medical device that allows clinicians to base critical labor decisions on accurate and user-independent measurements, providing a safe and gentle process for both mum and baby.
- EXO: A company battling disparities in women’s health research and treatment while enhancing the standard of care for maternal health.
- Health Evolve: Brings care delivery closer to home and is the creator of LAUREN, a digital health platform to help pregnant and postpartum women manage their health while receiving support from a personalised care village outside of the walls of the clinic.
- Partum: A hybrid clinic delivering the best of online and offline care to women and families through the fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum journey.
- riskLD: A clinician-facing perinatal patient safety software platform developed to elevate situational awareness of inpatient obstetric units and improve outcomes for pregnant patients and their newborns.
- Villie: A platform that connects expecting parents with support from loved ones through cash, gifts, and services while also helping brands target mums by placing products in front of their villagers to drive revenue.
Menstruation
- Joni: A menstrual care brand that’s making organic and sustainable products mainstream to make period care accessible for everyone.
Oncology
- Cacta: Creator of MyLymphCare, a research-based home-monitoring solution for early detection of lymphedema, one of the major side effects of breast cancer treatment. The company empowers women to monitor at home to catch symptoms before they are visible, enabling early treatment that results in a dramatically lower risk of chronic lymphedema.
- Prosoma: A global medical company delivering digital healthcare solutions for oncology, with a product portfolio that supports the patient’s mental and behavioral health.
- Thyia:A digital health platform providing women with access to at-home cervical cancer screening tests making cervical cancer a thing of the past.
Pelvic floor health
- HyIvy: Provides data-driven medical devices that facilitate pelvic floor rehabilitation.
Safety and privacy
- Epowar: A wearable technology to make women safer. The company recently launched the first safety app that detects if the user is physically attacked, alerting their chosen contacts, sharing live location data and storing valuable evidence in the cloud.
Uterine health
- Nesa Medtech: A leading deep-tech medtech startup specialising in developing patented, scarless image-guided surgical solutions in women’s health using advanced technology.
Women’s wellness
- Bloomful: A diagnostic solution delivering streamlined, accessible gynaecological care to underserved women globally.
- Celeste: Celeste’s ExactRx is a medication diagnostic tool that transforms traditionally diagnostic lab panels into actionable medication safety and efficacy insights. Using AI-powered precision medicine, it enables healthcare providers and payers to pre-emptively assess how a patient will respond to medications and subsequently create personalised adherence plans.
- Girls First Finance: Girls First Finance (GFF) promotes equitable access to education and financial services for vulnerable young women starting in Africa who are otherwise at risk of exploitation to cover their education expenses. Through its mobile super app platform, GFF provides access to student loans along with tools focused on safeguarding, financial literacy, career development and community support across over a dozen features.
- Health in Her Hue: A digital health platform dedicated to connecting Black women and women of colour to culturally sensitive healthcare providers, evidence-based, culturally-tailored health content, and community support.
- Incora: Empowers women to meet their fertility and wellness goals by providing actionable health insights using the Incora smart earrings.
- NAWAT Health: A digital platform that provides Arab women access to sexual and reproductive health educational programs and judgment-free and pleasure-positive online care with diverse, trusted, and trained sexual and reproductive health experts.
Ida Tin, founder of the period tracking app Clue, who coined the term femtech in 2016, said: “The world is finally waking up to the staggering data that shows both the investment gap into women-led companies, women-centric innovation, and the huge untapped potential of both — and some are taking real tangible action.
“I’m impressed with the caliber of the femtech companies I’ve been part of selecting for the 2024 Femovate cohort and the practical support they receive from Femovate.”
A new Female Health Hub launched by the English FA will support women and girls in grassroots football in England with trusted advice on health issues affecting play.
The hub brings together expert-backed guidance, practical tools and player insights in one place, giving women and girls practical advice and reassurance on female health in football.
It has four core aims: to help women and girls better understand their bodies and how female health affects performance and participation, to educate players on key health topics and when to seek further advice or support, to provide practical strategies to help navigate common female health challenges, and to help break down taboos and normalise conversations around female health in football.
Users of the hub will also be able to hear directly from members of the England women’s national team, who share their own experiences of navigating female health matters while playing at the highest level of the game.
“Our ambition is to create a game where women and girls can thrive,” said Sue Day, the FA’s director of women’s football.
“To achieve that, it’s essential that players feel supported in environments that understand and respond to their female health needs.
“We’ve heard directly from grassroots players that they want better information and support around female health, but that they often don’t know where to find it.
“The launch of the Female Health Hub marks an important step in changing the landscape.
“We want every player to feel confident in her own skin and supported without judgment, so she can feel empowered by her body, rather than held back by it.”
The platform was launched following research conducted by the FA that highlighted the need for better education and support around female health in football.
According to the FA, 88 per cent of adult players surveyed said their menstrual cycle has an impact on their ability to train or play, but 86 per cent reported they had never received education about the menstrual cycle in relation to football performance and training.
The research also found 64 per cent of women experience issues related to sports bras or breast health while playing football, despite sports bras being considered one of the most important pieces of playing kit.
Players also expressed strong interest in learning more about injury prevention, at 87 per cent, nutrition, at 84 per cent, and mental health, at 77 per cent, in relation to female health.
The first phase of the Female Health Hub focuses on three of the most requested topics: menstrual health, breast health and injury resilience, with further content to follow, including nutrition and pelvic health guidance.
The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has referred to the women’s health strategy as a ‘missed opportunity’ to address maternity services.
The renewed strategy was released by the government this week, with the aim of putting women’s experiences at the centre of care and ensuring they are “better heard and served”.
However, the government stated that because of ongoing investigations into maternity services across the country, the strategy “does not seek to address safety in maternity and neonatal services”.
The RCM described this as a “missed opportunity” and urged the government to ensure that, following the inquiries, maternity is placed “at the very heart” of the strategy.
Gill Walton, RCM chief executive, said the college was “deeply disappointed” that maternity services “do not feature as a headline priority” in the renewed strategy.
She said: “This is a significant missed opportunity and one that is very difficult to understand.
“Pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period are not a footnote in women’s health – they are one of the most significant and consequential phases of a woman’s life.
“A strategy that treats maternity as an afterthought is not truly a women’s health strategy at all. It is exactly the kind of thinking that has allowed maternity services to reach the point they are at today.”
Walton acknowledged that the strategy contained commitments on ensuring women’s voices shape their care, on supporting families through pregnancy loss and on the principle that services should be held accountable when they fail to listen to women.
She added: “But a strategy that addresses one part of women’s health while leaving maternity care behind is only doing half the job.”
Walton urged the government to ensure that this is addressed when the ongoing investigations into maternity care conclude, with any recommendations placed “at the very heart of this strategy with the seriousness and urgency that women, families and midwives deserve”.
In the foreword to the renewed plans, health and social care secretary Wes Streeting referred to the ongoing independent National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation as action being taken by the government to improve safety in maternity services.
The strategy also refers to the new National Maternity and Neonatal Taskforce, chaired by Streeting, which aims to help deliver “safer, more equitable care” for women, babies and families.
The foreword said that, because of ongoing initiatives, it was “important that this work continues without restriction and that the government can properly respond to the findings”.
It added: “This renewed women’s health strategy therefore does not seek to address safety in maternity and neonatal services other than that related to women’s health before and during pregnancy and the actions we are taking immediately to improve maternity and neonatal care.”
The strategy does, however, include plans to prioritise health education in schools, communities and healthcare settings to “empower women” with the “knowledge and tools they need to help control their fertility” and “prepare for the best pregnancy outcomes.
It also promises to provide women with access to “safe and high-quality contraception, abortion care, fertility services, preconception care and support after pregnancy loss in convenient settings.
Article produced in association with London Pregnancy Clinic and Jeen Health
For the majority of couples planning a pregnancy, genetic testing is not something they think about until a problem arises.
Pre-conception genetic carrier screening challenges this approach by identifying risk before pregnancy begins.
As panel sizes have grown and at-home testing options have become widely available, carrier screening is transitioning from a niche clinical referral into a mainstream component of reproductive planning.
What Carrier Screening Tests For
Being a carrier of a genetic condition means carrying one copy of a variant in a gene associated with that condition, without being affected by it.
In most cases, carriers are entirely unaware of their status.
The clinical significance of carrier status emerges when both members of a couple carry a variant in the same gene: in this scenario, each pregnancy carries a one in four chance of resulting in a child who inherits two copies of the variant and is affected by the condition.
The conditions most frequently included in expanded carrier screening panels include cystic fibrosis, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), fragile X syndrome, sickle cell disease, and a range of metabolic and enzyme deficiency disorders.
The Beacon 787 carrier test, offered by Jeen Health, screens for 787 conditions from a single sample, making it one of the most comprehensive panels currently available to UK families.
Who Is Most Likely to Benefit
Any couple planning a pregnancy can consider carrier screening. It is particularly relevant for:
- Couples with a family history of a known inherited condition
- Those from populations with higher carrier frequencies for specific conditions, including Ashkenazi Jewish, South Asian and African communities
- Couples pursuing fertility treatment, where genetic information informs treatment planning
- Those who wish to have the most complete picture of their reproductive health before conception
Importantly, being a carrier of a condition does not mean a child will be affected. It means there is a defined statistical risk that can be quantified, discussed and planned for with appropriate clinical support.
How the Test Is Performed
Carrier screening is typically carried out on a blood or saliva sample.
For at-home options such as the testing offered by Jeen Health, a cheek swab collection kit is dispatched to the patient, the sample is returned by post, and results are delivered digitally within a defined turnaround period.
In-clinic carrier testing may use a blood draw and provides the advantage of immediate access to a clinical consultation at the point of result delivery.
London Pregnancy Clinic offers genetics counselling through its partnership with Jeen Health, allowing couples to receive and contextualise carrier test results with expert support.
Genetic counselling before and after testing is recommended by Genomics England as a standard component of any genomic testing pathway.
What Happens If Both Partners Are Carriers
If both partners are identified as carriers for the same autosomal recessive condition, they are typically offered further counselling to discuss their options.
These may include proceeding naturally with an awareness of the risk, using prenatal diagnosis (CVS or amniocentesis) during pregnancy to test the fetus, or pursuing preimplantation genetic testing (PGT) in the context of IVF, which allows unaffected embryos to be selected before transfer.
The purpose of identifying carrier status before pregnancy is to give couples time to consider these options without the added pressure of an ongoing pregnancy.
Knowledge of carrier status does not remove reproductive choices; it expands the information available when making them.
The Role of Pre-Conception Services
Carrier screening sits within a broader category of pre-conception care that includes fertility assessments, general health optimisation and, where relevant, management of existing conditions before pregnancy begins.
London Pregnancy Clinic offers pre-conception services encompassing fertility investigations, genetics counselling and carrier testing as part of an integrated 0th trimester approach, allowing couples to address genetic and clinical risk factors before their pregnancy starts rather than after.
Disclaimer: This article is produced for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
Clinical guidance referenced reflects published NHS, NICE and RCOG standards as at March 2026. Individual circumstances vary; readers are advised to consult a qualified healthcare professional before acting on any information in this article.
This piece was produced in association with London Pregnancy Clinic and Jeen Health, which provided background clinical information for editorial purposes.
Hyperlinks to external sources are included for reference only and do not represent an endorsement of any product, service or organisation.
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