Entrepreneur
Short-term bets, long-term needs: Rethinking investment in women’s health
Short-term bets, long-term needs: Rethinking investment in women’s health
By Morgan Rose, CNM, WHNP-BC, IBCLC | Chief Science Officer, Ema
Most investors treat women’s health as a series of disconnected markets. One fund backs cycle tracking. Another backs a postpartum platform. A third takes a bet on menopause.
While women experience distinct life stages, they progress through them in a continuous and interconnected way. A fertility journey may follow years of hormonal birth control.
Postpartum mental health may trigger a return of PMDD. Perimenopause may intensify autoimmune symptoms that a woman’s been tracking since adolescence. It’s all one story.
The system just isn’t built to integrate it.
This is how women end up using three separate apps with three different symptom logs, none of which communicate with each other. They repeat themselves to the system over and over.
Their data is siloed. Their emotional context is lost. Their trust in digital health wears thin.
And that’s more than a user experience problem; it’s a clinical one. Tech built and funded to support women must be designed with that reality in mind.
At Ema, we built the first agentic AI layer, purpose-built for women’s health, designed to understand her history, hormonal shifts, emotional context, and clinical risk in real-time.
It’s more than conversation. It’s care that connects.
Our AI supports users across fertility, postpartum, and menopause, treating these life stages as interconnected rather than isolated experiences.
But the real value lies in backing AI that connects, adapts, and scales with her across life stages, from puberty to postmenopause.
And we’ve raised over $3M from investors like Emmeline Ventures, Kubera Venture Capital, Hearst Labs, Acumen America, and Techstars to prove there is an investor market for longitudinal and connected care.
Why AI Is Not Just Another Point Solution
The opportunity lies in building AI that carries memory, recognises emotional and hormonal patterns, and supports women through years of shifting health needs, not just to accelerate answers, but to sustain care and improve health outcomes.
Women don’t need 10 tools for 10 life stages. They need one layer of intelligence that knows their history and evolves with them.
That requires AI trained on longitudinal, women-centered data.
It means remembering the postpartum depression that followed a second child, the cycle shifts after an IUD change, and the miscarriage before a new fertility journey.
Naseem Sayani is Director of the Innovator’s Circle at Women’s Health Access Matters, Operating Advisor at How Women Invest, and Advisor at Tower Capital.
She said: “The opportunity at the intersection of women’s health and AI is not just about smarter in-the-moment insights – we’re talking about more advanced everyday care, and an industry wide transformation from anecdote-based care to actual data-based care.
“Small models will become more important than large models, and with higher investment in these innovations, we can enable a Black mom in California avoid preeclampsia; a South Asian teenage girl in New Jersey understand her culture’s predisposition for endometriosis; and a Caucasian woman in Missouri chose birth control that helps her avoid her family’s history of cardiac disease.
“This interconnected healthcare transformation is at our fingertips.”
Investing in AI for women’s health is how we finally build continuity into a system that’s been fractured for too long.
The Silo Problem: Funding Symptoms, Not Systems
AI in healthcare is booming. The market is projected to hit $431 billion by 2032, driven by LLMs, workflow automation, and AI-first platforms.
Meanwhile, investment in women’s health hit a record $2.6 billion in 2024, and up to $10.7 billion when you include conditions that disproportionately affect women, from autoimmune disease to chronic fatigue.
So why is so little capital flowing to the intersection of AI and women’s health?
Because most AI funders still look for large, generalisable models. And most women’s health funders are still thinking in point solutions.
Very few are investing in vertically integrated AI designed to understand complex, longitudinal, and emotionally nuanced care.
The short-term thinking that drives product silos also shapes where capital flows. Investors back tools that solve for isolated needs, in isolated moments, without asking how those tools will connect, carry forward context, or scale with a woman’s life.
And nowhere is that pattern more evident than in the current landscape of AI investment.
A Call to Investors
If you’re funding the next wave of women’s health innovation, ask what it’s built on.
If the product doesn’t carry memory, adapt to complexity, or unify care across her lifespan, then it’s not future-proof. Let others chase features. Let’s build the foundation they’ll all need to run on.
Ema is raising now. Let’s talk if you’re ready to build what lasts.
Five women-led startups will compete for a share of a £30,000 prize fund in Imperial’s WE Innovate final on Monday 15 June 2026.
The finalists are building businesses to tackle challenges in areas including vaccine technology, epilepsy care and the destruction of “forever chemicals”.
The WE Innovate programme, run by Imperial Enterprise Lab, is a targeted pre-accelerator open to teams led by students, recent alumni and early career researchers who identify as women.
The programme supports 25 women-led teams through six months of masterclasses, business coaching, one-to-one expert support and peer mentoring.
The top five teams will compete to win a share of the £30,000 prize fund at the WE Innovate Grand Final Showcase at Imperial on Monday 15 June 2026 from 18:00 to 21:00.
Tickets are free and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
This year’s final also marks the second year of WE Innovate National, a growing UK-wide programme that has expanded the WE Innovate model built at Imperial to other parts of the country.
Alongside Imperial, Queen’s University Belfast, Swansea University and Loughborough University are each hosting their own grand final showcases on their campuses.
The four showcases are collectively contributing to a shared national ecosystem focused on supporting women-led innovation.
WE Innovate National is set to expand to seven universities next year, supporting 175 women-led startup teams across the UK.
AlphaVectors Biotech is developing a lipid nanoparticle platform to enhance the stability of RNA vaccines at room temperatures.
Lipid nanoparticles are tiny fat-based particles used to deliver genetic medicines into the body. RNA vaccines use genetic instructions to help the immune system recognise a disease target.
Current RNA-based therapeutics rely on lipid nanoparticles that need storage at between -20°C and -80°C and high dosing. This increases distribution costs and leads to significant wastage, limiting scalability, deployment and accessibility in lower-resource markets.
AlphaVectors Biotech says its technology can lower the need for temperature-controlled supply chains, reduce costs and improve the scalability of RNA vaccines for wider deployment.
The startup is led by Dr Apanpreet Kaur, an Imperial alumnus with a PhD in chemical engineering.
Epile-X, by NeuraVance Labs, is working on a platform that could provide continuous, real-world brain monitoring for people with epilepsy.
More than 630,000 people in the UK live with epilepsy, according to the charity Epilepsy Action.
Epilepsy is a neurological condition that can cause recurring seizures. EEG, or electroencephalography, is a test that records electrical activity in the brain.
Current diagnosis relies on EEG recordings in clinical settings and patient-reported diaries, which may miss seizures that happen during daily life.
The startup says its technology combines a wearable EEG with AI-driven analysis to capture daily brain activity and support improved diagnosis and more personalised treatment decisions.
Epile-X is led by Ester D’Alterio, an innovation, entrepreneurship and management MSc graduate from Imperial.
FluoroCycle is developing technology for low-energy chemical destruction of PFAS, breaking down “forever chemicals” at 10 times lower temperatures than current incineration methods.
PFAS are synthetic chemicals found in air, water and soil. Some studies have linked exposure to them to health risks including thyroid disease, reproductive illness and cancer.
The startup aims to make PFAS destruction more affordable by providing its technology as an onsite engineered unit, allowing customers to save on energy and transport costs while cutting their carbon footprint.
FluoroCycle is led by Amanda Fogh, a research associate in Imperial’s department of chemistry.
Waypoint is building a video game controller for visually impaired players to hear and feel popular games, including Super Mario and Minecraft.
At least 2.2 billion people globally have some form of vision impairment, according to the World Health Organisation, while estimates show around 43 million people have complete blindness.
Waypoint says only 0.001 per cent of video games are fully playable for blind gamers.
The startup’s technology uses computer vision and AI to read the game screen and translate key information into sound, vibration and touch for a fully immersive experience.
The founders say it is the first game controller designed to make video games fully playable for blind players.
Waypoint is led by Bana Quronfuleh, an innovation design engineering MSc student at Imperial.
Snitch is developing an accountability-based app that allows friends to cut down their screen time together.
UK adults spend an average of 4.5 hours a day online on personal smartphones, tablets and computers, according to Ofcom’s Online Nation 2025 report.
Young adults spend more than six hours online on average. Some research suggests excessive screen use may have a negative impact on mental and physical health.
The app allows users to join accountability groups and set shared limits across their most used apps.
When one person scrolls, the group’s combined timer counts down. The founders say this helps build awareness, encourage reflection and create small behavioural shifts by making screen use a shared responsibility.
Snitch is led by Asha Bakhai, a design engineering MEng graduate from Imperial.
Indian pharmaceutical giant Sun Pharma has agreed to buy Organon for US$11.75bn in a deal aimed at expanding its women’s health and biosimilars business.
Organon, which was spun out of Merck in 2021, has built a portfolio of more than 70 women’s health and general medicines products, including biosimilars, sold in the US and about 140 other countries.
The acquisition would give Sun Pharma a broader presence in biosimilars, which are medicines designed to be highly similar to existing biological drugs, and strengthen its position in women’s health.
Dilip Shanghvi, executive chairman of Sun Pharma, said: “Organon’s portfolio, capabilities, and global reach are highly complementary to our own, and we believe that bringing the two organizations together can create a stronger and more diversified platform.”
The companies said the combined business would generate annual revenue of US$12.4bn, operate across 150 countries and rank among the top three companies globally in women’s health.
They also said it would become the seventh largest biosimilar player.
Sun Pharma said the deal would help grow its innovative medicines business and expand its biosimilars offering.
It added that the combined company would have 18 large markets each generating more than US$100m in revenue.
Organon’s largest markets include the US, Brazil, Canada, China and countries in the European Union. The company also has six manufacturing facilities across the EU and emerging markets.
The deal follows market speculation that began on 10 April, when Indian media reported that Sun Pharma had submitted an all-cash offer for Organon.
A later report said the offer had been revised to US$13bn. Sun Pharma shares rose about 7 per cent on India’s National Stock Exchange after the announcement.
Sun Pharma said it would acquire all of Organon’s issued and outstanding shares in cash, using a combination of available cash and committed bank financing. It also estimated synergies of about US$350m within two to four years of completion.
The company said the acquisition would strengthen its cash generation, with EBITDA and cash flow set to nearly double, supporting efforts to reduce the net debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.3 times resulting from the deal. EBITDA is a measure of operating performance before certain costs are deducted.
Organon reported revenue of US$6.2bn last year and adjusted EBITDA of US$1.9bn. It also reported debt of US$8.64bn, down from US$9.5bn when it separated from Merck, and a cash balance of US$574m.
In November, Organon announced plans to sell its JADA System, designed to control and treat abnormal postpartum uterine bleeding or haemorrhage, to Laborie Medical Technologies for up to US$465m. Net proceeds from the sale will contribute to Organon’s cash balance as of 31 March 2026.
Organon will merge with a subsidiary of Sun Pharma, with Organon surviving the merger. The boards of both companies have approved the transaction.
Carrie Cox, executive chair of Organon, said: “Following a comprehensive review of strategic alternatives, our Board determined that this all-cash transaction offers compelling and immediate value to Organon stockholders.”
The transaction is expected to close in early 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and Organon stockholder approval.
The women’s digital health market is set to reach US$5.28bn in 2026, up from US$4.36bn in 2025, according to a new report.
That would represent annual growth of 20.9 per cent, driven by factors including greater smartphone use among women, wider uptake of telehealth and a stronger focus on preventive care.
The report said the market could reach US$11.47bn by 2030, with projected annual growth of 21.4 per cent over the forecast period.
It also pointed to rising awareness of gender-specific health needs, expansion among digital health start-ups, growing demand for personalised healthcare, investment in femtech innovation and the spread of AI-enabled diagnostics.
Wearables linked to health apps and wider use of remote monitoring tools are also expected to play a larger role, as companies focus on more preventive and joined-up care.
Smartphone use was highlighted as a major driver because mobile apps are increasingly being used for women’s health services, from menstrual cycle tracking to pregnancy support.
The report cited Eurostat data showing that in 2023, 89 per cent of EU residents aged 16 to 74 in urban areas accessed the internet via smartphones.
The report also said companies in the sector are developing new technology aimed at improving access to more personalised healthcare.
One example it gave was a 2024 collaboration between Algorand and the Self-Employed Women’s Association to launch a digital health passport for women in India’s informal economy using blockchain technology.
Recent mergers and acquisitions were also noted. In March 2023, Maven Clinic acquired Naytal to expand its services in the UK and Europe.
North America was identified as the largest market in 2025, while Asia-Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region.
Companies named as key players included Flo Health Inc, Natural Cycles, Elvie, Bellabeat, Clue by Biowink, MobileODT Ltd., Glow, Veera Health, Biowink GmbH, Ava AG, Hims & Hers Health, Inc., The Women’s Wellness Centre, Elara Health, myGynaeDoc, Maven Clinic, Kindbody, Allara Health, Tia and Hera Med Ltd.
Entrepreneur4 weeks agoWomen’s digital health market set to reach US$5.28 billion in 2026 – report
Insight4 weeks agoWhy the UK’s fertility rate keeps falling – and what it means if you’re trying now
Wellness4 weeks agoWomen’s HealthX unveils Northwell Health, Corewell Health, Biogen & more to headline Chronic Disease stage
Opinion3 weeks agoWhat Maternal Mental Health Month reveals about where postpartum support actually breaks down
Fertility4 weeks agoToxins and climate harms having ‘alarming’ effect on fertility, research warns
News3 weeks agoNIH Grant terminations disproportionately impact minority scientists, research finds
Adolescent health3 weeks agoWUKA brings Period-Positive Pool Party to London Aquatics Centre to keep girls swimming through puberty
Hormonal health4 weeks agoResearcher explores weight loss jab impact on PCOS