Femtech startups almost double funding {dollars} from final 12 months, however nonetheless make up small % of market

Digital well being startups within the U.S. serving ladies and different folks with feminine biology raised $1.3 billion by way of August 2021, almost doubling 2020’s full-year complete of $774 million, in keeping with a new report by Rock Well being. 

Rock Well being is asking this market phase ladies+ well being, describing instruments that relate to cisgender ladies’s well being wants in addition to the wants of transgender and nonbinary individuals who could entry related care.

Though 2021’s $1.3 billion is probably the most funding {dollars} recorded within the ladies+ house, it nonetheless solely makes up 5% of digital well being funding general since Rock Well being started monitoring in 2011. Up to now, ladies+ funding accounts for 7% of this 12 months’s digital well being offers, beneath the report of 11% in 2019.

The being pregnant, postpartum and parenthood sector nonetheless dominates new firms based prior to now 5 years, traditionally a big space of focus for ladies’s digital well being. Rock’s report notes that’s a limitation within the house. 

“Nevertheless, with lower than 45% of the U.S. feminine inhabitants at reproductive age, and the U.S. beginning fee at its lowest report thus far, equivocacy between being pregnant, postpartum and parenthood assist and girls+ well being can depart nearly all of ladies+ deprioritized within the present scope of digital well being innovation,” the report’s authors wrote.

However that being pregnant and parenthood focus may very well be shifting. In 2021 to date, the highest funded sector was preventative and first care, bringing in $668 million. Fertility assist introduced in $330 million, and the being pregnant, postpartum and parenthood space scooped up $316 million.

Funding within the perimenopause and menopause sector, an space of ladies+ well being that’s steadily stigmatized, doubled from 2019 to 2021.

However there are some gaps within the ladies+ house. Despite the fact that behavioral well being funding is surging general, solely 4% of that funding went to firms providing options for ladies+, and persistent illness take care of this market hasn’t obtained any funding to date this 12 months.

Different locations for progress embrace digital therapeutics for ladies+ well being; addressing gaps in options for miscarriages, abortions and surgical procedures akin to hysterectomies and mastectomies; addressing well being wants with a give attention to intersectionality; ladies+-focused major and persistent care; and guaranteeing ladies+ teams are equally represented in scientific analysis.

WHY IT MATTERS

Ladies make the most of healthcare companies extra usually than males, partially due to the necessity for reproductive care, and make nearly all of healthcare selections for his or her youngsters, in keeping with a short by the Division of Labor.

However almost one in 4 ladies reported having hassle paying medical payments prior to now 12 months, with greater than half saying it was due, a minimum of partially, to the COVID-19 pandemic, in keeping with an April report by the Kaiser Household Basis. KFF additionally discovered ladies had been extra more likely to delay care in the course of the pandemic in contrast with males. 

Rock Well being famous ladies are additionally utilizing digital well being instruments like video telehealth, wearables and well being trackers at decrease charges than males; for example, solely 36% of ladies mentioned they owned a wearable in 2020 in contrast with 49% of males.

THE LARGER TREND

Some massive digital well being offers within the ladies+ house in 2021 embrace Tia, which raised $100 million earlier this month, and Maven Clinic, which scooped up $110 million in August, bringing its complete elevate to greater than $200 million. Each function within the ladies’s major care house.

Final month, diagnostics and drug growth big Labcorp purchased Ovia Well being, a digital household well being platform that features sources for interval monitoring, fertility, little one growth and parenting.

“At Rock Well being, we’re hopeful that ladies+ digital well being will more and more get the talkspace, consideration and funding from buyers it deserves to proceed to serve the advanced, evolving wants of the ladies+ inhabitants,” the Rock Well being report authors wrote.

“The digital well being ecosystem is altering at lightning velocity, and whereas funding for almost all areas inside digital well being has elevated for the reason that begin of the pandemic, digital well being founders and buyers have but to appreciate the complete potential in designing equitable and complete care choices that serve ladies+.”

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