Femtech startups almost double funding {dollars} from final yr, 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 might entry related care.

Though 2021’s $1.3 billion is essentially the most funding {dollars} recorded within the ladies+ area, it nonetheless solely makes up 5% of digital well being funding general since Rock Well being started monitoring in 2011. Thus far, ladies+ funding accounts for 7% of this yr’s digital well being offers, beneath the file of 11% in 2019.

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

“Nevertheless, with lower than 45% of the U.S. feminine inhabitants at reproductive age, and the U.S. start price at its lowest file up to now, equivocacy between being pregnant, postpartum and parenthood assist and ladies+ well being can go away 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 could possibly be shifting. In 2021 to this point, 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 incessantly stigmatized, doubled from 2019 to 2021.

However there are some gaps within the ladies+ area. Despite the fact that behavioral well being funding is surging general, solely 4% of that funding went to corporations providing options for girls+, and power illness look after this market hasn’t obtained any funding to this point this yr.

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

WHY IT MATTERS

Girls make the most of healthcare providers extra typically than males, partially due to the necessity for reproductive care, and make nearly all of healthcare choices 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 up to now yr, with greater than half saying it was due, at the least partially, to the COVID-19 pandemic, in keeping with an April report by the Kaiser Household Basis. KFF additionally discovered ladies had been extra prone to delay care throughout 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 stated they owned a wearable in 2020 in contrast with 49% of males.

THE LARGER TREND

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

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

“At Rock Well being, we’re hopeful that girls+ digital well being will more and more get the talkspace, consideration and funding from traders it deserves to proceed to serve the complicated, 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 traders have but to appreciate the total potential in designing equitable and complete care choices that serve ladies+.”

You may also like...