Femtech startups almost double funding {dollars} from final 12 months, however nonetheless make up small p.c of market
Digital well being startups within the U.S. serving ladies and different folks with feminine biology raised $1.3 billion via August 2021, almost doubling 2020’s full-year complete of $774 million, based on a new report by Rock Well being.
Rock Well being is looking this market section 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 comparable 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 document 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 girls’s digital well being. Rock’s report notes that’s a limitation within the house.
“Nonetheless, with lower than 45% of the U.S. feminine inhabitants at reproductive age, and the U.S. beginning charge at its lowest document so far, equivocacy between being pregnant, postpartum and parenthood assist and ladies+ well being can go away the vast majority of ladies+ deprioritized within the present scope of digital well being innovation,” the report’s authors wrote.
However that being pregnant and parenthood focus might be shifting. In 2021 thus far, 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 girls+ well being that’s continuously stigmatized, doubled from 2019 to 2021.
However there are some gaps within the ladies+ house. Although behavioral well being funding is surging general, solely 4% of that funding went to firms providing options for girls+, and power illness take care of this market hasn’t acquired any funding thus far this 12 months.
Different locations for development embrace digital therapeutics for girls+ well being; addressing gaps in options for miscarriages, abortions and surgical procedures reminiscent of hysterectomies and mastectomies; addressing well being wants with a concentrate on intersectionality; ladies+-focused main and power care; and making certain ladies+ teams are equally represented in medical analysis.
WHY IT MATTERS
Girls make the most of healthcare providers extra usually than males, partially due to the necessity for reproductive care, and make the vast majority of healthcare selections for his or her kids, based on a quick 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, at the least partially, to the COVID-19 pandemic, based on an April report by the Kaiser Household Basis. KFF additionally discovered ladies have 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; as an example, solely 36% of girls stated they owned a wearable in 2020 in contrast with 49% of males.
THE LARGER TREND
Some giant 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 main care house.
Final month, diagnostics and drug growth big Labcorp purchased Ovia Well being, a digital household well being platform that features assets for interval monitoring, fertility, youngster 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 complicated, evolving wants of the ladies+ inhabitants,” the Rock Well being report authors wrote.
“The digital well being ecosystem is altering at lightning pace, 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 comprehend the complete potential in designing equitable and complete care choices that serve ladies+.”
