To attract a growing number of female investors, we need to find avenues to leverage the use of capital. We believe, that one such opportunity is by investing in femtech.
The past few years has seen the continuation of the ever-present gloomy numbers and discussions regarding the miniscule percentage of funding that is allocated to female founders, globally. Spinning around 2% for years, it even stumbled somewhat lower in 2023, where Europe saw a decline to 1,8% of VC funding distributed to female founders. Despite the numbers, we need to keep the discussions going but even more, much more, importantly, we need to continue to act -and also look at the progress that is happening. For example, by volume of deals, according to Pitchbook data, women-only startups are making advances, a much more promising status for long-term gains.
One area of interest that could have the potential to boost these numbers, is the rising awareness of femtech, the category of health tech designed to enhance, and support, women’s health. In a blogpost by Deloitte, the importance of women’s roles as consumers, decisions makers, health care professionals and caregivers highlight the outline of the potential looming in femtech. The post offers an insight to more effective numbers, revealing that women control 80% of healthcare decisions in a household, and have 33% more doctor visits than men. Yet, only 4% of medical research is specific to women! And, as should be known by now, women’s health conditions do not only refer to birth, post-natal, or menopause concerns, there are also a range of other health related issues and conditions that affect women differently or disproportionately compared to men.
Talk and numbers won’t change anything unless action is taken, and as awareness of femtech, and its potential, is gaining momentum, it might just be the passage for more investors to meet more female founders. Why, and how? A femtech company might well be founded, or co-founded, by a man, but the innate understanding of a woman’s body functions -in other words, the problem that the femtech startup is solving- is often a natural extension of a female founder’s own being. And you got to understand what it is you are solving, why, and how. And the sell it to the investors.
The investors will always look at numbers, market potential, scale up potential, growth potential, exit potential. They will evaluate their input, costs, predictions of ROI. And they too, will have their why, as in why they decide to invest. A female investor might understand women’s health in a much different way than a male investor, urging the global tribe of female investors to truly step up and grab this opportunity.
The potential is there for all parties, and the returns are much more significant than only capital, growth or IPOs, with effects beyond those calculable yields. With a global population of 8.1 billion, of whom half are women, isn’t it intriguing enough to allow this sector to see a significant rise in funding? Women who have access to better healthcare would without a doubt contribute to a positive social impact that in turn, would improve and boost both a local and global economy, much to the delight of investors too.
