Wednesday, February 17, 2021

Healthtech 2.0 – The Future of Femtech

 


I recently attended the Health Tech 2.0 conference hosted by Women of Wearables Global. At this event I listened to a very interesting panel discussion on “The role of technology in creating better sexual health”.

Moderated by Dominnique Karetsos, co-founder and CEO of The Healthy Pleasure Group, the panel discussed a wide variety of thought-provoking questions and viewpoints.

On the panel was Soumyadip Rakshit, co-founder and CEO of MysteryVibe, Patricia López Trabajo, founder and CEO of MYHIXEL, Sara Kranjčec Jukić, Global Brand Manager at LELO and Andrea Oliver, co-founder and CEO of Emjoy.

 


 

Sara spoke about the changing societal views on this industry, a focus on women’s health and women’s sexual health has often been viewed as a very “niche” market.

Now, in the wake of a new era, we are seeing an innovative wave of technology made by women, for women. Femtech is set to be the next big disruptor in the global healthcare market, estimated to become an industry worth US$50 billion by 2025. Interestingly, it is female entrepreneurs who are at the forefront of this revolution.

 

It has been incredible to see the femtech market boom, not only because of the enormous benefits this has on women’s health and their quality of life, but it has encouraged more women to enter the venture capital industry. As an international investor in femtech and principal of my own venture capital fund, it is vital that we continue to support this developing market that concerns more than 50% of the world population. 

 

Within NJF Capital’s portfolio, I have invested in the femtech sector with Elvie and Cadence. We know that more needs to be done for female entrepreneurship. We have to work to improve the fact that only 1% of venture capital funding to new businesses is to female-led UK start-ups. Which is why I am a proud investor in Elvie, a London-based company founded by female entrepreneur  Tania Boler. Frustrated to find that women’s health has been given inadequate attention in both the research and technological fields, Boler set out to make remedying this her priority and to “get women talking about health issues more”. She has achieved this goal through two of Elvie’s key products: the Pump and Trainer. The former is for breastfeeding, the latter is for the pelvic floor.

 


Femtech can play a vital role in helping to change this and I look forward to seeing how the industry develops.