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As women’s health takes center stage for the first time in��history, Leeds' alumni and students see massive potential in this��subsector's future.

Ten years ago, “menopause” wasn't mentioned in mixed company. There weren’t conversations at the water cooler about infertility. And women didn’t ask doctors about their pelvic health.

At work, you’d have been shocked to find perimenopause support, fertility care or maternity benefits offered by the largest employers in the U.S.

That’s because historically, the healthcare industry has largely overlooked the complex biology of women, leaving them to struggle with the underdiagnosis of medical conditions, untrained doctors, fragmentation of care, and inadequate representation in clinical trials.

But within the last decade, technological advances and evolving societal attitudes toward women’s health have started shifting the paradigm:��The medical community is recognizing women’s health needs; employers are offering more benefits; and investors are��realizing the vast potential in women’s health innovation.

What is FemTech?

A long-awaited wake-up call to healthcare inequities has spawned a sector of technology designed to address health issues suffered solely or largely by women—from menstrual tracking apps and sexual wellness products to cardiovascular medical devices and mental health therapies.

The term “FemTech” was coined in 2016 by the co-founder of one of the first period-tracking apps, Ida Tin. She needed a word that would encapsulate technology-driven solutions in the women’s health space, including products, diagnostics, medical devices, digital therapies, consumer applications and services.

Leeds graduate Kristin Apple (MBA’08) takes issue��with the term “FemTech.” As president of an innovative strategy consultancy called LINUS, she aims to help health organizations grow and explains that the industry is not about technology—it's about women’s health.

“All healthcare today is enabled by technology—that’s a given. It’s not about the technology; it’s about how tech is enabling us to get better results by gaining insights into the diagnosis and treatment of conditions that affect a woman’s physical and emotional well-being,” said Apple.

She points out that the 2023 initiative passed by the Biden administration to increase research on women’s health is part of the movement toward acknowledging the need for healthcare tailored to women.

“This is about the growth and destigmatization of women’s health. It’s about the broader picture of women’s health,” she said.

Opportunities and obstacles

Today, the FemTech market (as it's often referred to in business) has an estimated value of $50 to $60 billion. By 2027, it is estimated to be worth $1 trillion, according to forecasts by the nonprofit organization FemTech Focus.

A 2022 study by McKinsey’s Healthcare Systems & Services Practice revealed what the estimates show: The women’s health sector is growing at an incredible rate. Public awareness, company formation and funding are surging. The opportunities for��multiple stakeholders including investors, researchers, healthcare providers, employers, insurers, and pharmaceutical and medical-device companies are undeniable.

Entrepreneurs are seizing these opportunities in droves. More than 60% of FemTech startups were founded between 2017 and 2022, and in the last decade, there has been a 1,000% increase in the number of new companies, according to FemHealth Insights research.

Eighty percent of those startups were founded by women. However, many have met obstacles in gaining funding—a well-known disparity across the startup world. One study showed that women entrepreneurs are 63% less likely to get VC funding than men (PitchBook, 2022).

Another challenge is that tech investors are still generally men, some of whom may lack knowledge or comfort in understanding women’s biology. And still prevalent are societal taboos about the functions of a woman's body.

The seers and believers

Nonetheless, it’s hard to dispute that the market potential is huge; FemTech is an underserved market that’s ripe for growth and investment. As a demographic, women spend an estimated $500 billion a year on medical expenses (PitchBook, 2023). Modern technologies for this population are not only transformative but lucrative, recognized by an emerging syndicate of women venture capitalists who are making a substantial impact in the space.��

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��“I think people are beginning to see the power of investing in FemTech, and it’s really exciting.”

Gwyneth Brass (Ent, Fin’26)

The next generation of FemTech investors is already gearing up to do the same.

Zoe Cope, a Leeds sophomore studying finance and accounting, has been interested in FemTech since high school when she and her friends discovered the menstrual tracking app, Flo. She explained it was empowering to have knowledge about her own body.

As a Leeds Scholar and member of the Business and Engineering Women in Tech (BEWiT) program, she has a vision for how she'll make her impact in FemTech.��

“I see myself as contributing to the industry through working in��finance ... Women are solving issues for��women that healthcare providers have ignored. That’s why I want to enter private markets: to improve the lives of many through investments,” she said.

Cope has an idea of where to start. “FemTech is being driven by female entrepreneurs—but funding doesn’t come easily for them—we need to see female entrepreneurs dominating this market.”

Birth of the first unicorn

Worth about $1.7 billion today and widely considered the first U.S. unicorn in women-focused healthcare (Fortune, 2022), Maven Clinic is the world’s largest virtual clinic that serves some of the biggest employers including Microsoft and AT&T.

Its founder, CEO Kate Ryder, not only convinced employers to provide better benefits for women, but she helped prove to investors that women’s health had massive potential as a business. To make her point, she argued the lack of medical attention to menopause was not only harmful to women but also a lost opportunity worth $600 billion.

Leeds alumna Angie Golden Henry (Mkt’11) is a senior brand designer at Maven. “I’m energized by the opportunity to build a brand that users can trust and the challenge for our brand to stand out among very established healthcare brands.”

When she first started in 2018, she realized there were few other tech companies focused on women’s health. “When I came across Maven, their entire product and mission felt very unique and important, and I wanted to be a part of it,” she said. “Seeing the product make such an impact on users is incredibly rewarding.”

After recently having her first baby, she has a new appreciation and inspiration for the work she’s doing. “The healthcare system in America can be so hard to navigate, especially when building a family, and companies like Maven make healthcare more accessible and work better for more people,” she said.

Better health means better growth

As women’s health improves, so does the sector’s success. Waves of companies continue to emerge, addressing issues like endometriosis, fertility, hormone health, childbirth complications, osteoporosis, cancer diagnosis and more.

The following companies have rolled out life-changing innovations that dramatically improve outcomes while propelling the industry forward:

• NextGen Jane, a company that uses tampons to tell women about their reproductive health, recently raised $9 million in new funding.
• London-based Elvie, a wearable breast pump and a pelvic exercise trainer and app, raised $42 million in Series B funding.
• Midi Health, a virtual health care provider for perimenopause and menopause, reported that 91% of its patients experienced improvement in their symptoms after just two months of care. The company raised $60 million in a Series B funding round this year, increasing its total funding to $100 million.
• Oula, a modern maternity clinic combining obstetrics and midwifery, boasts a 26% better C-section rate and a 61% lower preterm birth rate than New York City benchmarks. It has raised more than $50 million in funding.
• Progyny, which manages fertility benefits for employers, went public in 2019 at a valuation of over $1 billion; its recent market capitalization was about $4 billion.

“This is about��the growth and��destigmatization of��women’s health.”

Kristin Apple (MBA’08), President, LINUS
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When women succeed, economies flourish

Nurturing innovation within the FemTech space doesn’t just benefit women and investors—it has the potential to help the world. According to the nonprofit Women’s Health Access Matters, a $300 million investment into improving women’s health could generate around $13 billion for the global economy.

It also helps improve global productivity. When women leave the workforce at the peak of their careers due to the side effects of perimenopause and menopause—global productivity losses can add up to more than $150 billion a year (Ultra Violet Futures). But technological and consumer-centric health solutions might eventually reverse this by extending the longevity of women's careers.

“When��women have more freedom over their reproductive cycle, they’re able to extend their education and have careers, allowing them to be more successful. This will eventually and inevitably lead to economic progress in third-world countries,” said Cope, predicting future impacts. For her, the concept is clear: Better health outcomes for women can lead to better outcomes for society and the global economy.

A glimpse into the future

When Gwenyth Brass (Ent, Fin’26), a junior in entrepreneurship and finance, discovered a study that revealed women generally have low expectations of the healthcare system, she wanted to find a way to make women more comfortable—starting with gynecological visits.

“Women aren’t fully empowered and informed; they need to know how the procedures work. And there needs to be more trust between women and doctors,” said Brass. “It involves transparency and getting to know who the doctor is as a person.”

Last summer, she began developing a business concept with fellow students in her New Venture Class and was surprised to learn that “most of the men had no idea about the anxiety of going to the gynecologist.” Like women founders before her, she helped them understand a problem they had no experience with.

“Male investors are getting their heads turned by the impact. I think people are beginning to see the power of investing in FemTech, and it’s really exciting . . . It’s time for a change to improve women’s lives.”