To celebrate International Women’s Day, Olivia Friett, editor of FemTech on Med-Tech Insights, listens back to The FemTech Series podcast and shares some of her favourite, and most inspiring, moments from the conversations she’s had with women across the sector.
Read quotes from Stiliyana Minkovska, founder and CEO of Matrix Health and Care, Tess Cosad, CEO and co-founder at Béa Fertility, Dr. Chung Looi, CEO of Ablatus Therapeutics, Jane Kennedy, chief business officer at Discovery Park and Sarah Nurgat, ThoughtSpark.
Stiliyana, why do you think there’s a sudden surge in women’s health?
I think the world is waking up and just seeing more and more how women are. As women we are 49% – almost like half of the world’s population and I think women work much harder in the background to bring for the future economic of the world. I think the world is waking up to that. Women’s health is public health is human health, and it’s also a human right.
Jane, do you find that the amount of FemTech startup companies is increasing?
Are we seeing a rise in more women’s health and FemTech companies? Part of the challenge for this is that if you look across the board, there are fewer female founded companies than there are male founded companies, and there are a number of reasons for this, but particularly in the innovation space, part of the reason for that is that so little venture capital money goes to female founded businesses.
So right across the piece, if you look at all of the kind of new innovation space, only 2% of venture capital money goes to female founders. Now that’s a hideous statistic, but actually what’s even worse is when you drill down into that and look at companies that are developing women’s health solutions.
For the last five years, more male founded, women’s health companies have received funding than female founded women’s health companies. So not only are we in a position where women are less likely to start businesses, when they’re starting businesses to address healthcare needs of their, their own gender, their own sex, they’re still less likely to receive funding.
Tess, would you say there’s a stigma against women’s health?
Certainly when I first started the company, I was raising money from a lot of male investors, and we’ve built a medical device that’s inserted into a vaginal canal.
One of my early rules was, if you can’t pronounce the word ‘vagina’ without stumbling over it, you’re not allowed to invest in this business because honestly enough is enough. I’ve owned that, it’s become less and less awkward.
I am extremely comfortable strolling into a room and talking about vaginas and one of the things I’ve learned is if you are building something that has stigma or has awkwardness, you get to set the tone for that awkwardness in the room. You get to set the bar for what is and isn’t awkward, and everyone will fall into line behind you because you are the expert in your device, in your market.
I’d really encourage other women to build that strong network. Ideally one day we won’t need that extra boost as much as we do now. But for the moment, I do think we tend to underplay ourselves as women. If you have that great network of colleagues and friends, they’ll, they’ll tell you when you’re doing that.
What do you think the industry needs to move forward with FemTech?
FemTech companies are working on credible solutions that address half the world’s population and honestly, we need the capital to go and do it. I mostly really look forward to a day when we don’t really have to call it FemTech. We don’t call it MenTech – we just call it tech.
Yes, we need a label because it shines a spotlight on the barriers that are facing FemTech companies and founders of FemTech companies. I really look forward to a day when we’ve sort of been given what we need in terms of capital and support and are able to sort of cross to a time when we’re just tech.
Sarah, what would you say is the importance of supporting other women in the industry?
I work with a lot of really talented, really supportive women, both within my company and among our client company, so I’m very privileged in that. They recognised my work and put me forward for opportunities and rewards and so on.
I think my confidence has really grown because of that support. So, I’d really encourage other women to build that strong network. Ideally one day we won’t need that extra boost as much as we do now. But for the moment, I do think we tend to underplay ourselves as women. If you have that great network of colleagues and friends, they’ll tell you when you’re doing that.
Louis, what changes would you like to see for the future of FemTech?
I would really like to see more representation of women and diversity really in terms of their backgrounds, their perspectives the industry.
I do think that women representing the interest of women makes sense it’s natural, right? It is also so that we could play a role in actually making the future more inclusive and equitable.
I would also like to see more funding and support really to build the next generation of leaders and innovations so that we could really address this gender gap that we see in healthcare.
And above all, really have a better quality of lives for billions of women. And let’s make it happen together.
