Untitled Kingdom hosted a series of webinars to talk with leading women in healthcare and investment to discuss multiple topics in developing, fundraising, and starting a business in femtech. The team’s experience in developing femtech and working within medical IoT provided insight into the creation of female-led businesses and addressing issues in healthcare. Untitled Kingdom’s past projects include a wearable, breast pump that connects via a BLE integrated mobile app, Elvie.
There were many lessons to take away, including one of my most favorite quotes from the cofounder of SPARK Solution for Growth and women’s health entrepreneur, Rachel Braun Scherl in: “Is it Profitable to Invest in Women’s Health?”:
“Know what your strategy is, inside out, backwards and upwards – it’s all about the story…there’s a sh*t ton of money to be made by taking women seriously.”
According to Cheryl Cheng, a general partner of BlueRun Ventures, there was only $100M invested in FemTech 5 years ago. It is now projected that there will be over $50B invested in 2025. Femtech is a large and diverse industry that includes many technological applications for women’s health including (but nowhere limited to) reproductive health, sexual wellness, and fertility. Within the multiple aspects of female health, one of the attendees had asked if there’s a specific issue that entrepreneurs should focus on.
“It’s a tricky question because I don’t think I should prescribe founders what to do – they have to build what they know and what they’re passionate about…as an early-stage investor, I care about the founder’s story. What has made this problem or service your life’s work?” answered Cheng.
“I am against making solutions for problems that the world doesn’t need. The biodesign strategy is to go out and interview doctors, patients, and centers. (What’s important) for me: what still needs innovating?” said Dr. Brittany Barreto, executive director of Femtech Focus, a non-profit entity that supports femtech startups.
There’s also a fear of taboo for developing within the industry and how venture capitalists approach female entrepreneurs which may explain why it is more difficult for female entrepreneurs to earn fundraising.
Klaudia Raczek, the leading content writer for Untitled Kingdom and author of “The State of FemTech”, mentioned that it’s more common for female entrepreneurs to be afraid to ask for more money, but advised that any venture capitalist, whether male or female, has FOMO (Fear of Missing Out): the concept of investors and/or users not being able to join in on a potentially big opportunity.
“I also think there’s a lot of areas of what we don’t know. Telemedicine was a great idea, and then came Covid – and now it’s part of practice! The field is still very wide open. I agree that it has to be about the story,” said Scherl.
Untitled Kingdom continues to focus on digital health, femtech development, and developing other connected device solutions. To learn more about FemTech and future events, check out Untitled Kingdom’s blog.
