In 2016, a new word was coined to refer to healthcare and tech-enabled services for women, FemTech. At the helm of these health startups are women who are hitting two birds with one stone: busting taboos around women’s health, and addressing the needs of women around the world that until now, hadn’t been served by the right services. Meet five health startups founded by women we love—addressing needs from periods, pregnancy, breastfeeding, post-partum to menopause.
Lola
Leadership: Jordana Kier and Alex Friedman
Latest Deal: $24M (2018)
New York, New York
Dartmouth graduates Jordana Kier and Alex Friedman’s lightbulb moment came when they realized they apps to buy everything—from takeout to groceries, medicines, and other essentials. But when it came to feminine products, it was something women had to do themselves. It was taboo, and it puzzled them. Why? From this curiosity, Lola, a direct-to-consumer tampon brand came to be. In their website, they describe their tampons to be “100% cotton, hypoallergenic without synthetics, chemicals or dyes.” The past years, Lola has transformed itself from a tampon product to a full subscription service for period care, vaginal health and sexual wellness products, offering more than tampons—menstrual cups, period underwear, heating pads, essential oils and many more, making feminine care customizable and accessible.
Website: https://mylola.com/
Maven Clinic
Leadership: Katherine Ryder
Latest Deal: $92M, Series E (2022)
New York, New York
As a mom, Katherine Ryder had a hard time getting an integrated healthcare for herself as she underwent post-partum, as well taking care of a newborn as a first-time parent. She had needs, her baby had needs. It was a delicate time and she needed help. This pain point, as well as her friends’ experiences, drove her to start Maven.
“My female friends who were having families were not getting the support they needed, and were completely underserved healthcare consumers,” Katherine said in an interview, “there just were no companies serving the core needs of women.”
Enter Maven Clinic, an on-demand virtual clinic for women’s and family health, offering continuous holistic care for fertility, and family-building through maternity, parenting, pediatrics, and menopause. Through Maven, women get to access healthcare with a press of a few buttons, from their smartphone. Besides raising $92M from venture capitalists, as a display of Maven’s success, Hollywood superstars Natalie Portman and Reese Witherspoon are investors.
Website: https://www.mavenclinic.com/
Natural Cycles
Leadership: Dr. Elina Berglund
Latest Deal: $7M (Samsung Ventures, 2023)
Stockholm, Sweden
Natural Cycles is a fertility-tracking app powered by an algorithm informed by a woman’s body’s temperature. It can be used as a natural birth control method for people who are concerned about the side effects of oral contraceptives, and as a means to track fertility when planning a pregnancy. Behind this app is husband and wife team, physicists Dr. Elina Berglund and Dr. Raoul Scherwitzl. Before venturing to start her own company, Dr. Berglund was a practicing physicist and Nobel Prize winner for discovering the Higgs Boson particle. Suffice to say, this app has major creds. Today, Natural Cycles has 100,000 users across around 161 countries.
Website: https://www.naturalcycles.com/
Thinx
Leadership: Radha Agrawal, Miki Agrawal, Antonia Dunbar, co-founders
Latest Deal: $181M (2022)
New York, New York
Perhaps the most controversial one in this list, Thinx is a period panty brand, whose co-founder and former CEO, Miki Magrawal was sued for harassment by one of her employees in 2017. This was settled amicably, and Magrawal had stepped down as CEO, or SHE-E-O. Amid these controversies, Thinx is actually an interesting brand. Women can be free from using tampons, and feminine pads by wearing Thinx period underwear, made from materials that resist leaks and stains, and provides moisture and anti-bacterial protection. Proof of Thinx success? In early 2022, it was acquired by Kimberly-Clark for $181 million.
Website: https://www.thinx.com/
Elvie
Leadership: Tania Boler, PhD
Latest Deal: $44M (2022)
New York, New York
Like many FemTech founders, Tania Boler was inspired to create a product to address a pain point she personally experienced. When she first breastfed her baby, she couldn’t find a portable breast pump with features she was looking for, such as being hands-free, wireless and portable. At the same time, she became passionate about pelvic floor health, and wondered why she needed to see a doctor, instead of doing it at home, or using technology.
“The more I researched breast pumps and pelvic floor trainers, the more I found that most of what was on the market for women was simply ineffective,” she says in an interview.
Frustration as a new mom, and the passion to find innovative solutions for women, drove Boler to start Elvie, now known as a creator of FemTech products, such as a smart breast pump, a virtual pelvic trainer.
Before becoming a founder and CEO, Boler was accomplished already. She held leadership positions in the United Nations and worked with various charity organizations across Africa and Asia, specializing in sexual health and AIDS prevention. She even authored a book on sexual health (“The Politics of Prevention: A Global Crisis in AIDS and Education.)
Website: https://www.elvie.com/en-us
Did you like our list of game-changing health startups or FemTech? Tell us in the comments section which female-founded startup we should feature next.
References:
https://techcrunch.com/2016/07/04/natural-cycles-gets-6m-to-convince-more-women-to-ditch-the-pill/
https://www.verywellfamily.com/tania-bohler-founder-of-elvie-interview-5197962
https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/9280-womens-health-disruptors.html
https://www.verywellfamily.com/tania-bohler-founder-of-elvie-interview-5197962
https://www.inc.com/amrita-khalid/womens-health-tech-startups-funding.html
https://pitchbook.com/blog/female-focused-health-startups-founded-by-women
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