Femtech has grown during the last decade, however investments in female-focused companies pale compared to the bigger digital well being sector.
Ida Tin, cofounder and chairwoman at Clue, a Berlin-based menstrual well being app, coined the term femtech in 2016 and joined MobiHealthNews to debate funding and development within the sector.
MobiHealthNews: How do you assume the collapse of Silicon Valley Financial institution will have an effect on femtech?
Ida Tin: I believe there’s something type of basic to be stated about innovation, and particularly firms which can be possibly greater danger which have discovered investments, and possibly actually hard-earned funding cash. And I’d say I believe it is somewhat bit like in struggle zones and catastrophe areas, like ladies are all the time hit first and hardest. And I sort of concern that it might be related right here as a result of it is laborious to boost cash for femtech. I believe it is truthful to say. And the sort of extra specialised funds which have emerged during the last years, they’re like peanuts-sized funds, sadly.
And I believe, simply typically, when everyone will get extra nervous, we are likely to do extra of the recognized, and something that’s within the areas of one thing that might culturally be more difficult or really feel extra new or unknown, then issues simply get tighter. However I’ll say, there’s additionally a powerful sort of counter-current taking place proper now, the place femtech and feminine well being, and well being typically, actually does have quite a lot of curiosity and help. And I believe that will likely be just like the strongest present. There is no manner that girls are going to cease wanting to construct merchandise that remedy actual issues for them and for one another. So I am not afraid that femtech will type of undergo an enormous blow.
MHN: What is going on on with Clue, and the way is it progressing?
Tin: We simply really rebuilt our entire codebase and relaunched the app. This was as a result of we’ve quite a lot of legacy code, and we needed to have the ability to construct issues a lot quicker. And that was not one thing that I believe customers will discover all that a lot. The app seems somewhat bit completely different, however from type of behind the scenes, that was an enormous success.
We’ve a pregnancy feature now, we’ve a help you get pregnant feature, and after you’ve given birth. So serving to undergo the life phases extra seamlessly. We’ve additionally been hit by the monetary “meh.” We had a giant type of enterprise deal, enterprise debt financing that fell by means of due to macroeconomic issues. So we had to let people go, which is so unhappy as a result of we had constructed a tremendous workforce the final 12 months. In order that was simply unhealthy luck. Clue is doing nice, however exterior components hit us like everybody else.
MHN: How do you see femtech progressing sooner or later to profit ladies’s well being?
Tin: There’s nonetheless a discovery problem. I believe, really, there are numerous new merchandise that most individuals will most likely not have heard about. And I believe that is an indication of a really younger class nonetheless.
There’s additionally quite a lot of fragmentation on a knowledge degree. We do not nonetheless have a spot or a technique to actually leverage all the data that we are creating. And I believe that is one thing that I hope will come quickly, in order that it is extra handy for customers to essentially get extra full footage of their well being and higher navigate this tradition.
I believe there’s nonetheless room for type of deeper tech, extra superior algorithms or house diagnostics, […] higher varieties of contraception, or issues that sort of take extra innovation, more cash to get to market. They’re on the way in which, however there’s nonetheless some type of a leap that we are able to do technologically, I believe.
Emily Kwan will provide extra element at her HIMSS23 session “Implementing an AI NLP Device to Handle SDOH Wants.” It’s scheduled for Tuesday, April 18, at 1:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. CT on the South Constructing, Stage 1, S105 C.
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