Bridging the Gap: How FemTech is Reshaping Women’s Health
A few days ago, Fast Forward 2030, in collaboration with GlobalWIIN, hosted a dynamic discussion on the role of FemTech in making healthcare more equal. The event brought together pioneering founders, investors, and thought leaders to examine the barriers and opportunities within the industry. Our panellists: Veronika Bridgman (Unravel Health), Melis Eda Ekinci (Woost), and Lauren Tappin (FemTech Search)—shared first-hand experiences tackling funding gaps, regulatory challenges, and the development of innovative solutions that empower women’s health.
Image 1: Veronika Bridgman founder of Unravel Health, Dr Bola Olabisi founder of GlobalWIIN, Melis Eda Ekinci founder Woost, Solveiga Pakštaitė (chair) founder of Mimica & FF2030 Board Member, and Lauren Tappin founder of FemTech Search
A System Stacked Against Women’s Health
The future of FemTech depends on sustained collaboration between startups, investors, policymakers, and the medical community. This theme resonated throughout the discussion, highlighting the urgent need for structural change.
The drive to innovate in FemTech often stems from personal frustration with the lack of advancements in women’s health. Despite rapid progress in other fields, healthcare solutions for menstrual care, fertility, pregnancy, and menopause remain outdated, with treatment options barely evolving beyond the standard daily pill.
Historically, medical research and pharmaceutical innovation have overlooked women. Clinical trials have been designed around men, treating them as the default patient, while women’s unique hormonal cycles and biological variations have been ignored. This oversight has led to significant gaps in research, data collection, and healthcare infrastructure, creating major obstacles for FemTech entrepreneurs.
Funding Gaps: Why Investors Hesitate to Back FemTech
As evidenced in Image 2, one of the biggest hurdles in FemTech is securing investment. As speakers at the event mentioned, many startups struggle to collaborate with major healthcare entities, such as the NHS, due to bureaucratic red tape and funding limitations. Large tech corporations with access to health data have also been criticized for restricting access to women’s health information, further limiting innovation.
Policies like the Women’s Health Strategy have introduced funding opportunities, but these efforts have been inconsistent—with funding sometimes retracted just as quickly as it is introduced. Investors often shy away from research-heavy initiatives, perceiving them as high-risk due to their long development timelines and regulatory hurdles.
The Research Gap: Why FemTech Struggles to Scale
The inconsistency, or complete lack of public and private funding has made it difficult to conduct medical research on women’s health. Historically, there has been limited understanding of how female bodies function across different life stages. This lack of data has kept women’s health stagnant, while other areas of healthcare have rapidly advanced.
The pharmaceutical industry lacks a clear innovation pipeline for women’s health, with gender-specific variables often ignored. Since many FemTech solutions require extensive research and clinical trials, founders must find alternative ways to gather data without traditional funding support.
Hormones, which impact half the world’s population, are still measured primarily through occasional blood tests, leaving vast gaps in data and understanding. As Veronika Bridgman highlighted during the discussion, this lack of comprehensive hormonal data leads to delayed diagnoses, causing years of unnecessary suffering for women. The consequences extend beyond individual health, placing a significant economic burden on healthcare systems due to lost productivity and the inefficiencies of trial-and-error treatment pathways. Without robust research and continuous data collection, the cycle of misdiagnosis and inadequate treatment will persist, underscoring the urgent need for innovation in FemTech to bridge these critical gaps.
Image 3: Management relies on limited data - Shared by Veronika Bridgman during FF2030 event, March 12, 2025
The Role of Data Collection in Driving Innovation
Despite these barriers, FemTech entrepreneurs continue to push forward, maintaining a beginner’s mindset—constantly questioning why things are the way they are and searching for new solutions.
Data collection plays a critical role in this effort. Understanding hormonal and physiological variations across diverse populations is essential to developing effective healthcare solutions. One innovative approach has been 'guerrilla testing,' where women voluntarily contribute their health data, driven by a shared commitment to closing long-standing gaps in medical research.
One initiative addressing the critical research gap in women’s health is the Woost Wonder Study, led by Melis Eda Ekinci. This groundbreaking project aims to improve understanding of menstrual blood biomarkers by recruiting women aged 18-39, both with and without PCOS, to donate their menstrual blood. By gathering and analyzing this data, the study seeks to unlock new insights into reproductive health and diagnostic pathways. Based in London, the Woost team welcomes participants who are local or willing to travel, offering an opportunity to contribute to a vital area of women’s health research.
Another clear example is the work of Veronika, who is tackling the lack of real-time hormone tracking. Hormones are still measured through occasional blood tests, leading to delayed diagnoses and ineffective treatments. Unravel is developing innovative technology to bridge this data gap and provide women with continuous, accurate insights into their hormonal health. Unravel is building a movement through JOIN BIOBABES, a community empowering women to take charge of their health. By joining, members become part of a collective effort to push for better, more inclusive healthcare solutions.
Conclusion: The Future of FemTech
As Lauren highlighted, for meaningful progress in FemTech to take place, the industry needs the right people with the right mindset; those who are unafraid to ask difficult questions and explore new possibilities. This is precisely the work that FemTech Search is actively championing, helping to build high-performing teams capable of tackling the sector’s biggest challenges. A key takeaway from the discussion was that investment in FemTech goes beyond funding startups; it has broader economic implications, including job creation and new career opportunities. Investors and funders seek mission-driven teams with strong expertise and a clear vision. While early-stage startups may have limited resources for hiring, they prioritize individuals deeply committed to the mission and willing to go the extra mile. As companies grow, the focus shifts towards commercial and go-to-market talent, key drivers for scaling operations and reaching a wider audience.
One of the most striking takeaways from the discussion was the strength of the FemTech community. Many entrepreneurs are motivated by deeply personal experiences. Stories of women who have struggled with inadequate healthcare solutions for decades. This sense of shared purpose and resilience is what continues to push the industry forward, despite the regulatory and funding barriers.
By tackling these challenges and harnessing the current momentum, FemTech has the potential to revolutionize healthcare for women worldwide, ensuring that future innovations are not only impactful but also scalable and sustainable.
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Written by: Sundas Gull & Yingfang Ma
Supported by: Ignacio Gutierrez