There’s been a lot of talk about “femtech” booming over the past several months. However, a new report by Rock Health shows that even though there’s been a lot of funding in the space so far this year, it still accounts for a tiny fraction of total dollars going into healthcare.
According to the Rock Health report, through the first eight months of 2021, digital health startups targeting women reached $1.3 billion. Although this is already double the $774 million raised in 2020, it was still only 7 percent of the funding that went to all digital health companies in the U.S. during the same time period.
Rock Health notes that this may be partially due to the fact that women are less likely to adopt digital health tools than men. However, it’s important to look at the “why” rather than just the fact: the tools aren’t designed for women, so women don’t get as much use out of them, making women less likely to adopt digital them.
“This helps underscore a message we’ll keep promoting—it’s imperative to build digital health solutions specifically with women+ values, wellness and care priorities, and daily behavior in mind,” write the authors of the Rock Health report. Rock Health uses the term “women+” in its report to define healthcare for cisgender women as well as transgender and nonbinary people who may need to access “women’s” healthcare.
Most of the $1.7 billion directed toward women’s digital health was aimed at later-stage rounds (series C and later), such as Carrot Fertility’s $75 million round, Tia’s $100 million round, and Maven’s $110 million round that raised it to a $1 billion valuation.
In 2021, primary care surpassed pregnancy care as the most funded category in femtech, and fertility support was the third most-funded category.
Rock Health mentions four megadeals—those over $100 million—including the Maven round mentioned earlier and three companies that are not specifically geared toward women’s healthcare but include women in their more general platforms. Those deals are $500 million for Ro (which has a women’s telehealth platform called Rory); LetsGetChecked, which raised $150 million; and TMRW, which raised $105 million.
Read the full story on Vator News.
Read Rock Health’s report.