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 corporations which can be possibly increased danger which have discovered investments, and possibly actually hard-earned funding cash. And I might say I believe it is just a little bit like in struggle zones and catastrophe areas, like girls are all the time hit first and hardest. And I type of concern that it may very well be comparable right here as a result of it is exhausting to boost cash for femtech. I believe it is honest to say. And the type of extra specialised funds which have emerged during the last years, they’re like peanuts-sized funds, sadly.
And I believe, simply typically, when all people will get extra nervous, we are likely to do extra of the identified, and something that’s within the areas of one thing that would culturally be tougher or really feel extra new or unknown, then issues simply get tighter. However I’ll say, there’s additionally a powerful type of counter-current occurring proper now, the place femtech and feminine well being, and well being typically, actually does have plenty of curiosity and assist. And I believe that will likely be just like the strongest present. There is no means that ladies are going to cease wanting to construct merchandise that resolve 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 have now plenty 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 to be just a little bit completely different, however from type of behind the scenes, that was an enormous success.
We have now a pregnancy feature now, we have now a help you get pregnant feature, and after you’ve given birth. So serving to undergo the life phases extra seamlessly. We have now additionally been hit by the monetary “meh.” We had an enormous type of enterprise deal, enterprise debt financing that fell by due to macroeconomic issues. So we had to let people go, which is so unhappy as a result of we had constructed a tremendous group the final 12 months. In order that was simply dangerous luck. Clue is doing nice, however exterior elements hit us like everybody else.
MHN: How do you see femtech progressing sooner or later to learn girls’s well being?
Tin: There’s nonetheless a discovery problem. I believe, really, there are numerous new merchandise that most individuals will in all probability not have heard about. And I believe that is an indication of a really younger class nonetheless.
There’s additionally plenty of fragmentation on a knowledge stage. We do not nonetheless have a spot or a method 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 photos of their well being and higher navigate this tradition.
I believe there’s nonetheless room for type of deeper tech, extra superior algorithms or dwelling diagnostics, […] higher forms of contraception, or issues that type of take extra innovation, more cash to get to market. They’re on the best way, however there’s nonetheless some type of a leap that we will 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.
