An Overlooked Opportunity: The past, present and future of FemTech

We feel there is enormous opportunity for growth in this market and in fact, some reports claim it could reach $50bn by 2025.

While we have seen a number of companies addressing menstrual health, reproductive health and pregnancy there is still a noticeable lack of companies in menopause, sexual health and other forms of urogenital health.

Companies with novel uses for menstrual blood samples (a biopsy that 25% of the world’s population give every month) and those looking for new ways to treat dysmenorrhea that affects up to 90% of menstruating women.

Over 60 million women in the US alone are menopausal however menopause (an inevitable part of female ageing) is still viewed by some as ‘niche’.

The first wave was pivotal in starting and encouraging the conversation around women’s health and normalising the use of digital health tools. Startups in this formative era predominantly targeted a younger, digitally-native customer, and so the next natural progression for the market was to start solving for issues experienced by older women.

The spark that ignited the FemTech revolution goes by the name of Ida Tin. Ida, the founder of Clue (a period tracking app), is widely recognised for coining the term “Femtech”, with the goal of taking “female reproductive health out of taboo land” and starting a “reproductive health revolution”.