What is Femtech, and which products does it encompass?
The term 'femtech' emerged in 2016 when it was coined by Danish entrepreneur Ida Tin, founder of the period-tracking app Clue. It was used to describe a category of products focused on women’s biological needs. The choice of this particular term also served a practical purpose: to give the sector a distinct name to facilitate communication with investors and enable them to compare companies more easily, much like the categories of fintech and edtech that had emerged previously.
Broadly speaking, femtech encompasses devices, mobile apps, diagnostic services, laboratory tests, and medical services that address specific issues relating to the female body, from contraception to menopause.
However, the line between femtech and the broader category of digital health is blurred, causing confusion among investors. Traditional digital health encompasses digital solutions in medicine, regardless of the user’s gender, such as telemedicine platforms for consultations with GPs, diabetes management apps, and mental health services.
Femtech becomes a distinct category when a product addresses a problem with clear biological or social specificity linked to the female body or a woman’s life cycle. An app for booking a doctor's appointment is a digital health tool. However, the same app becomes femtech if it specialises in booking gynaecology appointments and integrates menstrual cycle data to personalise reminders.
The main areas within this category include:
Menstrual health: cycle trackers; smart tampons and sanitary pads with sensors; next-generation menstrual cups; and apps for predicting symptoms of premenstrual syndrome.
Fertility and assisted reproductive technologies: platforms for pregnancy planning; home ovulation and hormone profile tests; and services that support patients throughout in vitro fertilisation cycles, including AI-based embryo quality analytics.
Pregnancy and antenatal care: apps for monitoring foetal well-being; non-invasive antenatal tests; and telemedicine platforms for antenatal care in regions with limited access to obstetricians and gynaecologists.
Motherhood and breastfeeding: smart breast pumps, breastfeeding counselling services and platforms for tracking an infant’s development in their first months of life.
Menopause is a new but rapidly growing segment. This includes hormone replacement therapy with telemedicine support, wearable devices for managing hot flushes and educational and support platforms for women in perimenopause.
Sexual health: cycle-based contraception apps; contraceptive delivery services; and platforms offering advice on libido and sexual dysfunction.
Gynaecological conditions: solutions for diagnosing and managing endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, and uterine fibroids. This includes digital platforms for tracking symptoms and biotech companies developing new therapeutic protocols.
We should also highlight conditions that are common but have gender-specific characteristics. This is a distinct and under-researched area that encompasses cardiovascular diseases, autoimmune disorders and migraines. These conditions manifest differently in women than in men, yet are diagnosed using protocols that are predominantly based on clinical data from men.
Why is this sector considered undervalued?
Although Femtech serves more than half the world’s population, it receives funding that does not reflect the size of its audience or the economic significance of the issues it addresses. The historical reason for this imbalance is the long-standing underrepresentation of women among venture capital fund partners. When funding decisions are predominantly made by a male-dominated team, product categories related to menstruation, breastfeeding or menopause are often perceived as niche or awkward to discuss, despite addressing the everyday problems of millions of people.
This issue is further exacerbated by the fact that femtech products have long been viewed as a luxury or a matter of personal comfort rather than as tools for addressing real medical problems that affect the productivity, income, and quality of life of millions of people. This frame of reference has systematically led to the potential market being underestimated during the pitching stage before investment committees.
The second factor is the historical underfunding of women’s health research in medicine as a whole. Until the 1990s, women, particularly those of reproductive age, were often underrepresented in clinical trials. Even following changes to regulatory requirements, gaps in the analysis of sex and gender differences persist across many sectors. This has created a vast array of unresolved medical challenges, ranging from inaccurate heart attack diagnoses in women to the lack of effective non-pharmacological solutions for menopausal symptoms. Each such gap represents a potential opportunity for startups.
The third argument is purely financial. According to US estimates, women are involved in about 80% of decisions about their family members' medical care. This means that a product which wins the trust of female consumers gains influence over family spending, rather than just individual bills. Companies that understand this do not just develop narrow medical tools; they create platforms of trust that can expand into related categories, such as children’s health and caring for elderly parents.
Finally, this undervaluation is confirmed by a comparison of financial multiples. When going public or being acquired by strategic buyers, femtech companies are often valued at a discount relative to peers in related healthcare categories, despite comparable revenue growth rates. For investors capable of identifying high-calibre teams at an early stage, this discount presents a direct opportunity to achieve higher returns for the same level of risk.
Investment volume, market and popular sectors
According to estimates from industry analysis agencies, the global femtech market is approaching $50 billion in annual revenue and is set to double over the next five to seven years.
Between 2020 and 2024, femtech companies raised approximately $5.4 billion in venture capital across more than 1,000 deals, according to PitchBook. In 2024, funding totalled around $1.2 billion — a 20% increase on 2023 — though the number of deals remained below the 2021 peak of 284. It suggests that the recovery in investment has not yet been uniform; a significant proportion of the capital went to a few larger companies whilst the total number of deals continued to decline.
Broader estimates of the women’s health sector suggest higher figures. According to Silicon Valley Bank, women’s health companies in the US and Europe raised around $2 billion in venture capital in 2025. However, this figure cannot be directly compared with PitchBook’s estimate, as SVB uses a broader definition of women’s health that extends beyond traditional femtech. Nevertheless, both studies demonstrate a common trend: the sector is already raising billions of dollars every year, but funding remains volatile and dependent on a small number of large funding rounds.
The largest deals in recent years have been concentrated in three areas. Firstly, fertility and IVF support platforms attract the largest investment of all femtech segments due to their direct link to patients' and employers' willingness to pay for successful treatment outcomes.
Secondly, companies developing non-invasive methods for diagnosing gynaecological conditions, particularly endometriosis, have attracted significant investment. The diagnosis of endometriosis is often delayed for years due to the non-specific nature of the symptoms and the lack of a simple, universal test.
Thirdly, there are corporate healthcare benefits platforms selling packages of services to employers to support fertility, pregnancy, and the return to work after maternity leave as a staff retention tool.
Geographically, the United States is in the lead. The regulatory environment there allows digital diagnostic tools to reach the market more quickly, while corporate demand for employee benefits drives the B2B sales model. Despite stricter requirements for medical devices, Europe is developing a strong cluster of companies in menstrual and reproductive health, partly thanks to government programmes supporting medical innovation in the UK, Germany, and the Nordic countries.
In India and Southeast Asian countries, the growing popularity of smartphones and digital healthcare services is paving the way for the growth of femtech products. However, access to healthcare infrastructure and users’ ability to pay varies significantly from country to country.
The femtech market is gradually maturing. Alongside seed and Series A funding rounds, there is an emerging trend of larger late-stage funding rounds. Limited but existing experience with IPOs and M&As is gradually setting benchmarks for future exits. This is an important signal for institutional investors, who traditionally wait for proven exit models before allocating capital to a new category.
It is also worth noting the emergence of specialised venture capital funds that invest exclusively in femtech, or that designate this category as a separate strategic focus within a broader healthcare portfolio. Just five to seven years ago, there were only a handful of such funds, and female founders of femtech startups had to convince generalist investors of the category’s viability from scratch.
Today, the existence of these specialised funds accelerates the funding cycle, as their partners possess the sector-specific expertise to quickly assess clinical and regulatory risks rather than relying solely on general application growth metrics. At the same time, the corporate venture capital arms of pharmaceutical and insurance companies are showing growing interest in startups, using investments to gain early access to new technologies and customer data without waiting for lengthy in-house research cycles to be completed.
Niches with the highest unmet demand
Not all femtech areas are equally promising for new investment. Several niches stand out because the demand for solutions significantly exceeds the supply of high-quality products.
Menopause
Every year, millions of women enter perimenopause, experiencing symptoms that significantly impact their ability to work and their quality of life. Yet they have an extremely limited choice of telemedicine services specialising in hormone therapy. This audience has long been ignored by the market, which views the menopause as too sensitive a topic for public discussion. Meanwhile, the demographic cohort of women aged forty-five and over continues to grow in all developed economies.
Endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome
Another niche with a chronic shortage of solutions. Both conditions affect a significant proportion of women of reproductive age and are accompanied by chronic pain and infertility. However, they are often not diagnosed until very late due to a lack of specialised, non-invasive diagnostic methods. Startups are exploring ways to speed up diagnosis using hormonal markers, algorithmic analysis of ultrasound images, and at-home collection of biological samples. However, the clinical reliability of such solutions requires validation for each condition and usage scenario.
Mental health issues related to the postnatal period
Despite the high prevalence of postnatal depression, this niche remains largely underfunded. Most existing mental health platforms do not consider the specific hormonal changes and stresses experienced during the first few months of motherhood, creating an opportunity for highly specialised products.
A similar gap exists at the stage of planning a pregnancy
Although clinical data consistently show elevated levels of stress in this group of patients, anxiety linked to infertility or repeated failed attempts to conceive rarely receives specific attention from developers of mental health support services.
The health of older women in general
A distinct category that, until recently, had virtually no digital products available. Issues such as osteoporosis, post-menopausal cardiovascular risks and metabolic changes have long been overlooked by developers, who have primarily focused on a young, childbearing-age audience.
Finally, access to contraception and reproductive services in regions with limited medical infrastructure remains a huge source of unmet demand on a global scale
This issue remains a major source of unmet demand globally. Telemedicine platforms that can deliver consultations and prescriptions to remote areas could be scaled up as successfully as the most successful fintech projects of the last decade, which targeted emerging markets.
It is also worth mentioning the corporate segment of workplace health
Large technology and financial companies have long offered their female employees comprehensive fertility support packages. In contrast, such benefits remain rare in small and medium-sized businesses due to a lack of affordable pricing plans for small teams. Startups that can offer flexible, scalable solutions for companies with a few dozen employees, rather than just corporations with thousands of staff, can access a significantly broader and less competitive segment of the labour market.
The technologies driving the development of femtech
The technological foundation of femtech is based on several key areas that determine companies' competitive advantage in this sector.
Artificial intelligence plays a central role in the new generation of diagnostic products. Machine learning algorithms analyse ultrasound images to detect endometriosis, predict embryo quality during IVF cycles, and personalise recommendations based on large menstrual cycle datasets. The accuracy of these models is directly dependent on the volume and quality of the training data, so companies with a longer history of data collection have a significant advantage over newcomers.
Wearable devices and biosensors form the second major technological area. Smart rings and bracelets monitor body temperature, heart rate, heart rate variability, sleep, and other indirect physiological indicators. Algorithms can use these to predict ovulation and cycle phases more accurately than simple calendar-based methods, though accuracy depends on the device, the algorithm, and the specifics of the user’s cycle.
Telemedicine continues to serve as the core infrastructure for most femtech services in areas such as menopause, contraception and mental health. In recent years, regulatory changes in a number of jurisdictions have permitted the remote prescribing of hormonal treatments, significantly expanding the target market for telemedicine platforms focused on women’s health.
The home laboratory testing sector has experienced rapid growth, driven by mass home testing during the pandemic. Companies have adapted their logistical and manufacturing expertise to offer at-home sample collection and testing of hormone levels and ovarian reserve. However, the results of these tests require professional interpretation and cannot predict a woman’s natural ability to conceive on their own.
Big data on women’s health is a valuable asset that appreciates over time. Companies that have spent years accumulating anonymised data on the menstrual cycles, symptoms, and treatment outcomes of millions of users are uniquely positioned to collaborate with pharmaceutical companies to develop new medicines and train more accurate diagnostic models — an advantage unavailable to later market entrants.
This is precisely why time-to-market plays a disproportionately large role in this segment. The advantage does not necessarily go to the company with the best app interface, but to the one that was the first to systematically collect structured data and has managed to retain users for the several years required to accumulate a statistically significant dataset.
How to assess a project’s potential
When considering an investment in a specific femtech company, an investor should apply several sector-specific criteria in addition to the standard analysis of the team, market and financial indicators.
The first of these is the product’s regulatory pathway. It is important to clearly understand whether the product is classified as a medical device, which requires clinical trials and regulatory approval, or a wellness app, which has minimal barriers to entry. Companies whose products are classified as medical devices usually have a longer and more expensive route to market. However, successful clinical validation and regulatory approval can create a barrier to competitors and pave the way for negotiations on insurance coverage, although this is not guaranteed.
The second criterion is the monetisation model and source of payment. One potentially sustainable model is a combination of direct payments from consumers and contracts with employers or insurance companies. However, this requires the company to be capable of managing longer B2B sales cycles and the complexity of dealing with multiple payer types.
The third criterion is data quality and security. As femtech products handle extremely sensitive personal data related to reproductive health, a company’s ability to demonstrate robust privacy policies and compliance with regulatory requirements for protecting medical data is not merely a matter of compliance; it is also a direct factor in user trust and, consequently, customer retention.
The fourth criterion is clinical evidence. Products backed by published clinical trials or partnerships with recognised medical institutions are particularly more likely to be scalable in the long term than those that rely solely on marketing claims about efficacy. The presence of a scientific advisory board comprising practising doctors and researchers is often an indirect but reliable indicator of the team’s commitment to the product.
The fifth criterion is the potential for category expansion. The most successful companies in the sector develop products that support users through several life stages — from contraception and fertility to pregnancy and ultimately the menopause — rather than as narrow tools for a single stage. This approach significantly increases customer lifetime value and reduces customer acquisition cost when calculated over the entire product usage period.
Outlook: What will femtech look like by 2030?
The most anticipated transformation in the sector is the shift from wellness-oriented products to evidence-based medicine. Regulators in leading jurisdictions are gradually tightening requirements for health advice apps, so companies that invested early in clinical trials and scientific research will have a significant competitive advantage over those that based their products solely on marketing promises.
A second anticipated trend is the deeper integration of femtech services into corporate voluntary health insurance schemes. Employers are competing for skilled female employees by offering cover for fertility, pregnancy, and menopause services as standard, rather than as an additional option. This creates a predictable B2B sales channel that can provide femtech companies with a more stable revenue stream than direct-to-consumer sales.
A third area of development is personalised therapy based on individual user data. Rather than providing one-size-fits-all recommendations, next-generation platforms will offer treatment and prevention protocols tailored to each patient’s hormonal profile, genetic characteristics, and symptom history. These protocols will be developed using the vast amounts of data accumulated over the years the service has been operating.
The fourth trend is a notable expansion into health services for older women. This segment, which is currently the least covered by digital solutions, is expected to be one of the fastest-growing by the end of the decade thanks to demographic changes, increased life expectancy and the growing willingness of older women to use digital health services.
Finally, the market is anticipating a wave of consolidation through mergers and acquisitions. The large number of highly specialised startups that have emerged over the last decade will gradually come together under the umbrella of larger platforms that can offer comprehensive women's healthcare. Pharmaceutical companies and insurance giants, who have thus far observed the sector from the sidelines, are likely to become active acquirers. They will seek rapid access to technology, data and customer bases, rather than developing their own solutions from scratch.
An equally important factor in future development will be the maturity of the regulatory environment. Currently, different countries apply different approaches to classifying femtech products, which complicates companies’ ability to expand into new markets and delays the time it takes for new solutions to reach the market. By 2030, international initiatives to harmonise regulations for digital health products may, to some extent, simplify market entry, though significant differences between jurisdictions are likely to persist.
For investors looking to build a portfolio over several years, femtech remains one of the few major healthcare categories in which the gap between the scale of the problem and the volume of capital invested has yet to be bridged. Those who enter the sector as it transitions from a niche phenomenon to a recognised asset class will have the opportunity to earn high returns for the risk they take.
