Since 2024’s TechBBQ, when Femtech Studios launched from their Femtech Stage, and UVISA Health won the Life Science Pitching Competition at the Life Science Stage at last year’s TechBBQ, the femtech scene at this year’s TechBBQ was packed with people wanting to know more.
A $1 trillion opportunity in women’s health
Under the title “No longer niche: The $1 trillion femtech opportunity”, the femtech panel debate at the Tech Stage got more questions in the Slido app than there was time to answer. Dr. Vanessa Julia Carpenter, Founding Partner of Femtech Studios, among others, moderated the panel, which consisted of the founder of SheSleep, Erla Björnsdóttir; the co-founder of Sylvia Health, Andrew Stretton; and Ulla Sommerfelt, an angel investor and co-founder of Femtech Studios, among others.
Even though women spend one quarter of their lives in poorer health than men, women’s health is under-researched and underfunded. Society and businesses are not only missing an opportunity to improve women’s lives, but are also missing out on the significant economic benefits of helping women and society at large. Besides all the ways healthier women benefit society, women control the majority of consumer spending. Femtech helps women lead better lives, and there is a big business opportunity here, with numerous opportunities to improve women’s lives.
Women sleep less due to hormonal changes
Erla Björnsdóttir, Ph.D. in sleep medicine and a clinical psychologist, launched her sleep app, SheSleep, in 2024. The app is tailored to women who have insomnia, for example, after giving birth or due to hormonal changes during perimenopause.
“Women need more sleep than men, but we usually get less sleep. At the same time, women more often than men suffer from insomnia”, said Erla Björnsdóttir to the audience filling up the Tech Stage room.
“So many women are suffering in silence with sleep deprivation and with the burnout that follows from that,” continued Erla Björnsdóttir.
According to the SheSleep founder, women’s sleep is more disrupted and of poorer quality three to five days before and during menstruation.
“Poor sleep can cause mental illness and loss of careers. Therefore, we need to develop solutions tailored to women’s needs”, explained Erla Björnsdóttir.
Prolapse affects over 200 million women
While sleep issues not only affect women, Sylvia Health’s device is specifically targeted at women who suffer from pelvic prolapse. In this condition, pelvic organs descend into or outside the vagina.
“More than 200 million women, or one in twelve women worldwide, are affected by pelvic prolapse”, said Andrew Stretton from Sylvia Health, one of the still few men in the femtech industry.
According to Sylvia Health, the actual number may be even higher, due to stigma and underreporting. Sylvia Health writes on their website that they expect the number of women affected by pelvic prolapse to increase. In the US alone, Sylvia Health anticipates an increase of up to 46% by 2050.
A cup to avoid pessary or surgery
To alleviate pelvic prolapse, Sylvia Health has invented a patented device that works similarly to a menstrual cup. The cup is an alternative to a pessary or surgery. While a pessary can cause discomfort or just be ineffective, surgery is outright painful and may require additional procedures, according to Sylvia Health.
The SheSleep app and Sylvia Health’s prolapse cup are just two examples of how technology can help women – and the overall economy.
Billions to earn despite growing attention
“The economy is losing billions of dollars in underserved women’s health, and so many women are suffering without getting the treatment they need”, said Ulla Sommerfelt, explaining what made her start as a femtech angel investor in 2023.
“The awareness of women’s health has grown significantly since the launch of the McKinsey Report in 2024. Celebrities are breaking the taboos and are talking publicly about their menopause or women’s health issues”, Ulla Sommerfelt continued.
Despite the hard-working startup founders solving real problems, the McKinsey report, and female celebrities sharing their stories, femtech and women’s health tech startups are still struggling to get adequate funding to scale their business.
Information and scalability gap
“Only two percent of funding goes to femtech startups”, stated Dr. Vanessa Julia Carpenter while pointing out challenges such as clinical validation and a funding gap.
SheSleep and Sylvia Health also face those challenges.
“Scaling is not easy, and it is hard to get funding for sleep issues, even if you have a scalable evidence-based healthcare solution”, said Erla Björnsdóttir, agreeing with Andrew Stretton.
“We’re addressing both an information gap and a scalability gap”, said Andrew Stretton, ”You have to work a lot harder to get the stories through.”
Founder community to counter shared challenges
As an example of women’s health being under-researched and underfunded, Ulla Sommerfelt mentioned that it takes eight years to diagnose endometriosis due to a lack of knowledge and dat
At another talk on the Tech stage, Inês Santos Silva also focused on the lack of studies on women’s health and explained how she and AthenaDAO are advocating for the use ATH tokens and IP-NTFs to fund and govern research in women’s health.
Back at the panel debate, Dr. Carpenter added an example of how women’s health data is becoming available for researchers and others.
“We need more data to learn from, and that data is now becoming available outside of clinical trials, such as the latest Oura ring report about perimenopause. The report is based on the wearable data of 100.000 Oura ring users”, said Dr. Vanessa Julia Carpenter.
Ulla Sommerfelt suggested that one way to accommodate the information gap and scalability challenges is to create an ecosystem of existing femtech founders.
“It takes a village to build a startup. So we’re building community. We don’t yet have a powerful ecosystem, but we’re working on it”, said the co-founder of Femtech Studios.
Startup activity at the femtech lounge
SheSleep and Sylvia Health’s pelvic prolapse device are just two of many solutions to alleviate women’s health issues represented at this year’s TechBBQ.
This year, Femtech Studios, in collaboration with the Nordic Women’s Health Hub and the Danish Life Science Cluster, created opportunities for people to learn about femtech by bringing together femtech startups and investors in the femtech lounge.
Both days, the femtech lounge was buzzing with people engaged in conversation. Among them were investors and attendees of the Femtech Startup School, introduced by Dr. Vanessa Julia Carpenter and Ana Andonovska, founder of Even Founders.
At the femtech lounge, a range of femtech startups were showcased, including Minimal App, Oasicare, Body Moody, UVISA, Sula Care, Previto, Lapee, and Caramma, which won the Danish Design Award in 2024, and which TechTruster has previously written about.
Femtech throughout the TechBBQ
Femtech and women’s health spread beyond the Tech Stage and the femtech lounge.
Sylvia Health had a stand in the Life Science area, while the smart jewellery startup all.u.me had a stand in the Longevity area. Similarly, at the Longevity Lounge, Sara Al-Dafaee, CEO of Nordic Women’s Health Hub, moderated a well-visited panel discussing women’s health in the workplac
From fertility to perimenopause
Unlike most other women’s health-based startups, fertility-based startups have been receiving a significant amount of funding, according to Ulla Sommerfelt.
“I think the next focus will be perimenopause, which one billion women are experiencing right now”, said Ulla Sommerfelt.
If Ulla Sommerfelt is right, investors will earn money while making the world a better place for perimenopausal women and the overall society.