200+ female VC partners in Europe: the complete list; Why I paid $300K to quit a startup; The future of sex toys is gender-neutral; Do you need an investor? + more
Your go-to place for the latest news and updates on diversity in tech and emerging technologies - wearables, health tech, and IoT.
Happy Tuesday everyone! 🙂
Photograph: Tim Robberts/Getty Images
Diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder, Louise Stevenson searched for tech-based tools to complement her therapy. “But I couldn’t find an app that offered what I wanted,” she says. “I was literally scribbling down my worries on backs of envelopes.” So the 41-year-old mum from Herefordshire ditched her job in financial services, created Worry Tree – one of 15 approved mental health tools in the NHS app library – and entered the flourishing femtech sector. The app, which helps users notice and challenge their worries, is available to anyone, but 75% of its users are women. It turns out they’re twice as likely as men to experience anxiety. Stevenson has now won a place on a new dedicated accelerator, the London-based Femtech Lab, billed as the first in Europe to focus on this sector.
Funding for the femtech sector has soared around the world, rising 171% in the three years to 2019 to reach just under £1bn (£949m/€1.1bn), with particularly strong growth in the UK, where many startups are bidding for their first slice of cash.
Femtech has moved on from the early days when it mainly focused on periods and fertility. Today it incorporates everything from hormonal awareness and personalised fitness to sexual empowerment and the racier “sex tech” – think vibrators designed by women who understand their own physiology, and science-informed sex therapy advice apps.
By 2027 the market worldwide is forecast to be worth $60bn and is expected to grow 16% year on year.
Read more in this excellent write-up on The Guardian, featuring Karina Vazirova, co-founder of the Femtech Lab and also one of the speakers at our upcoming conference - Investing and Fundraising in HealthTech and FemTech - taking place on June 17.
Thank you for tuning in this Tuesday, happy reading! 💌
Become a WoW member to learn from and connect with our community of entrepreneurs, designers, and technologists, leverage valuable resources, and discover career opportunities!
Become a WoW corporate member to promote your company at one of the leading global organisations for women in tech, advertise in our newsletter and get the opportunity to collaborate with us for our webinars, conferences, and content!
Upcoming WoW webinars and virtual meetups 🌎 📆
📌 WoW Members' Meet & Greet - Wearables, HealthTech, FemTech, IoT, Fashion, June 2 (10am and 6pm BST, for all WoW members)
Investing and Fundraising in HealthTech and FemTech is a global virtual conference answering all your questions about fundraising and investing in this space. We gathered founders, angels, VCs, startup accelerators, and experts from the field to educate, inform and share best practices on different ways to raise money to grow the businesses and share lessons learned along the way.
This conference FREE for all WoW members! 🔥
Our partners and sponsors
This conference wouldn’t be possible without the participation of our sponsors and partners, who are not only very passionate about the innovation in the health tech space but also big supporters of Women of Wearables! 🥰
Joy Ventures is a startup studio dedicated to building and funding consumer well-being startups, on a mission to help people feel good and enjoy life, every day.
OCON Healthcare’s mission is to introduce innovative medical solutions that allow women healthier choices while improving their well-being and quality of life.
Callaly is on a mission to reinvent period-care and to inspire people with periods to expect more from their products, using innovation to finally put customers’ needs first.
Kinneir Dufort is a user-centered innovation and product development consultancy, collectively driven to Design a Better World by creating impactful change and positive outcomes for clients and the user.
WoW Knowledge Hub sessions in May
📌 How to bootstrap deployment of wearable tech products, with our partners Thrive Wearables
📌 Entering Asia: Opportunities for health tech companies, with our partners Fermata
📌 Get the best from your IP, with our partners Keltie
📌 Hiring the right skills and personalities for a startup, with our partners Menlo Park Recruitment
Interested in joining us for one of our future webinars or you would like to discuss partnership and collaboration? Get in touch!
WoW community events, news, and updates 💻🌎📆
📌 Clementine, the Mental Health app for women, launches its new Work Therapy
📌 Women's Health Tech | Rapid Pitch Showcase, organised by Hitlab, June 3
📌 Women's Bone Health & Aging Forum, May 26
📌 Our friends and WoW members from Labiome aim to empower women to connect with their inner ecosystems, helping them to improve their intimate health and their overall wellbeing. Please support their goal by filling this survey. You can also follow them on social media to keep up to date with their latest news - Instagram / Twitter / LinkedIn.
Industry events, news, and updates 💻🌎📆
Ro, a health care start-up, will acquire Modern Fertility
Google gives a sneak peek into its new AI dermatology assistant
200+ female VC partners in Europe: the complete list
The future of sex toys is gender-neutral
PathAI finds its way to $165M series C for diagnostic and drug development software
Bayer’s G4A program is open for applications! Apply here.
Why I paid $300K to quit a startup
How much confidence is too much confidence when building your new startup?
Cancer can be precisely diagnosed using a urine test with artificial intelligence
Did you know these 10 everyday services rely on AI?
Google announces health tool to identify skin conditions
Meet Jennifer Daniel, the woman who decides what emoji we get to use
Women's health care: What is preventive care for every age?
New report finds lack of data for women's heart health, pushes for more gender-specific research
Understanding the Venture Capital Gender Gap
More Opportunity Than Capital: Venture Dollars Spread Throughout the US
🔥 Become a WoW member to learn from and connect with our community of entrepreneurs, designers, and technologists, leverage valuable resources, and discover career opportunities!
➡️ Follow us on Twitter / LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook. Join our FemTech LinkedIn group.
📅 Check out our events page. Check out our upcoming Knowledge Hub sessions.
📧 Get in touch if you’d like to become our partner and promote your company in this newsletter!
📌 If you are a female founder, designer, or technologist, we would love to feature you on our WoW women blog!