8 Female Venture Capital Investors To Watch In 2021; The HIMSS Global Maternal Health Tech Challenge; The Technological Future Of Sexuality And Sexual Health + more
Your go-to place for the latest news and updates on diversity in tech and emerging technologies - wearables, health tech, and IoT.
Happy Monday everyone! 🙂
Rosalind Brewer will become the only Black woman currently leading a Fortune 500 company in the U.S. when she takes on the role of chief executive officer of Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) on March 15.
Brewer is the third Black female to serve as CEO at a Fortune 500 company. Ursula Burns was CEO of Xerox Co. from 2010-16, and Mary Winston was interim CEO at Bed Bath & Beyond in 2019. There has been a push in recent years to increase the number of women in the top executive ranks, including recruiting them as members of boards of directors.
Read the full story here!
+ more good news to start this week 👇🏽
Thank you for tuning in this Monday, happy reading! 💌
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Upcoming WoW webinars and virtual meetups 🌎 📆
Happening in March 👇🏽
2020 was the most challenging year for all of us, but especially for working parents who found themselves without childcare, homeschooling, while still working. And although some families are sharing childcare between both parents, findings from a study published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) show that, in most cases, it is still mothers who are bearing the brunt of childcare, amplifying the already existing “motherhood penalty” women face. According to Women In The Workplace 2020 report by McKinsey, more than one in four women were contemplating downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce completely, as a result of a change of family dynamics both in the home and at the workplace during the pandemic. The report conducted by The Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR), shows that women today earn just 49% of the typical men’s dollar, they lose 39% of lifetime earnings after just one year out of the workforce, so the penalties of taking time out of the labor force are high and increasing, and strengthening women’s labor force attachment is critical to narrowing the gender wage gap.
Join us for a FREE WoW webinar in March in celebration of IWD and Mother’s Day in the UK!
+ more in March 👇🏽
➡️ WoW Members' Meet & Greet, March 3 (10am and 6pm GMT, for all WoW members)
➡️ WoW Members' Meet & Greet - HealthTech and FemTech, March 17 (10am and 6pm GMT, for WoW members in the health tech and femtech space)
Happening in April 👇🏽
Around 1 in 7 couples in the UK have difficulty conceiving. Fertility has become a global reproductive health issue, but it still remains a taboo. The stigma around it prevents individuals and couples from accessing information about different fertility options, fertility tracking devices, apps, or fertility treatments. FemTech is one of the fastest-growing health industries at the moment estimated to reach $50 billion by 2025, and fertility as a sector will continue to drive the growth of the industry in 2021, according to Frost & Sullivan.
In this webinar, we will be discussing the latest innovations in the fertility space, the current challenges the industry and the patients are experiencing, how has the pandemic affected the patients and the treatments, what is the future of fertility, and what new options and trends we will be seeing in the future.
This webinar is organized in partnership with The Fertility Partnership - an international group of fertility clinics and globally renowned IVF specialists. They have been providing their patients with the industry-leading expertise, care, and compassion that's made them market-leaders across Europe for 35 years, with some of the highest success rates in Europe and the UK, and are now launching a mobile application to empower women in all age groups through data.
WoW community events, news, and updates 💻🌎📆
📌 Emme is looking for collegiate students to join their Brand Ambassador program! Emme is a VC-backed startup bringing women’s health into women’s hands. Their first product is an award-winning smart birth control case. More info here.
📌 For IWD2021, Wear It Berlin GmbH is excited to dive into FemTech with female leaders in the wearable tech industry. Our CEO Marija Butkovic is one of the speakers. More info + ticket booking here.
📌 The HIMSS Global Maternal Health Tech Challenge seeks solutions that save mothers’ lives across the globe. The challenge will consist of a series of virtual regional competitions in Asia-Pacific, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa), Latin America, and North America, culminating in a final in-person competition at the 2021 HIMSS Global Health Conference, August 10, 2021, in Las Vegas. Apply here.
📌 Johnson & Johnson Innovation together with Johnson & Johnson Medical Shanghai is proud to introduce the Digital Technologies of Tomorrow QuickFire Challenge. Visionaries are invited to submit a novel, medical device ideas with the potential to transform patient care in AFIB, neurovascular treatments, orthopedic and general surgery. The innovator(s) with the best idea(s) will receive grant funding from a total of up to $100,000, one year of residency at JLABS @ Shanghai, and mentorship from experts of the Johnson & Johnson Family of Companies. Apply here.
📌 The Seed Stage is where the most talented founders come to raise funding for their early-stage startups. Successful applicants will be invited to pitch at the remote demo day in front of the most esteemed VC funds and angels in the UK. Applications for April 2021 demo day are now open. Deadline March 19th, 6pm. Apply here.
📌 Innovate UK Smart Grants 2021 - an opportunity for the UK registered organizations to apply for a share of up to £25 million from Innovate UK to deliver game-changing and commercially viable R&D innovation that can significantly impact the UK economy. More info here.
📌 Drapers Sustainable Fashion Awards 2021 shortlist revealed
📌 Women of Wearables: Transforming Healthcare with AI, a blog post about our conference Health Tech 2.0 by NJF Capital
📌 Interested in angel investment and becoming an angel investor? Check out super insightful blogs and content from our friends at Angel Academe here!
📌 Our member Loomia just announced new dates for their next Prototyping 101 Workshop. They’ll be opening enrollment from March 30th - April 6th. Make sure to join the waitlist HERE to get an email when enrollment goes live. We hope you’ll join them to learn the basics of prototyping with electronics through soft, flexible LOOMIA components!
📌 Our member Emily is keen to get people's advice on appropriate share structures for first employees. If you either hold some or know about this topic please get in touch with her here.
📌 Our member Susan is inviting you to a FemTech Book Club she will be regularly hosting with our friends from FemTech Focus. More info here.
📌 Check out some cool fashion tech webinars from our member Kelly here.
📌 Our member Margherita is launching event series around the topic of community building for product-based startups!
Industry news and updates 💻🌎📆
New Paper Provides Recommendations for Making Health Care More Inclusive for LGBTQIA+ People
How Hardware, Data And Artificial Intelligence Are Changing Diabetes Care
Building a Community for Gen Z: Maria Raga, CEO, Depop
The Technological Future Of Sexuality And Sexual Health
Protecting Children’s Privacy in the Age of SmartToys
If You’re Starting A New Business Here’s How to Effectively Analyze Your Competition
Elder care, wireless AI, and the Internet of Medical Things
IoT Could Halve Food Waste Before the End of the Decade
Insect brains will teach us how to make truly intelligent robots
The Rise of Latinas in the US: forging their identity in the midst of two cultures
The Middle East’s Power Businesswomen 2021
Venezuelan Women Lose Access to Contraception, and Control of Their Lives
GPS Only Exists Because Of Two People: Albert Einstein And Gladys West
Owlet Smart Baby Monitor to Go Public in SPAC IPO Deal
Report: Healthcare data breaches spiked 55% in 2020
Post-Brexit, how do we get more founders backing the next generation of tech startups?
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