Zoya Misha
March 8, 2022
Early femtech pioneer Ida Tin, who founded Berlin-based menstrual tracking app Clue, coined the term FemTech back in 2016. Today we use it to refer to a rapidly growing industry of startups and companies designed to research, innovate and support women’s health.
Want to see who's leading the charge? Here are 15 cutting-edge femtech startups of 2022 who are emerging in this thriving she-conomy.
Read Your Body is a menstrual cycle charting app created by an all-female, non-profit organisation – The Body Literacy Collective – based in the UK. The app is 100% crowdfunded by users in the fertility awareness (FAM) community. The key features include i.a. full data privacy, user-controlled chart interpretations and an automated Tempdrop integration.
inne is a Berlin-based startup who created the first hormone-based mini lab which indicates and tracks fertility and ovulation based on saliva. In 2019 they landed €8 million in a Series A funding round led by Blossom Capital. Founder and CEO Eirini Rapti calls this new form of science-based digital contraception a radical self-knowledge tool for all the phases in a woman’s life.
Ava is a digital healthcare company from Switzerland who created the first FDA-cleared fertility tracking wearable. This machine learning device tracks physiological parameters to predict and recognise a woman’s ovulation days. They have raised over €35 million in funding to expand their business into other aspects of female health.
FEMNA is a female-led telemedicine startup based in Berlin who rethink women's health in Germany and offer diagnostics, advice and solutions online. Founder Maxie Matthiessen wanted to create more equality around health issues for German women, who often feel they are not getting enough advice from their doctors.
Guud is a Belgium-based femtech startup who offers support and products for women who want to improve their cycle and fertility. In 2021 they launched with €350K in pre-seed funding to grow its platform for menstrual health and close the gap in the market regarding supplements for women.
Perifit is a startup from Paris who launched a wireless Kegel trainer through crowdfunding and turned exercising into playing games. The wearable is connected to a smartphone and designed to help women strengthen their pelvic floor muscles by controlling video games with their Kegels. Playing Flappy Bird was never more fun!
Bellabeat is a holistic health tech startup from Silicon Valley who manufactured smart jewellery that tracks women's wellness. Their subscription based data-driven wearable can offer personalised coaching programs and fitness, mindfulness, nutrition, health, beauty, and lifestyle information. In 2021 they sold over 50,000 preorders of its new smart-wearable product, the Ivy.
AllMatters (formerly known as OrganiCup) was founded almost a decade ago in Copenhagen and grew to be not only an award-winning menstrual cup - and now also adding period underweare to their collection - but also a platform to spread awareness around the environmental, cultural and social impact of menstrual products. They launched a project named “Taboo: Global Periods” to uncover the implications of menstruation in the lives of teenagers around the globe.
Thinx is a New York based feminine hygiene company who developed period-proof underwear to replace pads and tampons, fully funded via Kickstarter. From 2020 until now they have launched a campaign to advocate for menstrual equity, empowered women in developing countries through purposeful partnerships, secured a $25 million funding for their thought-provoking brand campaigns and will launch an affordable underwear line for mass retailers.
Daye is a London-based startup that is bridging the gap in female health by product innovation and trying to help women suffering from period pain. They newly developed a tampon that uses CBD to help tackle period cramps (or dysmenorrhea) as an alternative to traditional painkillers.
Elvie is a UK-based maker creating the first silent wearable breastfeeding pump and award-winning Kegel trainer, bringing women's technology out of the dark ages. Having raised a record-breaking $53,8 million since 2013, it is one of the most successful femtech startups over the past decade.
branayama is a Berlin-based startup who crowdfunded through Kickstarter and launched a sustainable nursing bra which replaces nursing pads. Founder Stefanie Raffelsieper wanted to innovate the outdated system of nursing bras and rethink the old world of maternity wear.
Startups and VCs are finally pursuing the menopause market, seeing it as an area ripe for innovation. According to data from early-stage investing firm Female Founders Fund 1.1 billion women are expected to be postmenopausal by 2025, meaning there is $600 billion of spending opportunity left untapped by startups that could create new services and products for these women.
Tabu is a new kind of sexual wellness company with a mission to help people connect sex with their physical and emotional wellbeing, starting with women in peri- to post-menopause. Tabu was initially funded by friends and family, since founder Natalie Waltz states investors still see her company is in a controversial and niche area.
London-based femtech startup Astinno is working on wearable device Grace, an automated smart cooling bracelet to help women in menopause get through hot flushes and night sweats. Instead of women needing to wake up 10-15 times a night to run cold water over their wrists, Grace will detect their hot flushes and apply cooling in the earliest stage possible.
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