The doom and gloom statistics about women’s funding and health innovation – are they helping women? Or fuelling rage and stealing joy?

If you are a female founder, if you are in women’s health innovation, I’d love your thoughts.

At least once a day I read posts reminding me that: women BATTLE to raise a lot less money; that even in femtech men raise more than women; that women’s health conditions are under-researched and underfunded… and so on.

Positive statistics and posts seem comparatively scarce –?without which we risk discouraging women before they start. (?? Female Foundry thanks for your #wins newsletter)

Is it a negativity bias of humans and newsfeed algorithms? Is it all talk and no actions? Or is it that we simply need time to convert the momentum and awareness.

• It’s only 7 months since the World Economic Forum released their flagship Women’s Health Gap report quantifying it as a $1T opportunity;
• less than a year since the White House announced the Women’s Health Initiative and Executive Order;
• and two years since the NHS published its Women’s Health Strategy informed by a survey of 100,000 women.

Those are very recent events, and they have already stimulated action.

Change IS happening:

• The recent Invest In Women Taskforce created a ￡250m fund for female led teams
• A similar push is happening in VCs: Borski Fund called for a €3bn fund to back female venture capitalists, which they plan to close by 2025, stating “The European Investment Fund (EIF) put €12.9bn into venture capital funds in 2020, but only a single-digit percentage of the funding went to female-led VCs”. (And data shows female VCs are much more likely to support women led businesses.)
• In 2024, 40% of all angel groups and 47% of VCs have now signed up to the Invest in Women Code

Is this enough? Is it ‘fair’? Nothing will ever be enough. There will always be something to fight for. It’s the human condition.

Perhaps more importantly, women led startups are a kicking ***, which paves the way for more investment!

• Women founded businesses outperformed those without women?by 63%,
• achieved 35% higher ROI,
• and, when venture-backed, 12% higher revenue (Forbes)

The point is, it’s easy to get lost in rage (????♀?) and miss the moments of energising joy that come from living in this time of change.

Where the mind goes energy flows –?if you’re steeped in fear and expecting challenge, you shall find what you seek. I am not dismissive of the equality mountain that we’ve far from summited, I’d just hate for women to suffer through the journey in addition to all the challenges we face.

Our experience of the journey – that is something we CAN control.

As I reflect on my nascent journey as a female founder building in women’s health, I feel more energised and part of a community and movement than I’ve ever experienced.?

• I built a team with not one but TWO other women
• I built it with the help of Zinc , an impact venture firm run by way more women than men (including in leadership) – who recruit cohorts that are balanced in gender, age and ethnicity
• Our Venture Partner at Zinc is a woman (more accurately the ‘super’woman Natalie Pankova, PhD )
• Our first formal meetings with VCs have been with all female GPs and Partners

And the best for last…

• Our fully female team pitched and won rights to a multimillion dollar technology IP – DESPITE pitching to men, and against an all-male team that was proposing a men’s health indication.
• The two male scientists joined our team fractionally because they want to be part of our mission to close the women’s health data gap. Isn't a sign of a movement reaching a tipping point – when those outside ‘the group’ want to take part?

While I acknowledge the statistics, I also hold true the famous statement:

"Change happens gradually, then suddenly." – Hemingway

To my fellow female innovators – don’t forget to bask in the energy of the movement you’re part of, and one day the future we’re building will suddenly be here.

Thank you to the women who have been rocket fuel to my journey, to name a few Alexandra Oti | Liza Levy | Ella Goldner (Levy) | Eleanor Ford | Hannah Abdel-Hadi | Caitlin Scheybeler | Sarah ?? Ing | Alice Driscoll | Colette H. | Anastasia Kaschenko

And thank you to the men too! Paul Kirby | Jim Newton | Don Smith | David Cummings | Chunxiao Hu | Luke Charbonnier-Bevan, PhD | and of course Luke Bridgman

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