HealthTech Startup Bonatra Acquires FemTech Startup MyAva

Bonatra, a holistic health start-up that offers a unified health stack solution to treat, manage, and reverse chronic diseases, has acquired women’s health and wellness company MyAva. Through this acquisition, Bonatra aims to expand its holistic healthcare programs and become a one-stop platform for the management of chronic health conditions.

Bonatra founders (L-R) Seated — Amit Acharya, Manjari Chandra, Ramanpreet Singh and standing Rahul Kishore Singh

MyAva is a femtech startup that empowers women to manage chronic health conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), thyroid disorders, insulin resistance, and more. The company was founded in 2019 by Evelyn Immanuel, and it has since established itself as a trusted provider of curated programs and personalized plans that help women improve their health and wellbeing.

Bonatra is a doctor-led IoMT (Internet of Medical Things) start-up focused on treating and managing chronic diseases such as diabetes, Hypertension, fatty liver, PCOD, Obesity etc.. Bonatra uses personalised treatment, which is arrived at after analysing multiple data points and health parameters using various easy-to-use IoMT devices. Founded in April 2022 by Rahul Kishore Singh(CEO), Manjari Chandra(CMO), Ramanpreet Singh(COO) and Amit Acharya(CTO), Bonatra integrates clinical acumen with technology to achieve holistic health. The solutions at Bonatra include personalised, targeted lifestyle, nutritional and fitness interventions to balance hormones, and supplementing it with other functional methods of gut reset, correcting gut dysbiosis(imbalance in gut bacteria), and harnessing natural detox procedures to reduce heavy metal toxicity in the body.

Commenting on the acquisition, Rahul Kishore Singh, CEO and Co-Founder, Bonatra, said, “We are thrilled to welcome MyAva to join the Bonatra family. Acquiring MyAva enables us to expand our reach and deepen our expertise in women’s health, specifically for conditions like PCOS. We have been closely working with and interacting with the MyAva team and we believe that this will be a good strategic fit for Bonatra. Our mission is to empower people to take proactive measures to prevent, manage, and reverse chronic health conditions. This move will further strengthen our expertise in holistic healthcare solutions.”

Evelyn Immanuel, Founder and CEO, MyAva, said, “MyAva is elated to join Bonatra and further the vision of making chronic care management accessible to all women. We believe this further strengthens our combined commitment towards making femtech more inclusive and integrated.”

Commenting on the acquisition, Yagnesh Sanghrajka, Founder and CFO, 100X. VC said, “I am confident that Bonatra’s acquisition of MyAva is a move in the right direction and it will further enhance the company’s offering. Bonatra's expansion into women's health and wellness through the acquisition of MyAva will solidify its position as a leading player in the healthcare industry. The combination of Bonatra's personalized treatment approach and MyAva's trusted programs and plans for managing chronic health conditions in women addresses a large unmet need in the market. I look forward to seeing the continued growth and success of Bonatra with this new addition to their platform. Wishing both the teams success in their joint endeavour and scaling new peaks''

Over the next six months, Bonatra has plans to introduce newer IoMT devices including a smart ring in the Indian market to further strengthen its solutions which are a convergence of medical science, data science and technology.

Very recently, the company raised 5.5 Crores in a Pre-Seed Round round led by ITI Growth Opportunities Fund with participation from marquee angel investors like Jitendra Jagadev, Founder, Nestaway and Helloworld, and Rajesh Yabaji, Founder, Blackbuck

About Bonatra:

Bonatra is an IoMT based holistic health start-up creating a convergence of medical science, data science and technology to help people manage and reverse chronic metabolic diseases and improve their lifestyles, all from the comfort of their homes. Bonatra’s approach uses personalised treatment, which is arrived at after analysing multiple data points and health parameters using various easy-to-use IOMT devices.

For more details, visit: www.bonatra.com

Millennial Indian Women Rely on Digital Channels for Their Health and Fitness Needs; Look for Lasting Solutions That Work: by Savage

Fast embracing holistic, personalised curated programs and plans to better handle their individual health issues

More than 100,000 searches happen just for UTI & PCOS

Of all the hormonal changes which millennial women experience, menstruation continues to be their foremost area of concern

India’s millennial women, especially working professionals between the age group of 23-38 years have increasingly come to rely on digital channels for their health and fitness needs and are looking for lasting solutions that work, according to the consumer and market report compiled by savage (www.savage.club). savage is India’s leading women’s healthtech company building the future of wellness for millennial women. The consumer mapping has revealed some very interesting insights which are intrinsically linked to the rise of India’s Femtech sector.

Understanding the consumer base…the urban millennial women

Millennial Indian women rely on digital channels for their health and fitness needs_ look for lasting solutions that work reveals market report by savage

The consumer report analysed responses shared by millennial women across leading cities and towns, the majority of whom are working professionals (73%) followed by students (17%) and homemakers (5%) amongst others. While 58% of the respondents fell in the 25-30 years age group, 23% were between 15-25 years of age. 17% of the participants are pregnant or in a related phase while 32% of the interviewed millennial women are experiencing PCOS or PCOD.

Do Indian millennial women know enough? A Peek into their menstrual health..

Of all the hormonal changes which millennial women experience, menstruation continues to be their foremost area of concern.

When women were asked to list down ways in which they track their monthly menstruation cycle, half of them (50%) acknowledged that they do use a menstrual tracking app- a testimony of them already taking ownership of their hormonal health to some extent.

Elaborating on the state of their menstrual cycle, every respondent had experienced at least 1-2 periods of hormonal imbalance in her lifetime while 23% of them had experienced irregular and fluctuating menstruations.

Majority of them are aware of the changes which they experience around their menstruation time. 56% claimed that their diet and exercise routine changes around their periods. Mood swings (75%) stood out as the topmost PMS symptom, followed by food cravings (54%) and low energy (48%).

Are India’s digital savvy millennial women seeking external support to address their hormonal health issues?

45% of the women cited having never visited a gynaecologist to seek guidance in matters related to their personal health while a meagre 12% said that they would only do so when something is seriously off.

Ways in which women are addressing their common menstruation concerns…

An alarming 87% respondents do not take any prescribed medicines to combat their specific menstruation issues while 13% mentioned the intake of period regulating pills and off-the-counter medications.

Where does a fitness routine fit in the schedule of India’s digital savvy millennial women and what are the key barriers coming in their way?

Majority of the millennial women (35%) workout 3-4 times a week, 23% workout 5-7 times weekly with 20% rarely doing so. Lack of motivation (34%) and lack of time (30%) are the top two barriers coming in the way of maintaining a healthy and holistic lifestyle.

Millennial Indian women are seeking expert recommendations in addition to doctors and medical fraternity. 54% of them look upon social media for solutions. Interestingly, 52% of them are guided by micro influencers.

Ekta Tibrewal, Co-founder, savage says, “A large part of the healthcare ecosystem is designed without keeping our unique physiology and biology at its core. The ebb and flow of hormones like Oestrogen, Progesterone, and Testosterone shape women's bodies, metabolism, sleep, energy levels, productivity, moods & so much more. Despite that, only 4% of healthcare R&D funding is targeted towards women's health and factoring their hormone cycles in studies & trials. Amidst this backdrop, we have India’s digital savvy millennial women who are no longer looking for short term gains or hacks to shed weight. Every month, more than 100,000 searches happen just for UTI & PCOS. This user segment like never before is taking ownership of their health and fitness; and is embracing digital channels to evaluate holistic solutions that work.

Ekta further adds, “Femtech players are empowering women, especially millennial Indian women to take charge of their own health. We are already witnessing a strong tide of change with not just Femtech ventures but also healthcare companies speedily acknowledging the need to better serve women for their specific health needs along with bringing in gender specificity for diagnostics, drugs, devices and solutions for women. Urban millennial Indian women are fast embracing holistic, personalised curated programs and plans- which are allowing them to better handle their individual health issues.”

Commenting on urban Indian millennial women fueling the growth of India’s Femtech sector, Akshay Rajwade, Co-founder, savage says, “Femtech as a flourishing industry is expected to reach USD 71,000 million by 2026. We believe that our country’s Femtech sector is redefining this space like never before. The year 2021 saw the highest number of funding deals in the last seven years, 40 in total amounting $98 million. Altogether, the Femtech market is poised to grow at a healthy rate of 17% from 2020 to 2026. We expect innovative technologies to further target menstruation issues, pelvic health, fertility and birth control, sexual wellness, chronic conditions and general healthcare”.

Proactive for Her, A Women’s Healthtech Startup, Raises $5.5 Mn in Series-A Round Led by Vertex Ventures

Team of Proactive For Her

Proactive For Her, a digital clinic for women’s outpatient healthcare, has raised US $5.5 Million in Series A funding led by Vertex Ventures South East Asia and India with participation from existing investor Nexus Venture Partners. The funds will be used to expand digital product offerings, grow their online customer base, and launch their flagship clinic in Bengaluru.

Founded by Achitha Jacob in August 2020, Proactive For Her offers evidence-based primary and preventive healthcare services for women across life stages. An Alumnus of IIT-Bombay, Achitha dropped out of Harvard Business School to build a company solving for women’s healthcare needs with patient centricity at its core.

Achitha Jacob, CEO, and Founder, Proactive For Her, said, “The stigma attached to women’s menstrual, sexual and reproductive health issues, coupled with lack of access to non-judgemental support, have long prevented many women from addressing their healthcare needs. At Proactive For Her, we believe all women should have access to the best medical experts, who have a patient-centric, liberal and empathetic approach to women’s health issues. We have seen an overwhelming adoption so far across our offerings. We are thrilled to have Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, and Nexus Venture Partners join us in our journey of empowering women to take charge of their health proactively. This investment further bolsters our mission and will help us accelerate towards our vision of making Proactive For Her the preferred partner for every woman when it comes to managing her well-being.”

Achitha Jacob CEO and Founder of Proactive For Her

Proactive For Her offers a full-stack healthcare experience with services ranging from teleconsultations and support programs to customised diagnostic panels. They have a strong in-house team of doctors, therapists, and nutritionists, with over 150 years of healthcare experience, who are committed to offering holistic care and cross-functional support to their patients. Their clinical team undergoes rigorous training by global experts to uphold the company’s vision of body-positive, queer affirmative, and trauma-informed care. Their diagnostic services include complimentary pre and post-test support along with Smart Reports to help simplify medical jargon. By March 2022, Proactive For Her will launch their flagship offline clinic in Indiranagar, Bengaluru as the next step in their journey towards providing full-stack clinical care to women.

Commenting on the investment, Kanika Mayar, Senior Executive Director, Vertex Ventures SEA, and India, said, “We believe Proactive For Her is poised to change the way women access healthcare in India. Women are susceptible to diverse and complex health issues starting from puberty and there is a large unmet need in many areas where patients lack information and which require a more liberal, personalised, and empathetic approach to diagnosis and treatment. Since its launch, Proactive For Her has demonstrated impressive growth. Achitha and her team are very mission-driven and have developed a full spectrum of solutions for multiple health issues with a strong emphasis on patient-centric care. We look forward to partnering with them and with Nexus Venture Partners in building the leading healthcare company for every woman in India.”

Anand Datta, Principal, Nexus Venture Partners, said, “At Nexus, we always acknowledged the gap which women in India faced due to lack of a trustworthy and non-judgemental clinical care infrastructure. Unfortunately, many serious conditions in women have been either trivialised as lifestyle issues or ignored due to social stigma or lack of education. In Proactive For Her and Achitha, we found a team that was passionate about the space as well as deeply strategic in their approach towards creating a business. We are very excited to partner to create an iconic healthcare brand out of India.”

Proactive For Her has engaged with over 5,000 women so far, through their teleconsultation services, webinars, and other patient education endeavours. Within the next year, the startup aims to service 100,000+ women through their various products, services, and community engagement initiatives.

About Proactive For Her

Proactive For Her is a digital clinic for women, offering judgement-free, personalised, and confidential healthcare solutions. They offer products and services for out-patient health concerns of Indian women, across their lifetime - from puberty to menopause and beyond. For more information, please visit: https://www.proactiveforher.com/

About Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India

Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India invests in high-growth start-ups seeking venture capital funding in Southeast Asia and India. It has a long and strong track record of investing in early-stage startups and building champions. For more information, please visit: https://www.vertexventures.sg/

About Nexus Venture Partners

Nexus Venture Partners is a leading early-stage venture capital firm partnering with extraordinary entrepreneurs building product-first companies. With $1.5 billion under management, Nexus operates as one team across the US and India. For more information, please visit: visit www.nexusvp.com.

Prega News Launches Its First Ever TVC With Kajal Agarwal

The film exhibits Prega News is one of the most assured and trusted pregnancy detection cards in India.

New Delhi: Mankind Pharma’s pregnancy detection brand Prega News has come up with a new campaign featuring brand ambassador Kajal Agarwal. This is the first association of the actress with any pregnancy detection brand in the country. The brand has launched two TVC's as part of the campaign accentuating the point that Prega News is one of the most assured and trusted pregnancy detection kits in India.

The TVC’s showcases to the audience that Prega News is the most reliable pregnancy kit for expecting mothers giving accurate results in only 5 minutes. Even the product has become a preferred choice among doctors. The objective behind the film is to aware people about the benefits of the products.

The first TVC reveals a pharmacy shop where the pharmacist is shown giving an ordinary pregnancy detection card to a woman. Seeing this Kajal intervenes and suggests giving India’s No.1 pregnancy detection kit that provides accurate results and has the trust of doctors and millions of mothers. In the end, she shares that her doctors also recommended the same. The second TVC depicts that Kajal is an expecting mother, and she got the good news with the help of one and only Prega News.

The campaign involves 360-degree brand communications comprising mediums like television, digital and print. The TVC is executed and conceptualised by the team at ADK Fortune. The TVC is more about the value system that goes into the making of the product rather than the product itself, and it set forth the fact that Prega News is the most reliable and trustworthy pregnancy detection kit in India.

Speaking on the campaign, Kajal Agarwal, said -

It is indeed an honour and a pleasure to be associated with Prega News, a prominent brand in the pregnancy detection cards. Indeed, the brand has become the most preferred products among expecting mothers. I am delighted to associate with the brand to spread the message of great joy and love.

Commenting on the campaign, Joy Chatterjee, General Manager- Sales & Marketing, Mankind Pharma said, “Our objective of the campaign is to aware people that Prega News not only gives the rapid results but its highly accurate too. We have become a preferred choice among doctors and expecting moms to be and that is what we played up in the narrative. While saying this, our backend team at Mankind effectively works on the product kits. Our association with Kajal matches our brand ethos, and we are pleased that with the collaboration we would be able to transmit the message to a lot of mothers.”

YouTube Links- 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQYdhf7LPAo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q58eJBfqUzk

Prega News Ropes in Kajal Agarwal as Regional Brand Ambassador for Southern Market

The actress will play an integral role in intensifying the brand’s reach across varied markets.

Keeping its strategy of riding with national and regional youth icons, Prega News, India’s No.1 pregnancy detection card from the house of Mankind Pharma, has roped in southern actress Kajal Agarwal as its official regional brand ambassador. The collaboration with the actor will help to strengthen Prega News reach among the region’s large and widespread audience.

Kajal is quite a popular, dynamic and versatile actor not only known in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and other regional markets but holds prominence in Bollywood also. Kajal is the heartthrob of Indian cinema and has a massive fan following across pan-India. She is known for portraying roles in popular regional movies like Sita, Magadheera, Brindavanam along with Bollywood films such as Special 26 and Singham, which were a hit among the audience.

The objective behind the association is that Kajal will play an integral role in intensifying the brand’s reach in the southern Indian market, in addition to promoting the brand at a pan-national level also. As part of the association, the brand will soon launch a 360- degree campaign which will be led by television, print and digital platforms.

Having Kajal on the board, Joy Chatterjee, General Manager- Sales & Marketing, Mankind Pharma said, “We are excited to have Kajal with us as her presence across southern markets will help us in connecting with more and more women, and will also help in building the awareness of the product. The reason behind this partnership is that Kajal is someone to whom young moms can relate easily. Hence, we would like to leverage it and reach out to the expectant mother and be a part of their happiness in their motherhood journey.”

Kajal Agarwal said -

It is very heart-warming to be a part of the Prega News family. The brand gives good news in a few mins and is known for its accurate results. Indeed, it has become a preferred choice for expecting mothers. This is an extremely valuable association for me, and I look forward to a meaningful partnership with the brand.

We Founder Circle, the Startup Investment Platform, Leads $75K seed round in Avni - Menstrual Care Startup

We Founder Circle, the startup investment platform, leads USD 75K seed round in Avni- menstrual care startup

New Delhi, 21st April, 2021- We Founder Circle (WFC) – a startup investment platform, in continuation of its mission to seed fund early-stage startups, has invested in Avni, a startup focussed on conscious and holistic menstrual care. The brand offers a wide range of menstrual care products including - Avni reusable cloth pads, Avni organic cotton pads and Avni menstrual cups.

Due to lack of organic and natural products, a lot of women are left with no choice but to use chemical based sanitary products that cause skin challenges. To address the same, Avni started working on alternatives and introduced tested, innovative products, made with carefully selected ingredients. The startup further identified that there is a lack of awareness among women users towards reusable menstrual products and to help them with the queries it also launched a 24X7 support period helpline.

The seed round worth USD 75K witnessed participation from key investors including Amit Tyagi, entrepreneur turned investor, Srikanth Iyengar, a senior executive in the technology services industry and an investor in edtech, healthcare and consumer startups.

Avni plans to utilize funds in product development and expanding the product line. It also plans to exhaust a part of the fundraise in creating more awareness through various on-ground initiatives.

"Currently, what we see in the market is a lot of chemical based products that cause serious vaginal diseases and skin problems. This turns out to be a bigger challenge for women with sensitive skin. We are trying to provide natural and reusable solutions so that women do not have to compromise by using plastic and chemical based products. We started with antimicrobial reusable and organic cotton sanitary pads as 80 % of the market share of feminine products is dominated by the pads. Gradually, we moved on to launch more products in the menstrual care category. Until now we have already served over 5000 women," said Ms. Sujata Pawar- Co-Founder- Avni.

Commenting on the fundraise Sujata added, "We strategically raised a small amount in this round. Keeping our growth plans in mind we aim at a bigger round by August 2021."

"The market of feminine hygiene products is expected to grow to INR 58.62 billion by 2024. And with innovative startups like Avni coming into the play, there will be a niche of customers for natural options. The space is less penetrated and not so competitive yet. This highlights the abundant scope it holds," said Mr. Neeraj Tyagi- Co-Founder and CEO, We Founder Circle.

The products by the brand are available on various ecommerce platforms- Amazon, Flipkart, 1 mg, Qtrove, Shycart, Upciclo, ThePinkBox and 27 retail stores in India including Vayas Sakhi.


About WFC

Established in 2020 in Mumbai, We Founder Circle is a global community of successful founders & strategic angels that have come together to push the startup industry and steer it towards aggressive growth. It invests USD 50K- USD 150 K amount in early -stage startups that are fueled with ambition, sustainability and strategic approach. WFC provides seed funding, business development and global networking opportunities to startups as it believes early-stage startups need a lot beyond just financial support to become scalable and stable.

About Avni

Avni founded in August 2020 in Thane, Maharashtra is a young start-up focused on holistic menstrual care. Founded by the husband-wife duo -Sujata Pawar and Apurv Agrawal, MyAvni conscious menstrual care products for women. The brand offers well researched,innovative, tested products to facilitate women hygiene during periods. The co-founders envision Avni to emerge as a reliable women's health brand with the support of medical experts, 24X7 helpline, and conscious products right from menarche to menopause.

5 Strategic Insights Set to Power the Femtech Market

In honor of International Women's Day, Frost & Sullivan experts share key findings on how femtech is improving women's health and empowering them globally

SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 8, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- As we celebrate International Women's Day and this year's theme #ChooseToChallenge, Frost & Sullivan acknowledges the critical role of technology, such as artificial intelligence and big data analytics, in improving women's lives and empowering them.

Femtech (female technology) is an emerging term and is poorly understood, as is the case with most new concepts. While some relate femtech only with products unique to reproductive health (including consumer products), others dismiss it as just another term for a group of existing solutions. Our experts believe it is a unique space and a place for new growth opportunities.

 

The global femtech market was valued at $487 million in 2020 and is expected to reach $522 million by the end of 2021. Fertility solutions will drive the industry's expansion, reaching $217 million by the end of 2021, followed by menstrual care solutions hitting $168 million by the end of this year. Both segments will be powered by increased adoption and implementation of telehealth and mhealth for next-gen femtech solutions.

Frost & Sullivan's upcoming research, Growth Opportunities in the Global Post-COVID-19 Femtech Industry, 2021, provides a 360-degree analysis of diverse factors impacting women's healthcare needs during and after the pandemic, as well as the untapped opportunities that can be targeted for growth in this market.

To access the executive summary of our upcoming femtech report, please visit: http://frost.ly/5ek

"The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the challenges women face, and many new products and technologies have grown out of this pandemic. The time has come for female technology to become mainstream, as so far, women's health is still in the shadows," said Reenita Das, Partner and Global Client Leader, Healthcare & Life Sciences at Frost & Sullivan. "Femtech still continues to be the stepchild for digital health, as there are very few femtech products catering to tracking and monitoring these diseases. Discouragingly, the maximum funding for femtech is only 6.64% of the total digital health funding for the year. There is no doubt that the road ahead for femtech is a holistic approach, the 'one-for-all' should transform to a 'one-to-one' personalized care."

Suchismita Das, Industry Analyst, Healthcare & Life Sciences at Frost & Sullivan, added: "Service providers should start focusing on unaddressed women health areas such as endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and mental health. Menopause is another open growth opportunity area in the femtech market, with few solutions tackling obstacles in this space."

Frost & Sullivan identified five critical success factors for the femtech market to thrive:

1. Accessibility with respect to cost and outreach programs in developing countries would increase the customer base.
2. Driving adoption and adherence through government policies and insurance or reimbursement agencies.
3. B2B partnering with large public hospitals, healthcare companies, public health entities, and NGOs, which have deeper distribution channels for mass screening and awareness campaigns.
4. Customized revenue models based on the application of femtech solutions, like renting devices for a limited period of use.
5. Developing affordable solutions and focusing on the least explored aspects of women's health.

About Frost & Sullivan

For six decades, Frost & Sullivan has been world-renowned for its role in helping investors, corporate leaders and governments navigate economic changes and identify disruptive technologies, Mega Trends, new business models, and companies to action, resulting in a continuous flow of growth opportunities to drive future success. Contact us: Start the discussion.

Revolutionary pregnancy health app iMumz raises 2.2 crore from Enzia Ventures, Titan Capital and Angel list

Team's picture (Dr. Narendra Malhotra, Dr. Jaideep Malhotra, Rajesh Jagasia, Ravi Teja Akondi, Mayur Dhurpate from L to R. Except Dr. Narendra Malhotra - Spouse of Dr. Jaideep, rest are co-founders of iMumz)

5th January 2021, New Delhi: iMumz, the pregnancy app supported by 1000+ obstetricians and founded by 2 young IIT BHU alumni, a lifestyle expert and a senior obstetrician is now funded to the tune of 2.2 crore rupees. Having won the prestigious AtmaNirbhar app challenge in the health space, the founders Ravi Teja Akondi, Mayur Dhurpate, Rajesh Jagasia and Dr Jaideep Malhotra have big plans for worldwide expansion. 

More than 100,000 iMumz has delivered healthy babies so far. Every expecting couple desires to have a safe, healthy, happy pregnancy and research today says that the womb environment of the mother during pregnancy is the first learning classroom for the child and shapes the baby’s genes, brain development, emotions and immunity. iMumz daily activities shields the mother from stress, bonds her to her baby with baby bonding activities, pregnancy date wise music to unwind, and provides her yoga, diet for her fitness and desired nutrition.


Co-founder Mayur Dhurpate talks about the app's ease of use and technical features saying “iMumz program has become the most popular pregnancy program in India due to its elegant UI and also its gamified approach of Baby Score for mothers and fathers to track how healthy the environment for the baby is. We have also built a powerful chat engine and live streaming feature which hosted 160+ senior doctors post Covid Lockdown, and answered 50,000 questions during those tough times”

Dr Jaideep Malhotra, senior gynaecologist and Ex-FOGSI president says “We are seeing a huge demand for an iMumz equivalent post pregnancy from our users. We will be releasing the iMumz app for new mothers and fathers on the 20th Jan, 2021 in India. This will take into account postpartum depression - the difficult period for mothers and will also have Baby Growth Program - playful activities for brain development, movement for the newborn. We are also moving towards a powerful personalisation of the program for the expecting and new mothers through their health information.”

Bipin Shah, Partner, Titan Capital, "We believe in the diverse team of iMumz. They are on a very focused trajectory to become the 'Go to platform' for pregnant women by helping them in their journey. Clearly this is a large market globally. Till date, iMumz created a huge impact in 100,000+ pregnancies and all set to launch in global markets"

Karuna Jain, Partner, Enzia ventures, said, "In the current scenario Indian society has taken a 360 degree turn when it comes to health and wellness. People are more determined towards their mental and physical health, especially expecting mothers. In such an evolving country, apps like iMumz are the need of the hour and we are glad to have invested in iMumz as these modern applications are filling the gap with the much required wellness awareness.

Enzia Ventures, Titan capital (by Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal, founders of Snapdeal), and Angel list funded iMumz with 2.2 crore and they believe the brand is moving in the right way and can easily penetrate the international markets. iMumz plans to enter the US in March with customised wearable devices and giving suggestions based on the wearable data for every pregnancy. They dream that every pregnancy is safe, happy and healthy.

9Unicorns Leads INR 1.5 Crore Funding of Janani, An Innovative Fertility Tech Start-up

The venture aims to develop and deliver a full-service fertility care platform that provides personalised, high-quality, effective, and affordable solutions to challenges in infertility.

 

9Unicorns, India's first idea-phase accelerator VC fund, has recently led an INR 1.5 crore pre-seed investment in Janani, a fertility care provider. The funding round saw participation from other investors too, Archana Priyadarshini and Sweta Rau led the round in AngelList. Other angels like the famous IVF expert Dr Nandita Palshetkar, Astir VC partner Kishore Ganji also participated in the round.

Established in June 2020, Janani aims to make the process of infertility treatment and assisted fertilisation easier and more affordable for the masses. The start-up operates at the intersection of modern technology and excellent medical care to maximize the chances of conceiving successfully. It will leverage a superior quality lab environment, consultation from expert gynaecologists, a skilled and experienced staff, and high-quality medicines to deliver superior out comes to patients. Furthermore, in keeping with its vision of providing the best and most personalised care to all, Janani aims to make these facilities available at extremely affordable price points with flexible payment options.

Dr Nandita quoted, "Janani is creating an AI and computer vision tool to help remove the subjectivity of embryologists while choosing the right embryo. This will increase the success rate of IVF and eventually help lower the costs."

Dr S S Vasan, a key member of the founding team is also the Chairman of Ankur Fertility Group. He mentioned, "Technological innovation in fertility management will ensure that patients' distress is minimised and that success is consistent and highly optimised. I am happy to be part of team Janani to bring in a revolution in access, simplification, technology, success and structured costs in the field of fertility management."

Speaking on the investment, Nilay Mehrotra – Founder of Janani, said, "I am grateful to Dr. Apoorva and the 9Unicorns team for showing faith in this idea at such an early stage. Dr. Apoorva, being the visionary that he is, understood what we wanted to achieve and the scope of disruption that we planned. The entire process was swift and seamless, as we closed the round with 9Unicorns." 

Nilay Mehrotra - Founder of Janani

Ms Archana, a key investor in the company, said that "The availability of high-quality infertility treatment in India is limited to a few major cities, the process being inconvenient and traumatic. Many patients also lack the means to afford these quality medical solutions. Janani aims to disrupt this space by providing best-in-class medical care at an affordable price point to the couples."

Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder & Managing Director – 9Unicorns, added, "We believe that there is extensive scope in the fertility tech space and are confident in the team's ability to capitalise on it with its unique, tech-led proposition."

Janani has set its eyes on the global fertility tech management market, currently estimated to be worth $36 Billion. It aims to use the funding to create better infertility treatment solutions and make the journey-to-conception more rewarding and hopeful for people around the world.

9Unicorns is India's First Accelerator VC providing acceleration support & seed funding to early-stage start-ups. The funding can be provided up to $100K per start-up in the first round and may invest further $500K-$2Mn in successive rounds with its co-investors. From the idea stage to the angel stage, it supports start-ups across various themes & sectors.

9Unicorns' strength & focus is to provide a hands-on support ecosystem for start-ups that goes beyond just capital. 9Unicorns, besides investment, opens doors to the startups for access to a wide network of successful founders, category leaders, CXOs of large corporations, seasoned angel investors & partners of global VC funds. Every portfolio company receives an acceleration support for 3 months & post-investment support of 18 months.  

WeeMate Launches Innovative Pee Device in India to Help Women Relieve themselves with Ease

In a boost to women empowerment a women friendly urination device has caught the attention of today's educated and savvy women. The device called WeeMate has been launched by the entrepreneur Ms. Neha Chachra with an aim to help women counter dirty public toilets and to protect them from deadly infections that they may get from using public toilet seat.

A couple of years back she had met with an accident and while recuperating she encountered difficulty in accessing hygienic public toilets. She understood that this is a common dilemma and many women like her might have to face similar challenge every day. In due course she came up with the idea of WeeMate to save all the women from the horrors of public toilets. The revolutionary pee friendly device WeeMate aids a female to urinate while standing upright and avoid sitting on dirty toilets. The main purpose of the device is to funnel urine away from women while she takes a pee standing up rather than squatting.

WeeMate Product

WeeMate Founder Ms. Neha Chachra said, "Public washrooms are unfortunately a nightmare in India and ladies dread them the most. While using these toilets, the women even shudder at the thought of the number of people who may have sat on the same toilet seat and would have forgotten to wash that. Smaller bladders than men, the inability to stand and pee while using these dirty toilets - all such reasons led me to launch WeeMate and support the women of today who need to travel long hours for the job; spend the whole day shopping, go on a day out with friends, and so on."

No one can underestimate the fact that intimate hygiene is one of the most important aspects of the women's health. Thus, she thought it's time to stand for hygiene and came up with WeeMate - an ideal pee friendly device for women who hate unhygienic and dirty toilets. Now with the help of WeeMate, the women can relieve themselves with ease in all public toilets without any fear of contracting diseases like Gut infection, Viral infections, STDs and UTIs. All these infections occur when the germs from toilet seat transfer to urethral or genital tract, but WeeMate helps women to stay infection free by allowing them to stand and urinate. In the current COVID-19 situation, the relevance of WeeMate in the lives of women has already increased manifold.

Priced affordably at Rs. 180/- for 10 pieces, the women friendly stand-to-pee device WeeMate is available all across the country on reputed online marketplaces and neighbourhood stores. As inaugural offer the company is giving two pieces extra free of cost in every pack.

Female-Care Product Startup Nua Raises $4 Mn from Lightbox Ventures

Mumbai-based Nua, a female care brand, has raised $4 million in Series A round of funding led by Lightbox Ventures with contribution from te startup's existing investor Kae Capital.

Operated by Lagom Labs, Nua -- as a brand -- creates products and services that revolved around women’s health and wellness. It currently makes sanitary pads and sells them online.

The Nua sanitary pads do not have prints, perfume or any chemical on the top layer, come in convenient disposable covers and are delivered as per the chosen frequency.

Founded in 2017, by Ravi Ramachandran and Swathi Kulkarni, Nua aspire to be the leading online-led femcare brand by building a tech-enabled company that truly cares for every woman's needs.

The funding, which marks Lightbox’s first investment from its $200 million third fund, will allow Nua to make investments in technology and data as well as in expanding its product offerings.

Prashant Mehta, partner at Lightbox, said to Business Standard, "I think in Nua, we found a team that has thought through how to create an amazing experience for women and do it in a manner that is delivering massively amazing value."

"If you think about fem-care, there are already companies at the high end of the spectrum, you can always get very high-end products, but this team (Nua) really felt that it was important to bring care and wellness ideas to millions of women and not just the top echelon of women group,” said Mehta of Lightbox.

In August last year, Gurgaon-based Carmesi, which makes premium, all-natural and biodegradable sanitary pad, had raised $500,000 from Samrath Bedi, Managing Director, Forest Essentials, a luxury Ayurvedic beauty brand.

An another Sanitary Pad making startup called Saathi also provides affordable and bio-degradable sanitary pad made from waste Banana tree fiber and provide to women in rural India. The startup has recently selected in top 10 Innovative startups 2019 by Fast Company.

Source - Business Standard

Social Entrepreneurs collaborate for PregRX, world’s first paper-based Pee & See pregnancy product

In the lead up to International Women’s Day 2019, on the 8^th March, Gurgaon-based Deep Bajaj, Founder of PeeBuddy, India's First Design Patent Protected Female Urination Device for women, and the Sirona range of Unique Intimate & Menstrual Hygiene Products, has launched yet another breakthrough innovation, this time in the home pregnancy testing space. Called PeeBuddy PregRX, the product will be one-of-a-kind unique funnel with strategically-integrated HcG test strip.

With PregRx,women can now
simply pee and instantly check their pregnancy status. Not only does it
eliminate the need for any plastic bottle/tumbler/dropper, but also makes for
an easy-to-use and eco-friendly home testing process for pregnancy.

Deep has collaborated with ImpactGuru.com, India’s largest crowdfunding platform for personal causes, in a bid to facilitate a larger conversation around women’s health & hygiene, and to ensure successful market distribution for PregRX. Details of the PregRX fundraiser can be found here: https://www.impactguru.com/fundraiser/help-deep-bajaj

Making of PregRx

The current process of home pregnancy
testing is very cumbersome, wasteful, and regressive. A lady is expected to sit, pee, and capture urine in a
bottle/tumbler, before using a dropper and putting a few drops onto a plastic testing
cassette. The current process leads to plastic overuse, for every pregnancy
test involves plastic in some form or the other. The use of so many elements
also makes home pregnancy testing uneconomical, while impacting the accuracy of
the results. Most women also find the current process extremely nauseating.

Deep
Bajaj, Founder – PeeBuddy: Sirona,said, “As
a start-up, we exist to solve intimate and menstrual hygiene issues that Indian
women face, but which are either not discussed or not addressed. We
successfully solved the issue of wiping dirty toilet seats with PeeBuddy, which
sold a million units, and have also introduced many category-defining products
under the Sirona range. These include India’s first herbal feminine pain relief
patch which frees women from hot water bottle/pain killers, Sirona Disposal
Bags for clean & discreet disposal of sanitary products, Sirona Tampons both
with and without an applicator, Sirona Menstrual Cups, etc.”

“In one of our focus groups, young
mothers shared their stories about home pregnancy testing and called it
cumbersome & annoying! We decided to look deeper into the process and realised
that we could significantly streamline it by integrating HcG test strips with PeeBuddy,
thereby simplifying the entire process in terms of usage while reducing
wastage. With PeeBuddy PregRx, women
would now simply be able to test pregnancy anywhere without needing any other accessory,”
Deep added.

Utilization
of funds through crowdfunding

Deep said, “The product is ready and has already been tested extensively. However, as this product is for all women, we need everyone’s help to spread awareness about this innovative solution. The funds raised through crowdfunding on ImpactGuru.com would be used to develop other variants and a part of it would also go towards marketing.”

Khushboo Jain, Co-Founder and COO, ImpactGuru.com said,

Crowdfunding has evolved to become an important medium especially for social innovators in creating awareness and raising funds for various causes. We at ImpactGuru are thrilled to help PeeBuddy PregRX in a bid to impact the lives of millions of women in India and abroad. I hope that many people especially women come forward to support this wonderful cause and help make it the leading product in this category.”

About PeeBuddy: Sirona  

Sirona is an award-winning intimate & menstrual hygiene product brand providing solutions to ‘ignored & unaddressed’ feminine hygiene woes and wellness-related problems. Formally incorporated in 2015 by Delhi-based entrepreneur Deep Bajaj (Founder) & Mohit Bajaj (Co-Founder), Sirona was an outcome of the numerous bad experiences that the women around them suffered, in terms of basic and intimate hygiene issues that remain largely unaddressed in a country like India. The company is widely popular for being the maker of India’s first portable, disposable & highest selling female urination device, PeeBuddy.

Biodegradable Sanitary Pad Startup Carmesi Raises $500K in Pre-Series A Funding

Gurgaon-based Carmesi, an India’s first brand of premium, all-natural and biodegradable sanitary pad, has raised a Pre-Series A funding of $500,000 (Rs.3.44 crore) from Samrath Bedi, Managing Director, Forest Essentials, a luxury Ayurvedic beauty brand.

The round also saw participation of other investors including Satveer Thakral from the Thakral Group, Mahesh Patel, Rohit Reddy, and Samir Saran. The existing investors who invested in Carmesi’s seed round raised in May 2017, also participated in the new funding round.

The startup will use the freshly raised capital to further strengthen the Carmesi's marketing, expanding the product line to introduce more sustainable period-care products, and establish a stronger and well-penetrated distribution strategy.

Founded in November 2017 by former Yatra employees Tanvi Johri and Rikshav Borah (IIT-Bombay), Carmesi manufactures all-natural sanitary pads made of cornstarch and bamboo fibre. It offers subscription-based delivery where the startup home-delivers its sanitary napkins on a quarterly basis, supplying 10 pads per month. The dates of delivery can be customized for those with irregular menstruation periods, and those with heavy flows can opt to have multiple packs delivered together.

The startup claims to be the first and only brand in India to offer completely biodegradable disposal bags that enable a safe and hygienic disposal of used sanitary pads, which are very thin and soft to use.

To recall, an Ahmedabad-based startup called Saathi, also provides affordable and bio-degradable sanitary pad made from waste Banana tree fiber and provide to women in rural India. In fact, in February this year, Saathi won top award in Global Cleantech Innovation Award.

Saathi however has not opted for commercial model or subscription-based model, for that matter.

With a base of more than 50,000 customers, Carmesi claims to be growing at a rate of about 25% month-on-month.

In 2015, we featured a startup called Being Juliet, a New Delhi based startup for women also offering its subscribers a monthly box of sanitary goodies.

Via - Business Standard | Business Line

[Top Image - Linkedin.com/Tanvi Johri]

Biodegradable Sanitary Pad Startup Carmesi Raises $500K in Pre-Series A Funding

Gurgaon-based Carmesi, an India’s first brand of premium, all-natural and biodegradable sanitary pad, has raised a Pre-Series A funding of $500,000 (Rs.3.44 crore) from Samrath Bedi, Managing Director, Forest Essentials, a luxury Ayurvedic beauty brand.

The round also saw participation of other investors including Satveer Thakral from the Thakral Group, Mahesh Patel, Rohit Reddy, and Samir Saran. The existing investors who invested in Carmesi’s seed round raised in May 2017, also participated in the new funding round.

The startup will use the freshly raised capital to further strengthen the Carmesi's marketing, expanding the product line to introduce more sustainable period-care products, and establish a stronger and well-penetrated distribution strategy.

Founded in November 2017 by former Yatra employees Tanvi Johri and Rikshav Borah (IIT-Bombay), Carmesi manufactures all-natural sanitary pads made of cornstarch and bamboo fibre. It offers subscription-based delivery where the startup home-delivers its sanitary napkins on a quarterly basis, supplying 10 pads per month. The dates of delivery can be customized for those with irregular menstruation periods, and those with heavy flows can opt to have multiple packs delivered together.

The startup claims to be the first and only brand in India to offer completely biodegradable disposal bags that enable a safe and hygienic disposal of used sanitary pads, which are very thin and soft to use.

To recall, an Ahmedabad-based startup called Saathi, also provides affordable and bio-degradable sanitary pad made from waste Banana tree fiber and provide to women in rural India. In fact, in February this year, Saathi won top award in Global Cleantech Innovation Award.

Saathi however has not opted for commercial model or subscription-based model, for that matter.

With a base of more than 50,000 customers, Carmesi claims to be growing at a rate of about 25% month-on-month.

In 2015, we featured a startup called Being Juliet, a New Delhi based startup for women also offering its subscribers a monthly box of sanitary goodies.

Via - Business Standard | Business Line

[Top Image - Linkedin.com/Tanvi Johri]

FemTech Startup PregBuddy Raises Seed Funding Via Indian Angel Network, Others

Bangaluru-based femtech (female technology) startup (What is Fem-Tech?) PregBuddy has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round of funding from Indian Angel Network (IAN), reported BW Disrupt.

Other marquee investors who participated in the round include -- Rajan Anandan, an IAN Member & MD Google India, Madhusudhan Kannan, Chief Business Officer of Uber India & Emerging Markets, Jayant Kadambi, Co-Founder & Chairman of YuMe among others. Renowned Angel investor and Founder of India’s 1st healthcare incubator-HealthStart, Pradeep K Jaisingh, is the lead IAN member joining the company board.

Addressing a huge gap, PregBuddy ensures timely & easy delivery of high quality medical care through their continuum platform between doctors and their expecting patients, through their journey-from pre-conception to the early years of motherhood.

The platform offers personalized healthcare via peer support, organized information, expert access for nutrition, fitness & emotional advice, in addition, to affordable access to essential products & services.

Founded in 2016 by IIT graduates Sivareena and Subhadeep Mondal, PregBuddy is a Health & wellness platform for women during the years when she tries to conceive, pregnant and in their early years of motherhood. It is essentially a smart connected care platform for expecting mothers.

The idea of PregBuddy struck to founders when one of Sivareena’s cousin underwent a miscarriage in her 4th month of her pregnancy. The domain then caught their attention and together, Sivareena and Subhadeep then decided to work in the healthcare space and bring about a positive change in people’s lives. What started with a WhatsApp group initially led them to build a pregnancy app which was the first peer-to-peer instant reassurance platform for expecting mothers based on their location, trimester, language, region and past medical conditions.

Last year, the startup was selected by Google for their first cohort of Solve for India and its Launchpad Build program. They have recently been awarded by actor Akshay Kumar, Asian Business Angel Forum, and DST - Government of India for their contribution in healthcare sector. The startup was also part of Facebook's FbStart programme and Zone Startup India's flagship all-women accelerator programme "empoWer". PregBuddy has been completely bootstrapped for 1.5 years and they make money through usual B2C models for consumers products.

To date, PregBuddy has already seen a traction of over 60,000 users, and has been growing organically by 20%, month-over-month, which is phenomenal success so far in this domain. Most of their users are first-time moms, living in nuclear families who find the PregBuddy App very useful like a companion throughout the pregnancy.

Commenting on the investment, lead IAN investor Pradeep K Jaisingh said “Technology is playing a defining role in today’s healthcare system both for enhancing quality and improving access to healthcare in India. PregBuddy has emerged as an exciting new platform for both caregivers and patients alike, leading to great improvements in patient satisfaction, reduced costs and improved health outcomes. The company has had phenomenal success so far in this domain and we believe they will continue to excel in the industry to be a market leader.”

“Over the past 1.5 years we’ve seen the impact of our product on expecting mothers’ lives. Every day we have at least 100 mothers who are delivering their babies after using PregBuddy. This provides us immense satisfaction and boost to our team to do more. We plan to utilize this investment to expand our team and scale up the platform. We’re actively looking to hire few passionate people in fields of technology, marketing and business development who will join our core-team and work closely with the cofounders and grow along with them.” said S.L. Sivareena, Cofounder & COO at PregBuddy.

Last month Karma Healthcare, an Udaipur, Rajasthan-based startup in the technology-led healthcare space, has raised INR 3 crore in equity funding from early stage investment firm 1Crowd.

Speaking about funds for early-ventures working in healthcare, recently India's largest hospital chain Apollo Hospitals has launched seed fund for healthcare startups in India. According to a report published by Nasscom in last November, funding in healthcare tech segment has witnessed 129% increase in funding from $70 million in FY17 to $160 million in FY18. Attributing to the increased traction in these segments to innovation.

Last December, health-tech startup KiViHealth raised $400K funding from Claris Capital and Chandigarh Angels followed by $350,000 seed funding of Kolkata-based EasyBuyHealth.

Top Image - Sarika Sivareena Via Pregbuddy@Twitter

FemTech Startup PregBuddy Raises Seed Funding Via Indian Angel Network, Others

Bangaluru-based femtech (female technology) startup (What is Fem-Tech?) PregBuddy has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed round of funding from Indian Angel Network (IAN), reported BW Disrupt.

Other marquee investors who participated in the round include -- Rajan Anandan, an IAN Member & MD Google India, Madhusudhan Kannan, Chief Business Officer of Uber India & Emerging Markets, Jayant Kadambi, Co-Founder & Chairman of YuMe among others. Renowned Angel investor and Founder of India’s 1st healthcare incubator-HealthStart, Pradeep K Jaisingh, is the lead IAN member joining the company board.

Addressing a huge gap, PregBuddy ensures timely & easy delivery of high quality medical care through their continuum platform between doctors and their expecting patients, through their journey-from pre-conception to the early years of motherhood.

The platform offers personalized healthcare via peer support, organized information, expert access for nutrition, fitness & emotional advice, in addition, to affordable access to essential products & services.

Founded in 2016 by IIT graduates Sivareena and Subhadeep Mondal, PregBuddy is a Health & wellness platform for women during the years when she tries to conceive, pregnant and in their early years of motherhood. It is essentially a smart connected care platform for expecting mothers.

The idea of PregBuddy struck to founders when one of Sivareena’s cousin underwent a miscarriage in her 4th month of her pregnancy. The domain then caught their attention and together, Sivareena and Subhadeep then decided to work in the healthcare space and bring about a positive change in people’s lives. What started with a WhatsApp group initially led them to build a pregnancy app which was the first peer-to-peer instant reassurance platform for expecting mothers based on their location, trimester, language, region and past medical conditions.

Last year, the startup was selected by Google for their first cohort of Solve for India and its Launchpad Build program. They have recently been awarded by actor Akshay Kumar, Asian Business Angel Forum, and DST - Government of India for their contribution in healthcare sector. The startup was also part of Facebook's FbStart programme and Zone Startup India's flagship all-women accelerator programme "empoWer". PregBuddy has been completely bootstrapped for 1.5 years and they make money through usual B2C models for consumers products.

To date, PregBuddy has already seen a traction of over 60,000 users, and has been growing organically by 20%, month-over-month, which is phenomenal success so far in this domain. Most of their users are first-time moms, living in nuclear families who find the PregBuddy App very useful like a companion throughout the pregnancy.

Commenting on the investment, lead IAN investor Pradeep K Jaisingh said “Technology is playing a defining role in today’s healthcare system both for enhancing quality and improving access to healthcare in India. PregBuddy has emerged as an exciting new platform for both caregivers and patients alike, leading to great improvements in patient satisfaction, reduced costs and improved health outcomes. The company has had phenomenal success so far in this domain and we believe they will continue to excel in the industry to be a market leader.”

“Over the past 1.5 years we’ve seen the impact of our product on expecting mothers’ lives. Every day we have at least 100 mothers who are delivering their babies after using PregBuddy. This provides us immense satisfaction and boost to our team to do more. We plan to utilize this investment to expand our team and scale up the platform. We’re actively looking to hire few passionate people in fields of technology, marketing and business development who will join our core-team and work closely with the cofounders and grow along with them.” said S.L. Sivareena, Cofounder & COO at PregBuddy.

Last month Karma Healthcare, an Udaipur, Rajasthan-based startup in the technology-led healthcare space, has raised INR 3 crore in equity funding from early stage investment firm 1Crowd.

Speaking about funds for early-ventures working in healthcare, recently India's largest hospital chain Apollo Hospitals has launched seed fund for healthcare startups in India. According to a report published by Nasscom in last November, funding in healthcare tech segment has witnessed 129% increase in funding from $70 million in FY17 to $160 million in FY18. Attributing to the increased traction in these segments to innovation.

Last December, health-tech startup KiViHealth raised $400K funding from Claris Capital and Chandigarh Angels followed by $350,000 seed funding of Kolkata-based EasyBuyHealth.

Top Image - Sarika Sivareena Via Pregbuddy@Twitter

The Rise of FemTech and Where Does India Stand?

Females account for almost 50 per cent of the human population on this planet, but unfortunately, there is very less tech available in the market dedicated towards making their lives easier and better. Over the past few years, if we notice carefully, we would observe that there hasn't been any significant technological advancement when it comes to women healthcare. It is as if sectors such as female contraception, fertility and periods have hardly seen any mobility innovation wise whatsoever. 

However, thankfully, a few years ago people realized this very important fact and started working towards changing the situation. Hence, the term "FemTech" was born.

What is FemTech?

FemTech is an umbrella term being used in the business/ industry for all female related technologies. This sector primarily deals with women’s health, including fertility solutions, period-tracking apps, pregnancy and nursing care, women’s sexual wellness, and reproductive system health care, all from technological standpoint of view.

It is good to see that mankind is finally moving away from a time when female health tech was no more than just an uncomfortable conversation. This change in mindset has resulted in a explosion of FemTech businesses over the last two years. Though the journey hasn't been easy.

How Big Is FemTech?

Till a while ago, investors considered FemTech as a "niche" market, when it clearly is not as it caters to half the population. But now, the investors are finally opening up to the potential of the sector. In an interview to Mashable, Ida Tin, CEO of the period-tracking app Clue estimated that approximately $200 billion is being spent on women's health already. Ida is also recognized for coining the term “FemTech” to describe this sector.

Entrepreneurs working on women's health share that even though they've seen more interest from investors recently, but they're still starting from a very low bar when compared to the digital health startups industry.

Why FemTech?

To begin with, women make up more than 50 per cent of the world’s population. Further, statistics have revealed that women are also uniquely empowered as consumers in majority parts of the world. Women all over the world control about $20 billion in annual consumer spending. This figure is expected to cross $28 trillion in the period of next five years.

According to data from CB Insights, roughly 45 FemTech startups have raised more than $1.1 billion in equity funding since 2014. And this is just the start, according to experts, with opportunities for women on both the tech and the VC sides of the table.

Some Early FemTech Startups

While launching a product is a lot of work no doubt, but when you're not only launching a product but also creating a new category, it is a different ballgame altogether. This is exactly what happened with Glow, a period-and ovulation-tracking app founded in the year 2013, which is also acknowledged as one of the first femtech startups to start their journey in this sector. Berlin-based Clue was also founded somewhere around the same time in 2013. Some other notable startups in the field include Naya Health, a startup producing hydraulic-powered breast pumps that are quieter, less heavier and much more efficient that traditionally available breast pumps; Progyny, an plan that helps its users with fertility treatments; Nuelle, an app revolutionizing sexual well-being and intimacy and Sera Prognostics, an app aiming to make the pregnancy period easier for pregnant woman and their physicians to identify preterm labor risks.

Femtech & India

A simple Google search for "FemTech Startups in India" churns out nothing related to the topic. Though there are companies working in the field, the market is still ignorant of the huge potential of the emerging sector.

United Nations Development Programme’s Gender Inequality Index, which measures a number of factors such as women’s reproductive health, empowerment and labour market participation, is considered as one of the leading barometers for global gender parity. Currently, India is lagging in 130th place on this Index, and joins the bottom twenty countries on the list.

Sure, there's no doubt that Indian women have a long way to go, but it is also important to acknowledge the fact that they have come a long way to place a strong foothold in the society in terms of equality and freedom. The increasing number of startups related to women healthcare in recent years in the country signifies the growing strength of women in the South Asian country.

Keep reading IndianWeb2 as soon we'll be revealing fistful yet promising FemTech Startups based out of India.

The Rise of FemTech and Where Does India Stand?

Females account for almost 50 per cent of the human population on this planet, but unfortunately, there is very less tech available in the market dedicated towards making their lives easier and better. Over the past few years, if we notice carefully, we would observe that there hasn't been any significant technological advancement when it comes to women healthcare. It is as if sectors such as female contraception, fertility and periods have hardly seen any mobility innovation wise whatsoever. 

However, thankfully, a few years ago people realized this very important fact and started working towards changing the situation. Hence, the term "FemTech" was born.

What is FemTech?

FemTech is an umbrella term being used in the business/ industry for all female related technologies. This sector primarily deals with women’s health, including fertility solutions, period-tracking apps, pregnancy and nursing care, women’s sexual wellness, and reproductive system health care, all from technological standpoint of view.

It is good to see that mankind is finally moving away from a time when female health tech was no more than just an uncomfortable conversation. This change in mindset has resulted in a explosion of FemTech businesses over the last two years. Though the journey hasn't been easy.

How Big Is FemTech?

Till a while ago, investors considered FemTech as a "niche" market, when it clearly is not as it caters to half the population. But now, the investors are finally opening up to the potential of the sector. In an interview to Mashable, Ida Tin, CEO of the period-tracking app Clue estimated that approximately $200 billion is being spent on women's health already. Ida is also recognized for coining the term “FemTech” to describe this sector.

Entrepreneurs working on women's health share that even though they've seen more interest from investors recently, but they're still starting from a very low bar when compared to the digital health startups industry.

Why FemTech?

To begin with, women make up more than 50 per cent of the world’s population. Further, statistics have revealed that women are also uniquely empowered as consumers in majority parts of the world. Women all over the world control about $20 billion in annual consumer spending. This figure is expected to cross $28 trillion in the period of next five years.

According to data from CB Insights, roughly 45 FemTech startups have raised more than $1.1 billion in equity funding since 2014. And this is just the start, according to experts, with opportunities for women on both the tech and the VC sides of the table.

Some Early FemTech Startups

While launching a product is a lot of work no doubt, but when you're not only launching a product but also creating a new category, it is a different ballgame altogether. This is exactly what happened with Glow, a period-and ovulation-tracking app founded in the year 2013, which is also acknowledged as one of the first femtech startups to start their journey in this sector. Berlin-based Clue was also founded somewhere around the same time in 2013. Some other notable startups in the field include Naya Health, a startup producing hydraulic-powered breast pumps that are quieter, less heavier and much more efficient that traditionally available breast pumps; Progyny, an plan that helps its users with fertility treatments; Nuelle, an app revolutionizing sexual well-being and intimacy and Sera Prognostics, an app aiming to make the pregnancy period easier for pregnant woman and their physicians to identify preterm labor risks.

Femtech & India

A simple Google search for "FemTech Startups in India" churns out nothing related to the topic. Though there are companies working in the field, the market is still ignorant of the huge potential of the emerging sector.

United Nations Development Programme’s Gender Inequality Index, which measures a number of factors such as women’s reproductive health, empowerment and labour market participation, is considered as one of the leading barometers for global gender parity. Currently, India is lagging in 130th place on this Index, and joins the bottom twenty countries on the list.

Sure, there's no doubt that Indian women have a long way to go, but it is also important to acknowledge the fact that they have come a long way to place a strong foothold in the society in terms of equality and freedom. The increasing number of startups related to women healthcare in recent years in the country signifies the growing strength of women in the South Asian country.

Keep reading IndianWeb2 as soon we'll be revealing fistful yet promising FemTech Startups based out of India.