Catering to a market that market analysts Frost & Sullivan have forecast will be worth $50bn by 2025, femtech is the subset of apps and gadgets geared at enhancing women’s wellbeing. Currently made up of at least 200 startups worldwide, the companies focus solely on women’s health and are primarily managed by female CEOs and innovators. Developers in femtech are confident that the industry can help combat the dearth of women in scientific research, as well the social taboos around women’s health, from menstruation to postnatal depression and breastfeeding. But currently just 10% of global investment goes to female-led startups according to Forbes. This is why Portfolia, a US-based venture platform financed nearly exclusively by female investors, created the world’s first femtech fund in June 2018. (source: Guardian)

A decade ago, just $23 million worth of venture capital was invested in the global femtech industry, according to PitchBook data. That figure grew at a modest pace until 2015, when there was a spike in funding that totaled $334 million. In 2017, VC investors participated in 49 deals in the femtech space, totaling $354 million. And this year has already seen significantly more VC funding for companies in the industry than any year in the last decade: $391.5 million across 36 deals. Over the last decade, 365 VC investors have participated in deals in the space. (source: Pitchbook)

Agenda

• 6.00 - 6.30 - Registration and networking
• 6.30 - 6.35 - Women of Wearables - 5 minute presentation
• 6:35 - 6:45 - U+ I / PlusX - 5 min presentation
• 6.50 - 8.00 - Panel discussion + Q&A
• 8.00 - 9.00 - Refreshments and networking