Every Monday we share a quick “best of” from the week that was with our Inner Circle members. What’s trending in the Femtech Insider community and beyond? We’ve got you covered! In this week's brief we talk about the new women's health platform company FemTec Health, plus...
- Organon's New Corporate Femtech Accelerator in MENA
- Spotted at Web Summit
FemTec Health and the Rise of Platform Companies in Women's Health
Without doubt the big news that got people talking last week was the launch of FemTech Health, a women's health company led by former Livongo and Vivante CEO Kimon Angiledes, who currently acts as interim CEO of the new company.
FemTech Health has been in the making since May 2020, has so far raised $38M from capital and investors including Longmont Capital, Ltd and HellasMed, LLC (company principals), Walgreens, Trinity, Unilever and Estee Lauder and acquired a number of companies in the beauty and wellness space including well-known beauty subscription box Birchbox, AI-enabled beauty marketplace Mira Beauty, and Liquid Grids, a social marketing platform known for its ability to build and leverage healthcare communities at scale.
FemTec Health has acquired BirchBox for $45M, Mira AI for $28M and will probably start to use MiraAI's recommendation engine, and BirchBox's distribution network to focus on "precision beauty" at first as it launches its own DTC products under a new global brand: Awesome Women. Given the composition of the founding team, however, it is likely what we will see FemTec Health quickly expand into precision medicine and telehealth for a variety of women's health topics. The 3rd company acquired, LiquidGrids, will likely serve as a market research entity and support go-to-market efforts with its community-building & analytics value prop.
Spotted at Web Summit
We love to learn about new companies who are tackling inequalities in women's health and beyond. Last week's Web Summit gave us the opportunity to put on our scouting hat again and we wanted to share a couple of "new discoveries" with you today!
OMGYNO is a femtech startup, that just launched in Greece and is now looking to expand to the Middle East with a focus on at-home testing.
CorSync (Brazil) have developed a device that uses a clinical biomarker in blood to diagnose heart attacks reducing time to diagnosis from 2-3 hours to 8 minutes.
Fleri allows immigrants in the U.S. to purchase health plans for their loved ones in Africa, which gives them access to preventative care (better outcomes) and saves costs since less money is needed for medical emergencies.
Skin Labo is an Italian skin care DTC company, that's currently raising growth capital to expand to the U.S.
Organon's New Corporate Accelerator for Femtech Startups in MENA
Women’s health pharma company Organon and Flat6Labs have announced a new femtech accelerator program to help female-founded digital health start-ups, across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). They will provide support in building products, testing market fit, and business model design.
This one's interesting to keep an eye on as Organon is looking to make further acquisitions - It acquired Alydia Health last summer - in the women's health space and the decision to create an accelerator program in MENA speaks to the potential the company sees in the region. Stay tuned for more on this!
👉 You can read our full coverage of the accelerator launch here.
