Despite representing half the global population and driving the majority of healthcare decisions, companies focused on women’s health continue to receive only 2% of healthcare venture capital funding. WHAM (Women’s Health Access Matters) is taking aim at this persistent funding gap with the launch of the Innovator’s Circle, an initiative designed to unite early-stage investors and accelerate innovation in women’s health.
The Innovator’s Circle brings together 20 founding funds focused on women’s health investments, creating a collaborative network that will identify breakthrough technologies, shape investment strategies, and build more robust pathways for funding promising startups in the sector.
“The Innovator’s Circle is more than a network—it’s a platform to accelerate groundbreaking ideas into market-ready solutions,” said Carolee Lee, CEO and Founder of WHAM. “By aligning early-stage investors with later-stage capital partners, we’re unlocking exponential opportunity for returns—and real health impact.”
Building a Coordinated Investment Ecosystem
The Innovator’s Circle represents the latest addition to WHAM’s strategy for transforming the women’s health landscape. It complements the organization’s Investment Collaborative, launched in December 2024 to unite multi-billion-dollar funds focused on later-stage investments.
According to Naseem Sayani, newly appointed Director of the Innovator’s Circle, who also serves as an Operating Advisor at How Women Invest and an Advisor at Tower Capital, the motivation behind the new network stems from recognizing the critical role early-stage investors play in seeding innovation.
“This is the pipeline engine,” she explains. “We’re organizing the earlier segment of the investment ecosystem to effectively curate the funnel and ensure appropriate attention on innovations at the earliest stages, so there are strong companies ready for later-stage investment.”
By bringing together funds that invest from seed through Series A, the Innovator’s Circle aims to strengthen collaboration among investors who are often the first to identify emerging technologies and approaches. The network will facilitate knowledge-sharing, trend analysis, and coordinated investment strategies that could help promising companies navigate the challenging path from concept to market.
A Collaborative Approach
The Innovator’s Circle begins with quarterly virtual calls bringing together its founding members, with plans to establish working groups focused on key challenges and opportunities in the women’s health investment landscape.
“Our intention is to proactively shape what the ecosystem becomes,” Sayani emphasizes. “We want to strategically influence the evolution of women’s health funding at both the fund and company levels, rather than allowing market forces to dictate outcomes. Our goal is to position ourselves at the forefront of these developments.”
This proactive approach reflects a growing recognition that the traditional investment model has consistently underserved women’s health. By creating a more coordinated ecosystem, WHAM and its partners aim to ensure that promising innovations don’t fall through the cracks due to funding gaps between investment stages.
The founding members include:
AHA Go Red for Women Venture Fund • Amboy Street Ventures • Avestria • Catalytic Impact Foundation • Coyote Ventures • Cross Border Impact Ventures • Digital DX Ventures • Emmeline Ventures • Foreground Capital • Goddess Gaia Ventures • Kaya Ventures • Kidron Capital • March of Dimes • Next Ventures • NextBlue • Seae Ventures • Swizzle Ventures • The Sparrow Fund • US Fertility • Zeal
While initially concentrated on U.S.-based funds to establish operations, the initiative has global ambitions. Sayani notes that she expects that more international funds will join over time.
Addressing Ecosystem Challenges
For early-stage funds investing in women’s health, several common challenges have emerged. Sayani identifies three primary concerns the Innovator’s Circle aims to address.
First, ensuring that companies with the greatest potential receive adequate funding to grow. “We need to ensure that we don’t miss opportunities to support promising technologies and high-potential business models within these companies,” she explains.
Second, supporting the funds themselves in raising capital. As women’s health emerges as a distinct investment category, many specialized funds are still establishing track records and building limited partner networks.
Third, identifying and responding to emerging areas of consumer demand. “There are significant areas of demand emerging within the ecosystem directly from women consumers,” Sayani notes. “We need to assess whether we’re effectively directing capital to meet this demand and whether we’re approaching this strategically as a collective.”
By addressing these challenges collaboratively rather than as “separate entities operating in parallel,” the Innovator’s Circle hopes to create a more strategic and effective funding environment.
A Resource for Founders
Beyond investor coordination, the Innovator’s Circle aims to serve as a valuable resource for entrepreneurs building in women’s health.
“Our vision is to establish this network as a comprehensive resource – a forum where founders can seek guidance, access information, and connect with aligned investors,” Sayani says. “These funds are committed to collaborative work, creating a supportive environment where founders can approach us as a unified team for assistance.”
This collaborative approach could help entrepreneurs navigate the often-fragmented early-stage funding landscape more efficiently, connecting them with the right investors at the right time.
Part of a Broader Vision
The Innovator’s Circle represents one component of WHAM’s integrated innovation ecosystem, which includes:
- The WHAM Research Collaborative: A global network of researchers, clinicians, and experts accelerating sex-based research across major disease areas.
- The WHAM Investment Collaborative: A coalition of investment leaders from multi-billion-dollar funds focused on increasing private investment in women’s health companies.
- The WHAM Life Sciences Collaborative: A consortium of industry leaders advancing the inclusion of sex-based biology throughout the product development lifecycle.
Together, these initiatives aim to address gaps throughout the women’s health innovation pipeline – from discovery through development and deployment.
“There’s substantial opportunity in this sector, and the more effectively we can organize our collective resources and expertise, the greater progress we’ll achieve,” Sayani reflects. “Our approach is fundamentally collaborative and iterative, and we welcome input and participation from all stakeholders in this ecosystem.”
For the women’s health startup ecosystem, which has historically struggled with fragmentation and underfunding despite its enormous market potential, the Innovator’s Circle represents another step toward building the coordinated, well-resourced funding pipeline that founders – and the women they serve – deserve.
