The investment gap in healthcare is making women sick
Underinvestment in women’s healthcare has real-world consequences that we can no longer ignore, writes Jessica Espinoza
Given the huge funding gap for women entrepreneurs, it has become even more important to celebrate record-level investments into women-founded companies, especially in sectors like women’s health. Level Zero Health, for example, which last month raised the largest ever pre-seed funding round for female founders in Europe. Still, we need to push for more.
The investment figures allocated to women’s health are dwarfed by those in other, male-dominated sectors. We need to see much more capital flowing into this sector to unlock its full potential. The more I speak with health investors and entrepreneurs, the more I am convinced of the potential both in terms of the business case and the positive ripple effects on society at large.
The women’s health market, valued at $41.3bn in 2023, is projected to reach $66bn by 2033. The case for investing in the sector has never been stronger and yet despite significant growth (300 per cent in investments between 2018 and 2023) there’s still money being left on the table.
Recent data reveals a staggering potential: closing the 25 per cent gap in women’s health outcomes could add at least $1 trillion to annual global GDP by 2040 and save the equivalent of 75m years of life. What’s more, it’s smart investing: there have been 35 successful exits in the past five years, including four IPOs and 31 mergers or acquisitions, highlighting the sector’s viability for high returns.
Despite this enormous potential, women’s health remains severely underfunded. Only two per cent of overall healthcare VC funding goes to women’s health startups. A mere one per cent of global R&D funding targets female-specific conditions (excluding female-specific cancers) and women’s health research receives disproportionately less funding compared to conditions affecting men.
There is a big opportunity cost – underinvestment in women’s health has real-world consequences. Endometriosis and menopause have a substantial impact on women’s well-being, ability to work and earning potential. The inability to work due to menopause symptoms has a direct economic impact of approximately £1.5bn per annum and severe period pain alone costs the UK £3.7bn annually in absenteeism.
Investing in women’s health is not just about addressing a long-neglected area of healthcare and a question of equity, it’s about unlocking vast economic potential and building a more equitable, prosperous future for all.
Quote of the week
“If you invest in a girl or a woman, you’re investing in everyone else”.
Melinda Gates, founder of Pivotal Ventures
International Women’s Day: An opportunity for action
Today, on the 8th March, we celebrate International Women’s Day. This year’s theme is ‘Accelerate Action’ but I have been disappointed by how few of the many articles, guides and conversations I’ve read focus on investing.
According to the World Economic Forum, it will take 152 years for women and men to reach economic parity. There are a myriad ways for us to close this gap, and deploying capital with a gender lens is a powerful one.
2X Global is paving the way to close the gender gap by mobilising the finance industry. For companies and funds already working towards building a more equitable system, we have launched a new 2X Certification, an industry-wide standard for integrating gender-smart strategies and practices which is designed to promote greater transparency, accountability and rigor in gender lens investing.
A number of organisations have already been successfully 2X certified, including Colombian fintech Aavance and the Indian company S4S Technologies as well as the most recent funds of the venture capital firm Beyond Capital Ventures and the private equity firm Verod. These organisations are taking action that will continue past this IWD and for many more to come.
Something to listen to
I recently met with Dr Ola Brown, a medical physician who founded her own healthtech company before moving into venture capital as the founding partner of Healthcap Africa, a leading specialist healthcare investor. If you’re interested in the topic of investing in women’ s health, I’d urge you to listen in via the 2X Global Youtube channel. In it we discuss Ola’s journey as a health tech entrepreneur, a VC investor and the opportunities for investing in womens’ health.
Jessica Espinoza is the CEO of 2X Global, the leading organisation working towards closing the gender gap by mobilising the finance industry