53 Women-Led Startups Disrupting HealthTech

Women dominate healthcare. Not only do they make up half of the world's population, but 90% of women are the primary healthcare decision makers for their households. Put simply, that’s an estimated 3.73 billion women who need access to the most effective healthcare solutions for themselves and their families.

Women also comprise 70% of the healthcare workforce globally. But when it comes to funding women-led healthtech startups - surprise - funding is scarce. Only 9.7% of investor funding goes to healthtech startups led by women. Leaving the world’s healthcare problems solely in the hands of men inevitably leads to the creation of products that are blind to biases. And these biases can be deadly.

In the US, until as recently as the 1990s, government-funded clinical trials were not required to include minorities, including women and people of color. The results? People being prescribed drugs by their physicians that had adverse effects. For example, Zolpidem, otherwise known as Ambien, is a pharmaceutical drug prescribed by doctors to help combat insomnia. Unfortunately, before doctors starting prescribing the medication, they did not know that the drug remained in the bloodstream longer for some people, notably women. This resulted in many women driving impaired the next morning. After learning this, the FDA updated their guidelines to recommend that all doses for sleeping aids containing Zolpidem be cut in half for women.

Since then, the FDA has acknowledged sex differences in research and expects pharmaceutical and medical device companies to provide testing data on people of all sexes.

Biases extend far beyond biotech. Avery Smith, a software engineer, was inspired last year to research the biases on people of color in AI after his own wife died of skin cancer at 29. He co-authored a paper with Dr. Adewole Adamson in Jama Dermatology that warns of the adverse racial disparities that could result from relying on machine learning datasets that only use lighter skin tones for skin-cancer screenings.

If we’re going to solve the biggest health challenges facing this world, then investors must fund diverse founders. Because as you read this, innovations that could be literally saving lives are being left underfunded. Here is a list of 50+ women-led startups disrupting healthtech.

1. AblaCare develops an innovative solution for PCOS related infertility by restoring ovulation. Cofounders: Anne Osdoit and Marion Gasperment
2. Ada Health helps people actively manage their health and supports health professionals by combining collective medical knowledge with intelligent technology. Cofounder: Claire Novorol
3. Adia is a health platform, combining medical, emotional and social support in order to help women as they navigate the various life stages of their reproductive health. Cofounders: Lina Chan and Rose Acton
4. Aergo is a posture support system that empowers wheelchair users. Its network of air cells are designed to adjust automatically when users move, providing greater comfort and independence. Founder: Sheana Yu
5. Aparito is a digital health platform that provides wearable devices and disease-specific mobile apps to provide remote patient monitoring outside of the hospital environment. Founder: Dr. Elin Haf Davies
6. Aavia has created a smart case and app that learns and improves users’ birth control pill habits to help ensure it’s taken on time, every time. Founders: Aagya Mathur and Aya Suzuki
7. Daysy is an intelligent fertility tracker that calculates users’ fertility status, and displays the results either as a red (you are fertile / possible fertile) or green (you are not fertile) light. Founder: Natalie Rechberg
8. Boost Thyroid Thyroid conditions affect millions of people and they're difficult to diagnose early on. By tracking symptoms through Boost Thyroid’s app, users will see how their symptoms trend over time, have an updated record of their bloodwork, and have access to the latest scientific research on thyroid disease. Cofounder: Dr. Vedrana Högqvist Tabor 
9. BrightSign an assistive technology startup enabling innovations to facilitate communication for individuals who are non-verbal. BrightSign can be personalised for custom hand gestures, and can output speech in any language, giving users complete control over sign language libraries and verbal communication. Founder: Hadeel Ayoub
10. B-wom is a digital coach for women’s health and wellbeing, aiming to improve or prevent health conditions with exercises, healthy habits, tracking and content. Cofounders: Helena Torras, Estrella Jaramillo, Alba Montero, and Marta Ros
11. Celmatix is a personalized medicine company focused on fertility and women’s health. Their technology-enabled products empower people, through better data, to dramatically improve their chances of conceiving. Founder: Piraye Yurttas Beim
12. Clementine helps reduce stress and anxiety through an app providing hypnotherapy to help people worry less, feel more confident, and sleep better. Cofounders: Annie Ridout and Kim Palmer
13. CompoScan allows users to scan cosmetics and hygiene products with a smartphone app to determine precisely what they are made up of. Each ingredient is rated for its benefits or health toxicity. Cofounder: Kahina Houda Benhebri
14. Cortechs has developed innovative ways to improve the attention of kids with ADHD through digital tools such as gameplay to retrain the brain using brainwaves. Founder: Áine Behan
15. Dot Health enables secure and easy access to users’ personal health records. Founder: Huda Idrees
16. Endodiag is a biotechnology company specializing in the development of products and services aimed at improving the diagnosis of endometriosis. Founder: Cecile Real
17. Kind built an app to bring together patients, healthcare providers, and partners to be “smarter and better connected” via a secure cloud platform for patient and provider communication and knowledge sharing. Founder: Charlotta Tönsgård
18. Evidation Health’s technology powers a discovery engine for behavior-focused studies and a modern delivery platform that connects everyone who wants to participate in better health outcomes. Cofounder: Christine Lemke
19. FindMeCure is one of the first universal infrastructure enabling every person to access the best possible clinical trial, in turn broadening demographics for all organizations sponsoring clinical trials. Founder: Maya Zlatanova
20. GTN LTD Designing a new drug takes an average of 15 years and costs around £2bn to bring to market. GTN has a plan to cut these numbers in half by developing computer models capable of discovering new drugs exponentially faster than humans using quantum physics and machine learning. Cofounder: Noor Shaker
21. Honor provides personalized home care for people who want to continue to live in the homes they love—safely and happily, and as they age. Cofounders: Monica Lo and Sandy Jen
22. iBreve is a wearable device that helps people improve their stress resilience by analysing breathing patterns in real-time. A machine-learning algorithm correlates breathing rate, activity and stress level, and can trigger a subtle vibration directly on the device or send a notification to the user’s phone. Cofounder: Flavia Wahl
23. Immersive Rehab is a  VR healthtech startup that focuses on the creation and development of interactive rehab environments and games in VR that will improve the effectiveness of physical rehab. Founder: Isabel Van De Keere
24. Jessie Health Whether users need to get a prescription, schedule a video chat with practitioners, or order at-home lab tests, the online personal assistant Jessie connects them with the care they need, when they need it. Cofounders: Kerranna Williamson and Amy Domangue
25. KineQuantum is a virtual reality solution for evaluation and physical rehabilitation. Cofounder: Natacha Vanryb
26. Lilu builds technology to empower new moms. Their first product, the Lilu Massage Bra was designed to help moms pump more milk, more easily and comfortably though automated massage. Founder: Adriana C Vázquez Ortiz
27. Lisa Health is a digital app for midlife women using science and real honesty to help them navigate menopause and midlife health challenges, allowing women to boost their health and well-being with personalized, science and expert-backed micro-habit change coupled with virtual coaching, symptom tracking, curated products and resources, education, and community for support. Founder: Ann Garnier
28. Lora DiCarlo is determined to change the face of pleasure products. Proudly sex-positive, their goal is to create products and educational resources that promote female and LGBTQ+ sexual empowerment. Founder: Lora Haddock
29. Lunaphore develops automated solutions, performing immunohistochemistry, based on a unique microfluidic technology. Cofounder: Déborah Heintze
30. Magnusmode develops apps that help adults living with autism become independent in their daily life by guiding them through tasks like shopping and cleaning. Founder: Nadia Hamilton
31. Mahmee a prenatal and postpartum care management platform, connects families to healthcare providers and offers personalized support. Cofounder: Melissa Hanna
32. Maven Clinic is a virtual clinic for women and families offering on-demand healthcare from anywhere and modern family benefits. Founder: Kate Ryder
33. Medable is transforming healthcare by enabling patient generated data to drive healthcare delivery, clinical research, and precision and predictive medicine. Founder: Michelle Longmire
34. Mimetis Biomaterials designs, manufactures, and commercializes biomimetic bone regenerative solutions in the dental and orthopaedic fields. Cofounder: Maria Pau Ginebra
35. Modern Fertility Whether years away from having children or thinking of trying soon, Modern Fertility will provide users with in-depth information about their fertility hormones now to ensure options later. Cofounders: Afton Vechery and Carly Leahy
36. Mystery Vibe invents pleasure products that combine the best of humanity and technology to elevate sexual health and wellbeing. Cofounders: Shanshan Xu and Stephanie Alys
37. Natural Cycles is a non-hormonal contraceptive app that learns users’ unique cycles and tells them when they can and can’t get pregnant. Founder: Elina Berglund
38. Neurotrack uses clinically proven science to help users assess and improve memory over time. Cofounder: Elli Kaplan
39. NextGen Jane’s smart tampon will help streamline healthcare by creating more of a one-stop-shop for women's and reproductive health. The company will mail out a test kit with a special tampon for the user to return after use. The cells shed during menstruation will be analyzed for disease detection, as its system is able to preserve the DNA and RNA of the cells from the endometrium, cervix, fallopian tubes, and ovaries. Cofounder: Ridhi Tariyal
40. Niramai a healthtech startup using AI and machine learning to detect early stage breast cancer. Cofounder: Geetha Manjunath
41. No Isolation reduces involuntary loneliness and social isolation by developing communication tools that help those affected, initially helping sick children stay connected to their peers at school. Founder: Karen Dolva
42. Nopneu a biotech startup developing a low-cost diagnostic test for pneumonia. Founder: Temiloluwa Adeniyi
43. Norka Health is a platform for patients, clinics, and employers to bring fertility and infertility coverage to the $4B US employer market that currently has no family planning program. More than just an insurance policy: they are reinventing the confusing patient experience and providing benefits to single parents and LGBTQ+ communities, and more. Founder: Marianna Zaslavsky
44. Nuritas uses AI, machine learning, and DNA analysis to rapidly predict, and then provide access to, potentially beneficial components hidden within food (peptides). The results could lead to the discovery of new food components to help prevent, manage and even cure deadly diseases. Founder: Dr Nora Khaldi
45. Playpal helps prevent health depreciation through AI and machine learning, offering individualized recommendations for better health. Powered by a dual incentivization model that prompts healthy actions through the intrinsic motivation of gamified health and extrinsic rewards. Founder: Eesha Sheikh
46. Rosy is a women’s health company created to connect women who have decreased sexual desire with evidence-based resources to improve libido. Founder: Dr. Lyndsey Harper
47. Syrona Women is a test comparable in size and appearance to a pregnancy test that can be used to identify STDs, endometriosis, and cervical cancers. Current detection methods for these conditions are invasive, expensive, and infrequent. Syrona allows people to be diagnosed quicker, referring them to doctors as needed. Founders: Anya Roy and Chantelle Bell
48. Untire an app that provides cancer patients and survivors with the tools to cope with extreme fatigue. Founder: Door Vonk
49. TruDiary built a blockchain-based interactive personal health record in an effort to help reduce misdiagnoses for women at large. Founder: Veronica Berry
50. Univfy enables fertility doctors to provide accurate, personalized IVF treatment success prediction to help more women qualify for special pricing plans such as refund programs. Cofounder: Mylene Yao
51. Walk With Path focuses on injury prevention, improved mobility and user-centred design and intervention. Their products offer opportunities within therapeutic intervention as medical devices to prevent falls. Founder: Lise Pape
52. Wanngi is a mobile web app that provides users with the ability to create their own personal health record, track symptoms and injuries, and manage meaningful fitness goals through wearables. Founder: Maree Beare
53. Wildflower Health delivers mobile health programs that help healthcare payers better connect with and support families, impacting both short-term decisions and longer-term behaviors that together bend the cost curve in healthcare. Founder: Leah Sparks