In 2024, the UK FemTech market’s revenue was almost $1,500 million. In the US, revenue approached $13,500 million. Both markets have almost tripled in size in only five years, and rapid growth is expected to continue. From 2025 to 2030, compound annual growth of around 16% is forecast in both regions, with revenues projected to reach $3.8 billion in the UK and $32.3 billion in the US by 2030.
As innovators and investors flock to the FemTech space, what health issues can we hope to see addressed? What new technologies can we expect to see more of? And how might intellectual property (IP) play a part in supporting this innovation?
In this series of articles, we will explore some of the emerging technologies in FemTech and the areas tipped for breakthroughs. We will also consider how IP can benefit companies, as well as the challenges that innovators might face in obtaining and enforcing their rights.
The term ‘FemTech’ was introduced in 2016 by Ida Tin, co‑founder and CEO of the menstrual‑health app Clue. While there is no single definition, the term is generally understood to refer to solutions that address women’s health needs – whether through apps, devices, diagnostics or pharmaceuticals. These needs may be specific to women, or may relate to conditions that affect women disproportionately or in different ways to men.
Historically, clinical trials and healthcare research have not always considered sex-specific differences in data, or even included female participants at all. In the early 1960s, researchers investigated whether oestrogen supplementation was an effective preventative treatment for heart disease in women after the menopause. This study enrolled more than 8,000 men and no women. In 1977, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advised that all women of childbearing age should be excluded from early-phase drug trials. It wasn’t until 1993 that the FDA mandated the inclusion of women in clinical trials.
There is growing recognition that product design must take women’s bodies into account. The COVID‑19 pandemic highlighted injuries to women both as patients, suffering from facial bruising caused by poorly fitting respirators, and as care providers, exposed to infection by gaping PPE that failed to accommodate women’s bodies or movements. The use of, primarily, only male crash-test dummies in safety testing has been linked to the finding that women are 73% more likely to be injured in a car crash than men. It was only in 2023 that the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute announced that it had created the first dummy modelled entirely on a female body. Closer to home, large numbers of women cannot reach shelves in the supermarket or their kitchen, and cannot fit their hand securely around an electric drill.
Investment in FemTech is now enabling companies to develop new products, diagnostic methods and treatments that are tailored to women’s symptoms and their bodies.
Another driver for innovation in the sector is the desire – and indeed the need – for women to take their health into their own hands. Whilst the UK has the largest FemTech market in Europe, it is also reported to have the largest female health gap in the G20, and the twelfth largest globally. FemTech can help to address this gap by providing solutions such as monitoring apps and wearables, enabling women to track their symptoms and identify changes early, from the comfort of their homes.
All of this means there is significant scope for improving women’s healthcare, addressing women‑specific needs, and developing exciting new technologies. But who is taking these opportunities?
Of course, Big Tech has been paying attention. Many mobile phones and smart wearables now offer built‑in cycle and fertility‑tracking features. In 2023, for example, Samsung partnered with Natural Cycles to bring temperature‑based fertility tracking directly to a user’s wrist. Big Tech is also investing heavily in the space: Google Ventures has backed companies such as TMRW (egg and embryo cryomanagement), Midi Health (midlife healthcare for women) and Allara (a virtual care platform), while Apple has partnered with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to study how menstrual cycles relate to a range of health conditions.
Despite FemTech start-ups receiving only 2% of global VC funding, some of the most exciting advances – and biggest wins – have started small. In 2024, Flo Health achieved unicorn status (a privately held start‑up valued at over US $1 billion) with its women’s health app, becoming the first of its kind to do so.
For start‑ups, there may be a lot of plates spinning in those early days. While working to develop a product that is safe, effective and user‑friendly, attract investors, and communicate with customers, ensuring that all of your IP rights are in order can easily slip down the to‑do list.
However, for many FemTech start‑ups – and for the larger companies that invest in them – giving close attention to IP early on can deliver significant rewards later.
Recent EPO reports have found that filing patent and trade mark applications at the seed or early growth stage is associated with a significantly higher likelihood of securing VC funding, with start‑ups that filed for both trade marks and patents being more than ten times more likely to receive investment than those with no IP applications. The reports also highlighted that investors with experience funding companies holding patents tend to achieve better investment outcomes.
Our Innovation in FemTech series will take a closer look at several subsectors within the field, focusing on the groundbreaking innovations emerging, the kinds of IP that may benefit companies in this space, and the IP challenges that innovators may encounter.