VC funding in women’s health ‘on the uprise’ in 2023

Venture capital (VC) investments in women’s health tech companies increased by $22 million YoY, even as investments into healthcare more broadly dropped during the same period, according to a report Deloitte published on Tuesday.

Twenty-one investments ranging from $1 million to $191 million—for a total value of $481 million—went to tech companies focused on women’s health in 2023, a 5% increase over 2022. But while those investments rose, overall investment into healthcare fell from $59.9 billion to $41.2 billion, a 29% drop.

Even as investment in women’s health has grown, inching toward equity, Jennifer Radin, the report’s author and chief innovation officer of Deloitte’s healthcare practice, said that the low proportion of funding for women’s health companies reflects persistent gender inequity.

“Women have been underrepresented both in the design of healthcare as well as the investment,” Radin told Healthcare Brew. But, “investment in women’s health is on the uprise.”

Of the $41.2 billion VC investments into healthcare companies in 2023, the report found that 2%, or $823 million, of investments went to women’s health-focused enterprises, a category that includes everything from menopause and fertility to endometriosis.

Yet Radin said that recent social changes have spurred new VC interest in elevating women’s health, which could boost funding more. The trend is likely to benefit women founders, who run 76% of women’s health companies.

“Certainly the Dobbs decision has created a lens on the needs for women’s reproductive health,” she said of the Supreme Court overturning the constitutional right to an abortion. “The #MeToo movement has created significant public awareness of gender disparities, and then a slow but steady increase in women-owned VCs and women entrepreneurs has also helped with this increase.”

As of 2023, investment in women’s health remained below a 2021 peak of $629 million, when overall VC investments in the healthcare industry topped out at $80.2 billion. But Radin is still bullish.

“It’ll take investment to fuel all the innovation,” she said. “But I think we are off to a really good and healthy start this year.”