The advancement of the health tech industry has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the need for greater remote and digital health platforms and apps. Health tech advancements have also seen a revolution in women’s health care, with access to more remote appointments, female-focused apps and enhancing the accessibility of health care.
Below, we take a look at some of the female-founded start-ups who will be taking the health tech space by storm this year.
These health tech companies are all a part of Haleon NEXT’s Re/Wire Health Studio programme. Clementine and Grace.Health were part of previous cohorts, while Lisa Health will join its third cohort.
The Re/Wire Health Studio from Haleon NEXT is a game-changing collaboration platform designed to democratise access to consumer health solutions, which supports and partners with early-stage consumer health start-ups around the world that are building the future of everyday health with humanity.
Re/Wire is focused on innovation in mental health and resilience, women’s health and fitness, and oral health. These are all areas where novel concepts or new digital solutions meet a clear need for people to better understand, manage or monitor their daily health needs.
Re/Wire is searching for new start-up partners around the world that use advanced digital technology, biological diagnostics, or disruptive new business models to help people better manage their health needs in these three areas.
Candidates can come from anywhere in the world, but they must be prepared to launch in the US, India or EMEA markets as a first step, prior to reaching the global market.
Partnering with Re/Wire from Haleon NEXT involves a three-month virtual support programme that is specifically tailored to each product or concept. Cohort companies will benefit from fast-track global scaling and commercialisation, leveraging Haleon’s consumer health insight, as well as mentoring and networking opportunities. No fee or equity charge is levied on start-ups selected for a cohort.
INTRODUCING LISA HEALTH
Lisa Health is a digital health solution for menopause and healthy aging.
This start-up differentiates itself by having an artificial intelligence-based approach and uses advanced technology to understand what’s happening physiologically and emotionally with women, as well as being able to deliver precision therapeutics.
Can you tell us a bit more about Lisa Health?
Lisa Health is leveraging AI to transform the menopause and healthy aging journey. The company’s Midday app is the first to use AI and sensor technology to illuminate the menopause life stage and support women with an end-to-end platform for personalized evidence-based and science-backed insights and therapeutics, including access to menopause specialists at Mayo Clinic. Midday empowers women to thrive in midlife and sets them free to forge ahead through their brightest days to take on the world. Lisa Health is an SRI International spinout and is backed by Radical Ventures, SRI International, Mayo Clinic, Broadway Angels, and additional angel investors. Lisa Health was founded by CEO, Ann Garnier and Chief Scientific Officer, Massimiliano de Zambotti, Ph.D. Learn more at midday.health.
You’re part of a mentorship programme with Haleon Next – how important is mentoring and programmes like this for founders, especially female founders?
Mentoring programs like the Re/Wire Health Studio from Haleon Next are essential to helping early-stage companies create a strong commercialization foundation for their solutions. Through their support, participants can significantly increase the likelihood of commercialization success by avoiding many pitfalls and accelerating the path to market. Most early-stage companies simply don’t have the financial resources or access to the experts that the Re/Wire program has. This is particularly valuable for underserved founders who typically have fundraising challenges and can’t afford to pay for this level of expertise. I’ve also found that most programs continue to provide support long after the program ends, which is a great thing for a founder. You become part of a larger ecosystem and continue to benefit from the relationships you’ve built with the Haleon team, their advisors, and your fellow participants in the program.
What are your future ambitions for the business?
Menopause is a complex life stage that lasts about one-third of a woman’s life, and women deserve more and better support, starting with the menopause transition but not ending there. Our vision is to support women not only in managing menopause symptoms but also lowering their risk of chronic disease and extending their health span. Menopause is a perfect window of opportunity to change the trajectory of women’s health, and we plan to use advanced technology to transform the health and well-being of women globally.
What do you think are the barriers for female entrepreneurs, and how can we overcome them?
Access to funding is the biggest barrier. Despite efforts to level the playing field, women and minorities still get a small percentage of funding. It’s hard to understand why when data clearly shows that investing in women is a smart strategy that yields strong returns for investors. Mentorship programs like Haleon Next provide critical support in ensuring your pitch and fundraising process is optimized and helping to create a pipeline of investors that are the right match for your company, increasing the odds of a successful raise and positioning the company for future success.
Do you have any advice for other female entrepreneurs?
Lots! Some of my advice you hear all the time, but it’s always worth repeating. Be confident and persistent. If you aren’t confident in yourself, who else will be? Develop a very thick skin and the ability to handle criticism and rejection. You’re going to hear a lot of no’s during fundraising and sales. It’s nothing personal. Don’t shut out the feedback. Listen carefully and reflect on it, even if it’s painful to hear. Focus on good enough, not perfection. As women, we often want everything to be perfect, but oftentimes good enough does the job in a lot less time. As a perfectionist by nature, I’ve had to work on this one! Lastly, ask for help. Don’t go it alone. You need a good co-founder, advisors, and mentors to support you in various capacities to get your company off the ground and then scale. The team is everything.
INTRODUCING CLEMENTINE
Clementine are on a mission to reduce the stress and build the confidence of millions of women.
Clementine help busy women, giving them the tools to shift their mindsets, unlocking the confidence to move from thinking they can’t to really believing they can do whatever they want.
Can you tell us a bit more about Clementine?
Sure thing – well we are a mindset company. Very much focussed on helping to create a world where every person believes that they can do anything they put their minds to – whether that’s saying no to something, saying yes to something, pulling back, pushing forward – whatever suits them.
We support women by offering digital access to cognitive hypnotherapy; a type of therapy that can transform thoughts, feelings and behaviours by teaching the brain more positive thought patterns.
We started as a B2c app with our award winning hypnotherapy app that has on-demand sessions available at a fraction of the cost of seeing a therapist one to one.
And last year we started creating mindset solutions for brands and organisations that compliment a product where they would like to offer more holistic support to their customers.
We are a team of five who are all super passionate about creating a better world.
You’re part of a mentorship programme with Haleon Next – how important is mentoring and programmes like this for founders, especially female founders?
Yes we were so fortunate to be chosen to join their Re-Wire health studio in the summer last year and it was an incredible experience and we were able to land a partnership with them to continue our working creating mind-powered experiences for one of their brands.
I think in general having a group of mentors around you whether that’s via a formal programme or whether it’s less formal with your own network – either way it’s super important. The fact is that as a founder you are expected to have so many skills beyond a traditional CEO that it’s impossible to know all the answers so it’s great to have trusted people to advise you and offer a sounding board and to help champion you too.
What are your future ambitions for the business?
Our ambitions are to help change the world. And by that I mean to help all humans realise the power that they have over their thoughts and feelings and how once you know how to tune into these and use them for good…well then I think we will have a far healthier society which has so many flow on impacts for all aspects of life.
What do you think are the barriers for female entrepreneurs and how can we overcome them?
A big one is funding. And the whole funding eco-system being built very much with men in mind. I mean that from everything to do with the language used, things like making people pitch to secure money which in my opinion is very performative and only rewards those that can perform, to the unconscious bias that women face around so many things like ‘can she really build a company whilst being a Mum’ to ‘she is too soft to run a company’ to focussing on women is just too niche.
A good first step would be to completely remove the ridiculous need to pitch. I know so many women who don’t even enter the arena for fear of pitching. This will help more women want to look for funding. It’s a small thing but I think it would benefit alot of women.
Do you have any advice for other female entrepreneurs?
Learn to listen and filter out other peoples advice. Just because people give you advice, doesn’t mean you need to act on it. Trust your instincts as these will always be telling you something so really tune into what your body is trying to tell you. Remembering that failing is all part of the process of building something great. So don’t be fearful of it. The quicker you are able to fail and learn then the quicker you get to the good stuff.
INTRODUCING GRACE HEALTH
Grace’s app gives women in untapped markets access to affordable health.
Today, Grace Health is the number one women’s health app, trusted across East and West Africa.
Can you tell us a bit more about Grace.Health?
Grace Health was created for the 1.3 bn women living in low and middle countries; with limited access to health care and reliable information but still owning their own mobile phone. Grace Health is there for her, like a friend with a medical background; supporting her on her reproductive health journey throughout life. We now have over 1.2 million users across Sub-Saharan Africa who trust us, and throughout our relationship with our users, we are able to identify, track and take actions to prevent poor health outcomes. Our thesis is that a woman with information is a woman in control.
You’re part of a mentorship programme with Haleon Next – how important is mentoring and programmes like this for founders, especially female founders?
It’s a great opportunity to get an outside perspective through the Re/Wire Health Studio programme. It’s easy to get stuck in your own day-to-day challenges and it’s quite likely that somebody had a problem or challenge similar to you before so discussing, bouncing ideas and getting inspiration from others is always great
What are your future ambitions for the business?
There are over 1.3 billion women who need us so the world is our oyster!
What do you think are the barriers for female entrepreneurs and how can we overcome them?
Sometimes I think that women are too reasonable, we could gain from being more naive and have some megalomania that we, with our entrepreneurship, can solve the world’s challenges. That convincement is what investors, employees and partners are looking for.
Do you have any advice for other female entrepreneurs?
Don’t be reasonable!
