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- When Ida Tin accidentally found herself a place on a business course, she wanted to study art at college – then pioneered an industry worth more than $1 trillion.
- Tin coined the term “FemTech” in 2016, which describes all technologies and innovations that affect women exclusively or disproportionately in terms of health.
- “We’re still getting peanuts to play with when you see the amount of money invested in, you know, e-scooters, car sharing,” Tin said.
Ida Tin coined the term “FemTech” in 2016.
Hint
When Ida Tin accidentally found herself a place on a business course, she wanted to study art at college – then pioneered an industry worth more than $1 trillion.
“I literally disappeared in the corridor and entered the office where they were waiting for the candidate to work [the business course interview]” said Tin, describing her first step into the business world.
She took the course and later combined her artistic skills with her entrepreneurial skills to found a jewelry company, then a motorcycle tour company, then in 2012 she co-founded a menstrual health app called Clye, which now has 11 million monthly active users.
Hint was one of the first period tracking apps, and allows users to track their cycles, as well as side effects like mood, energy levels and eating habits.
As Hint found users, Tin realized there wasn’t much of a community around women’s health services and products, although it was coming to market more and more.
“They felt like kindred spirits and I was trying to figure out how to talk about ourselves and our products…so I was looking for something that could pull it under one umbrella,” Tin told CNBC. And so, in 2016, the name “Femtech” was born.
The term now encompasses all technologies and innovations designed to address health problems that solely or disproportionately affect women’s health, from menstrual cycle tracking apps and sexual safety products to cardiovascular devices and mental health treatments.
Giving Femtech its own name helped the industry find each other, but it also gave investors confidence in where to put their money, Tin said. he said.
It’s a little easier to say you’ve invested in femtech than in a company that helps women keep their pants from peeing… It’s bridged the gap with men, which is important, still important, because so many investors are men.
“And I have to say I’m surprised, but I see how it’s really resonating globally,” she added.
The FemTech industry will reach an estimated $1.186 trillion by 2027, according to a forecast by the non-profit FemTech Focus.
The estimate defines the market as “products and services designed to address 97 health conditions that uniquely, disproportionately, or disproportionately affect girls, women, and women.” It includes 23 subcategories of women’s health: menopause, bone health, abortion, brain health, cardiovascular and reproductive health.
From bodysuits that use heat and vibration to relieve period pain to wearable technology that can help breast cancer patients recover, there’s no shortage of innovation and creativity in the femtech space, but many businesses don’t get the capital they need. To get out of the ground completely, Tin says.
“We’re still playing peanuts when you look at the amount of money invested in, you know, e-scooters, car sharing… they have a lot of money to build amazing companies. I’ve never seen that kind of funding,” Tin said.
“We have to prove ourselves on this journey,” she said. “We’ve raised a lot of money and you know, relatively speaking, we’ve done well. But I think, honestly, we’ve been subsidized all the way through.”
According to trend forecasting agency Ultra Violet Futures, more than 80% of femtech startups have female founders, and it’s widely reported that women-founded companies receive less funding. In the year By 2022, women-founded companies will receive just 2 percent of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups in the U.S., according to February data from Pitchbook.
There are huge gaps in the market when it comes to technologies designed around women’s health, says Tin.
Why don’t I feel good about hormonal changes during my life? I don’t have any predictions yet.
Ida Tin
entrepreneur
“Menopause is a big gap, contraception is still a gap. And I feel like we’re ready to jump into the deep end of technology,” she said.
“I still wonder why I don’t know the makeup of my nervous system at the resort, as I know is possible with technology, but why not a consumer product? Why don’t I have a good understanding of my hormones? Are there changes in the course of my life? I still have no prediction, when will I go into menopause?
“We can use more advanced technology to solve all these problems. I’d love to see that and I haven’t seen that yet,” Tin added.
Of course, research is being done in the area of women’s health, for example, studies at the University of Colorado are looking at how a blood test can predict a woman’s menopause two years in advance, but the technology is ready for widespread use. It is a certain way.
There is also a strong business case for developing products in this area. For example, global productivity losses could add up to more than $150 billion. Ultra violet future.
Tin stepped down as CEO of Clus in 2021 after the company’s birth control app received FDA approval as a medical device.
“I could see that the things I needed to learn to really serve the company were things that I wasn’t that good at, and I wasn’t interested in a lot of the really hard operational stuff, and that didn’t make me happy. Like that,” Tin said.
“If you don’t think you can serve well or you’re not the best person to serve, it’s good leadership to walk away,” she added.
Audrey Tang and Carrie Walter have taken over as Clue’s co-CEOs, with Tang working with the company as chairman and writing a book about her experiences in the world of femtech.
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