Health for Herself at ALL Ages

Human rights, theory, evidence, and common sense all suggest that greater investment in women’s health could be among the “best buys” for broader economic development and societal well-being.

However, women’s health specifically is an often overlooked, yet obvious, sector for impact. We believe It offers investors the potential for outsized financial and social returns since bettering women’s health can improve their own lives as well as their families, the workforce, and their countries’ overall economies.

Here’s how:

• Families rely on HEALTHY women as caregivers: Women make up 66% of family caregivers, children and/or elderly parents. The estimated cost of this unpaid care is $1.5 trillion in the U.S. and $10.9 trillion globally.
• Unhealthy women in the workforce may not be reaching their full potential: Improving all women’s health can increase women’s participation and productivity in the workforce. Among other benefits, working women boost productivity, increase economic diversification and income equality, and support economic resilience. Plus, if all working women in the U.S alone did not work—or could not work because of their health—or a single day, the country would lose almost $21 billion in GDP.
• Investing in women’s health also supports female founders: Seventy to eighty percent of women’s health companies have a female founder. Investing in them helps fulfill the core value of impact investing: doing good while seeing good financial returns. Women-led companies, on average, have 35% higher ROIs and 63% higher valuations than all-male teams and have generated $0.78 revenue per dollar raised compared to all male teams’ $0.31. Yet, in 2022, only 1.9% of venture capital funding went to female founders and women hold only 28% of corporate board seats.

With these facts in mind, here’s the three things I’ve read this week…

1. ​Herself Health, providing primary care to women 65 and over, raises $26M​ by TechCrunch – “… “Women are not feeling heard, and they’re not well served,” (founder Kristen) Helton told TechCrunch. “It takes a long time to get an appointment with their doctor, and women are feeling rushed to tell them everything in 10 minutes…. Even though healthcare is moving toward personalization, senior care is not immune to ​gender disparities​…”
2. ​Investing in the Next Generation of Women’s Health​ by Boston Consulting Group – “… Women in the US are in search of a better health care experience, one that meets their unique needs during the different stages of their lives. And as the rapidly growing number of startups indicates, companies are racing to address this demand. Leveraging advancements in telemedicine and ​artificial intelligence​, these players are developing innovative suites of services to provide women with comprehensive, personalized care from puberty through the postmenopausal stage….”
3. ​Unlocking opportunities in women’s healthcare​ by McKinsey & Company – “… Advances in women’s healthcare are accelerating, with implications for investors and stakeholders across the value chain and beyond…. One half of the world’s population is women. Women also account for 80 percent of consumer purchasing decisions in the healthcare industry. Yet, remarkably, women’s health has been considered a niche market and a mere subset of healthcare. Now, that’s starting to shift, leading to better health outcomes for women and presenting new opportunities for investors, companies, employees, and other stakeholders across the healthcare ecosystem….”

Finally, we have targeted investments in Portfolia and Halogen VC venture funds for all these reasons. We’re seeing that female founders are energizing investment in women’s healthcare, and we expect to see even more during the remainder of this year.

What do you think? As always, please reach out with a note – wendi@cassandracapital.co