‘The dollars are massive’ when you invest in women’s health
March 18, 2022
Julia Cheek, Kate Ryder, and Deena Shakir speak onstage at Women Building and Funding Healthcare Unicorns during the 2022 SXSW Conference and Festivals. (Photo by Chris Saucedo/Getty Images for SXSW)
"When it comes to women's health…it's everything from lactation support to sleep coaching, career coaching, and everything in between." —Deena Shakir
The gist:
According to Lux Capital partner, Deena Shakir, “the value of its portfolio of women-led companies has risen to $10 billion. That's from the venture capital firm's $100 million investment in women-led companies.”
Some of those companies include: “Alife, which addresses the fertility crisis; Adyn, which aims to develop a test to determine the "best" birth control for women in order to eliminate adverse reactions; Gameto, which addresses ovarian longevity; Waymark, which takes on vulnerable populations with Medicaid; and Maven, which provides support to working mothers.”
"The dollars are massive when you think about the TAMs [Total Addressable Markets] and all of the related areas when you start to invest in women's health."
Shakir gives two reasons for the rise in women’s health Co. investments.
First, “the women's health category was ‘considered niche’ and ‘some sort of tangential afterthought." But now, if you consider that, "Women are often the chief medical officers of their families," women’s health can be viewed as an access point into the family and an extension of needs.
"Women's health is not only a wedge into women's bodies, their reproductive systems, their mental health, but also into broader family health."
Second, Shakir “credited the heightened interest in women's health to the presence of more women in venture capital.”
"The investors around the table started to look more like you and me," Shakir said. For women investors, "it's very obvious and very personal, and I think many of us are embracing that conviction from a personal perspective."
The Stats:
"There is data that shows that women investors do invest in more diverse companies."
"Diverse founding teams hire more diverse workforces, so there's definitely a domino effect. It's critical."
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