2024 was definitely a transformational year for women’s health. It brought unprecedented public attention and investment to the space, such as through various White House-led initiatives, abortion-related ballot measures, and conditions such as infertility, menopause, and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) becoming topics of conversations rather than shameful secrets.
But did the venture capital investment in this space represent that same positive change? This article will focus specifically on those investments year-over-year to determine whether 2024 changed women’s health for better, worse, or somewhere in between. In the process, it’ll also complete a trio of articles on this very subject, following one from January 2024 and one from halfway through 2024.
Women’s health made headlines in 2024 – but did that attention manifest in much-needed investment … [+]
As in those prior articles, “women’s health” here is defined as U.S-based, VC-backed companies labeled as “women’s health”, “women’s healthcare”, or “FemTech” in PitchBook Data. (While “FemTech’ is a technically a subset of women’s health, defined as software and other tech-enabled products that cater to the health needs of biological females, the term has, for some, become synonymous with “women’s health”.)
At a Glance
Overall, these companies – shortened to “women’s health” for the rest of this article – raised a collective $1.19B in 2024 across 111 deals. While the number of deals decreased year-over-year (120 in 2023 to 111 in 2024), the total amount did show a slight increase from 2023’s $1.14B to 2024’s $1.19B: a $0.05B ($50M) or 4.3% increase. However, 2024’s total amount fell short of the prior record-highs in both deals completed and amount raised: 177 and $1.31B respectively, both of which took place in 2021.
The average deal size for women’s health companies in 2024 was thus $10.71M: $0.35M and 3.38% higher than the previous high of $10.36M, which was set in 2023. Even though the average deal size hasn’t changed dramatically in the past few years, it changed consistently. It has continued to increase year-over-year not just from 2023 to 2024 but from 2020 to the present: a positive, albeit small and slow, step forward.
The average deal size for women’s health companies rose, setting a new high in 2024. The median, … [+]
But while the average deal size increased, the percent of VC funding that women’s healthcare companies receive compared to the funding received by general healthcare companies (companies that don’t necessarily focus on women’s health exclusively) decreased dramatically. In 2024, women’s health companies received 2.3% of that funding. (That percent came from dividing the $1.19B in venture capital funding received in 2024 by women’s health companies by the sum of that $1.19B and the $49.95B in venture capital received in 2024 by companies labeled as “health” or “healthcare” in PitchBook Data.) 2.3% represents the smallest percentage that women’s health has received since 2021 and a 43% decrease since 2023’s record-high percentage: 4.1%. This percentage is incredibly small and this massive year-over-year drop is worrying, especially since women represent 50% of the population and the majority of healthcare consumers, decision-makers, and spenders.
The percentage of total VC funding going to healthcare that women’s health specifically received saw … [+]
Government Involvement
While venture capital investments in women’s health had both highs and lows over the course of the year, the public sector showed a remarkable interest. 2024, in fact, marked the full first year that the White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research was in effect, leading to nearly a billion dollars in investment.
But other federal initiatives focused on women’s health didn’t see the same successes. The Menopause Research and Equity Act, for one, was introduced to Congress in mid-December 2023. Since then, no further action has been taken on the Act. Tthe White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, though, did specifically call out menopause and Dr. Jill Biden has repeatedly reinforced the importance of researching menopause. In January 2024, she and actress Halle Berry visited University of Illinois Chicago’s Surgical Innovation and Training Laboratory to see menopause research in action. In March 2024, she made a reference to “the woman going through menopause, who visits her doctor and leaves with more questions than answers, even though half the country will go through menopause at some point in their lives”. And, in October 2024, she announced the 23 awardees who received funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H)’s Sprint for Women’s Health; one in particular, Gameto Inc., is pursuing an innovative ovarian therapy to prevent disease in menopause. While the Menopause Research and Equity Act has not made any progress in Congress, the federal government has worked to address the lack of menopause research, understanding, and treatments in another way: through the power of the executive branch rather than through the legislative branch.
Meanwhile, another piece of recent women’s health-centric legislation is the Women’s Health Protection Act that was re-introduced in March 2023 into the House of Representatives. In September 2021 and March 2022, the U.S House voted to pass this Act, but it failed in the Senate. If passed, the Women’s Health Protection Act would create a new right both for healthcare professionals to provide and for patients to receive abortion care throughout the U.S.
Without the Women’s Health Protection Act, abortion measures have been left not to the federal government but to states and their citizens, as seen in the recent election ballot measures. In 2022, just a few months after the Dobbs vs. Jackson case overturned Roe v. Wade, seven states out of seven voted to protect abortion access. Two years later, in the 2024 election, another seven states, out of ten total, voted to protect abortion access (The other three states were Nebraska, which voted to uphold its current law of allowing abortions only during the first trimester rather than expanding that timeframe up to fetal viability, South Dakota, and Florida, which saw 57% of voters supporting an abortion rights amendment that needed a 60% supermajority to pass.) Notably – as the 2024 election results reinforced – a majority of states, including those that are red (such as Kansas, Kentucky, and Missouri) or purple-leaning-red (such as Arizona and Ohio) have passed measures to protect abortion access. In the process, they’ve allowed women to take ownership of their own (reproductive) health and to make their own choices about whether or not to continue a pregnancy.
Since 2022, 16 states had abortion-related measures on their ballots (Montana had a measure in 2022 … [+]
Women’s Health Unicorns
There weren’t any new U.S-based women’s health unicorns crowned in 2024, but women’s health fundraising still saw major successes, even if the valuations didn’t quite reach $100B. In fact, 30 women’s health companies that recorded their deal amount in PitchBook Data raised equal to or over $10.71M – the average deal size for women’s health companies in 2024 – in a single deal: eight more companies (36% more) than the 22 companies that raised more than the average deal size in 2023. Similarly, 16 companies raised over $25M in 2024: 10 more companies (166.67% more) than the number of companies that raised over $25M in 2023. The increases in both number of companies raising above the average deal size and above $25M help demonstrate that the value of women’s health companies is many millions of dollars – at the very least.
U.S-based, VC-backed women’s health companies saw a year-over-year increase not just in the number … [+]
Womens health companies reinforced that value through acquisitions. In 2024, IVI RMA America acquired the North American Operations of Eugin Group for $535 million, Compass Diversified acquired The Honey Pot for $380M, Forum Brands acquired LOLA for an undisclosed amount, and Nameless CPG acquired Wile, also for an undisclosed amount. Internationally, U.S-based Hologic acquired U.K-based Gynesonics for about $350M while India-headquartered Dr. Reddy acquired U.S-based MenoLabs for an undisclosed amount.
Notable acquisitions in 2023 included Pharmavite’s acquisition of Bonafide Health, The Flex Co.’s acquisition of Allbodies, Backpack Healthcare’s acquisition of SHEHealth, and Babylist’s acquisition of Expectful. Internationally that year, U.S-based Caldera Medical acquired Ireland-based Atlantic Therapeutics and MyHealthTeam, also a U.S-based company, acquired Singapore-based Simone Health. Since only Pharmavite and Bonafide Health released their final acquisition price ($425M) and the others went undisclosed, there isn’t enough data available to compare the acquisition prices of women’s health companies from 2023 to 2024.
Meanwhile, 2025 is already off to a quick start on its own: in just the first 10 days of this new year, Superpower, a wellness startup, acquired Feminade in a mix of cash and equity, and Hologic acquired Endomag for $310M (a deal that was announced in April 2024 but was completed in January 2025). Internationally, Screenpoint Medical, which is headquartered in the Netherlands, acquired Denmark-based Biomediq A/S. Internationally, Screenpoint Medical, which is headquartered in the Netherlands acquired Denmark-based Biomediq A/S.
2024 had at least seven notable announced and/or completed acquisitions in women’s health: Eugin … [+]
Female Leaders
While women’s health as a category did see some positive momentum – especially in terms of average deal size, government attention, and increases in the number of above-average single-deal raises – it does still suffer from the same gender bias seen across nearly all categories, healthcare included: female leaders raise less than male leaders.
2023 looked as though it might start the reversal of that trend. That year was the first time, out of the past five years, that female founders and female CEOs in women’s health had higher average deal sizes than male founders and male CEOs in women’s health respectively.
Unfortunately, 2024 couldn’t uphold that reversal. According to PitchBook Data, in 2024, the average deal size for female founders in women’s health was $9.1M, the average deal size for female CEOs in women’s health was $9.3M, the average deal size for male founders in women’s health was $21.6M, and the average deal size for male CEOs in women’s health was $14.5M. Put another way, female founders’ average deal size shrunk by $4M, or 30.5%, from 2023 to 2024 – and they raised, on average, $12.5M less than (or only 42% of) the average raises for male founders in women’s health. Female CEOs saw a similar fate. Their average deal size decreased by $2.1M, or 18.42%, from 2023 to 2024, and they raised $5.2M less than (or only 63% of) the average raises for male CEOs in women’s health.
2024 fell short of 2023’s momentum; while 2023 saw female founders and CEOs in women’s health … [+]
This discrepancy especially came to light in July 2024 when Flo Health announced its status as the first purely digital consumer women’s health app to become a unicorn. (Since Flo Health is a U.K – not U.S – based company, it wasn’t included in this article’s list of new unicorns in 2024.) While Flo Health benefits women as its end-users, its success does highlight the dominance of men, even in women’s health: after all, 80-85% of decision-making venture capitalists are male, male VCs are likely to view male founders more favorably than female founders and are subsequently are more likely to invest in male founders than female founders, and Flo Health has two male co-founders, one of whom is currently the CEO as well. As if to emphasize that point: male founders and CEOs saw at least double-digit percent increases in their average deal size from 2023 to 2024 while female founders and CEOs saw double-digit percent decreases in their average deal size during that same period.
Similarly, the total amount raised by female leaders in women’s health collectively saw year-over-year decreases. According to PitchBook Data, Female founders saw a collective raise of $337.5M in 2024: $97.4M or 22.4% less than the $434.9M they collectively raised in 2023. Female CEOs saw a collective raise of $492.6M in 2024: $100M or 16.9% less than the $593.1M they collectively raised in 2023. Admittedly, the collective raises by each female founders and CEOs in 2023 were record-setting – nearly 30% higher and almost 50% higher respectively than the previous records set in 2021 – but the data seems to show that female leaders in women’s health lost momentum this year; they collectively had 90 deals compared to 85 last year but raised less both on average and as a collective group.
Male leaders, on the other hand, gained momentum. Male founders in women’s health collectively raised $540.2M in 2024: a $395.3M or 172.8% increase over the (admittedly, unusually low) $144.9M they raised in 2023 while male CEOs in women’s health collectively raised $290.1M in 2024: an $80M or 38% increase over the $210.1M they collectively raised in 2023. (Note these transactions don’t include any by teams of mixed genders or by teams that didn’t report the gender of their founders, co-founders, and/or CEO to PitchBook Data.)
Female founders and CEOs in women’s health saw fewer deals in 2024 compared to 2023 – but both … [+]
These transactions show that female leaders (a term that includes both female founders and CEOs) in women’s health completed 90 deals collectively compared to male leaders’ 45. But, although female leaders completed twice as many deals as male leaders, the two groups received about the same amount: $830.1M collectively to female leaders and $830.3M collectively to male leaders. The result is that female leaders saw smaller average deal sizes in 2024 compared not only to their average deal sizes in 2023 but to their male counterparts’ average deal sizes in 2024 – while male leaders saw their average deal sizes increasing from 2023 to 2024.
The one silver lining here is that these dollars are going to women’s health: a space that needs investment, regardless of the founder’s or CEO’s gender.
While female leaders (a term that encompasses both founders and CEOs) completed twice as many deals … [+]
This data consequently shows that 2024 was neither completely positive nor completely negative when it came to being a standout year for women’s health. Setbacks (such as the percentage of total healthcare funding that women’s health received average deal size for female leaders in women’s health) seemingly offset upwards trends (such as in average deal size, number of above-average deals, and collective dollars raised).
The result is that women’s health continues to be a battle: for abortion access, for funding, for female leaders. That being said, the majority support for abortion access, small, but steady and sustained, increases in some fundraising metrics, and the persistence of female founders, of female CEOs, and of individuals and companies in the private sector show the willingness of those in this space to fight and to keep moving forward. Women’s health may have had both conquests and challenges in 2024, but it may turn out to be an step of progress overall towards what will likely be a positive, though multi-year, transformation of this space.
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