PitchBook News - Do we really need 'femtech'?

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The Weekend Pitch

September 18, 2022

Presented by RSM

(Jenna O'Malley/PitchBook News)

For a sector that attracted around $2.4 billion of venture capital money in 2021, "femtech" continues to be plagued by misconceptions.

A recent conservation with a female founder whose startup develops treatments for women's health issues illustrated this problem. The founder shared her experience of being told quite bluntly by one biotech VC during initial approach that they "didn't really invest in femtech"—the implication being that the female aspect was a disqualifying factor.

It is an experience that may be familiar to some founders in the healthtech sector looking for solutions targeting women. The femtech label was designed to help promote startups with the goal of improving female health and well-being. Coined in 2016 by Ida Tin, co-founder of menstrual health app Clue, it refers to companies focused on the heretofore underserved area of female health—ranging from fertility to menopause.

Whatever the good intention may have been, the term has also created confusion. For example, it has been used to describe all technology catering to women. Even worse, some argue it has had an othering effect, in which femtech startups are not on equal footing with their peers in the broader healthtech and biotech industries—after all, the term "mentech" doesn't exist. The consequence of this could be missed opportunities for founder and investor alike.

Welcome back to the Weekend Pitch, I’m Leah Hodgson. You can reach me at leah.hodgson@pitchbook.com or on Twitter @LeahFHodgson.

Quote/Unquote

(rospoint/Shutterstock)

"It is not a charity. It's our way of contributing but also getting what we think will be a high return on capital."

—John Frankel, founding partner at FF Venture Capital.

Earlier this week, the New York-based firm announced its $50 million Blue & Yellow Heritage Fund to invest in startups led by Ukrainian founders.

Deal flow

(Overearth/Shutterstock)

Adobe's agreement to buy Figma for $20 billion represents the largest acquisition of a VC-backed company on record, according to PitchBook data.

The deal for the design tool developer would be a boon to several top venture firms—Greylock Partners, Index Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia and Andreessen Horowitz, among others—which over the years helped propel the meteoric rise of Figma's private valuation.

Did you know ...

(Vintage Tone/PitchBook News)

…That B-minus rated companies now account for a record 28.4% of the US leveraged loan asset class, the largest proportion of the $1.425 trillion market held by a single rating band?

This marks the first time that the riskiest rung of the single-B ratings band has accounted for a larger share than the better-rated companies, according to LCD, and the amount of outstanding leveraged loans to borrowers rated B-minus is more than four times what it was five years ago.

Datapoints

(Ermolaev Alexander/Shutterstock)

The majority of US households—more than 90 million—now include a pet. The already-growing trend of pet ownership accelerated during the pandemic, and private equity firms have jumped on the opportunity.

PE dealmaking in the US veterinary industry has totaled more than $45 billion since the start of 2017, with firms interested in both clinics and their real estate. Risks in the sector exist, but it's long been called "recession-proof," investors say.

Recommended reads

The future of artificial intelligence is neither utopian nor dystopian—it's something far more interesting. [The Atlantic]

A Chinese spy wanted GE's secrets, but the US got China's instead. How the arrest of a burned-out intelligence officer exposed an economic-espionage machine. [Bloomberg]

LaGuardia Airport is no longer the worst—and there are lessons in its improvement for every business. [The Wall Street Journal]

Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk on Turkey's president, solidarity with Salman Rushdie and his new novel about a plague. [Financial Times]

The world's biggest bet on India: What Tata's $90 billion pivot to its home market says about the world's fifth-largest economy. [The Economist]

There are an estimated 100 million galaxies in the universe, home to an unimaginable abundance of planets. And now there are new ways to spot signs of life on them. [The New York Times]

This edition of The Weekend Pitch was written by Leah Hodgson and Priyamvada Mathur. It was edited by Andrew Woodman and Claire Simpson.

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PitchBook News - Do we really need 'femtech'?

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