FemmeHealth Ventures: The 411 on investing in women's health
Whether you're interested in investing in women's health for mission or margin, you won't want to miss this. It's the right thing to do; it's the right time; and turmoil invites smart entry.
Maryann Selfe writes the FemmeHealth Ventures Alliance substack. She’s an investment professional with over two decades of experience managing ultra-high-net-worth portfolios. With a professional background managing $700 million in assets, her passion is championing female-led health ventures. Her focus is “closing the funding gap in women’s health and longevity, one informed investor at a time.”
At the request of many of us, and a whole lot of other readers, she just published a terrific primer on investing in women’s health: So you want to invest in women’s health? Start here. This is not our wheelhouse, and, thankfully, Maryann makes it simple.1
Why now?
Women’s health investing is still well under the radar for most [male] investors. There are benefits to carefully getting ahead of that curve, with the competition not yet well-established and the boys looking elsewhere. One venture capital firm calls the $360 billion women’s health opportunity a “ghost market”—one where solutions are still emerging and competition doesn’t yet exist. (Think Apple back in the early 80s.) And Silicon Valley Bank just this week reported record venture capital investment in women’s health start-ups.
If—like me—you’re more comfortable with clinical, social, or political issues in women’s health, McKinsey Health Institute does a great job of exploring both the margin (ROI2) and mission (societal) contributions of investing in women’s health—IMO a great example of ‘doing well by doing good.’ From McKinsey:
Their seminal 2024 report published with the World Economic Forum, Closing the women’s health gap: A $1 trillion opportunity to improve lives and economies
The follow-up this year, Blueprint to close the women’s health gap: How to improve lives and economies for all
A conversation with Dr. Lucy Perez of McKinsey: Not So "Niche": The Trillion Dollar Women's Health Opportunity
Maryann writes extensively on the investment potential on her Substack, and Women Unbroken has dipped our toes in it here and here. With the traditional investing market in chaos, it’s a great time to look at opportunities to boost the badly-neglected women’s health side of investing, particularly at a time when interest is higher than it’s ever been, but DC is actively retreating from anything “woman.”
Maryann’s investing primer
In her post, she demystifies investing in women’s health with easy definitions and tips:
The two tracks: public and private.
The private investing landscape: angel investing, venture capital funds, syndicates, and crowd funding.
Four core issues to consider when evaluating an opportunity.
How much is needed to start investing, from amounts as low as $100 through progressively higher-level opportunities (~$1K to $1M) in the private investing landscape.
What to watch out for.
Why we belong here.
A way to get updates from Maryann on market movement.
So many of you know so much about women’s health. Maryann’s posts stimulate thinking about how we can use that knowledge to help those working on badly-needed solutions. Yes, with all the usual disclaimers, but well worth considering.
What’s your legacy in women’s health?
We don’t get a dime for telling you about Maryann or FemmeHealth Ventures. We just like her commitment to women’s health, her knowledge, and how simple she makes all this seem.
Return on investment