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Femovate announces 30 new femtech start-ups for its 2024 UX design sponsorship programme
Experts in UX design and product strategy from Guidea will work with the 2024 Femovate companies to help them grow and develop
Guidea, an award-winning, women-led UX design agency, has announced 30 new early-stage femtech companies for its 2024 UX design sponsorship programme, Femovate, selected from 130 applications across six continents.
Launched by Guidea in 2022, the Femovate programme has invested more than US$1m in femtech innovation through its UX design sponsorship programme, and elevates promising femtech start-ups by giving them the same kind of services that Guidea provides to the top Fortune 100 companies.
The global femtech market was valued at US$51bn in 2021 and is forecast to reach US$1tn by 2027, according to FemTech Landscape Report. Research from the World Economic Forum found that women-focused research could yield an economic return of over 40 times its investment.
Despite this rapid growth and massive opportunity for investment in the industry, research from McKinsey & Company revealed that due to bias surrounding the needs of women, femtech companies only receive three per cent of all digital health innovation funding.
Experts in UX design and product strategy from Guidea will work closely with the 2024 Femovate companies to help them improve and accelerate the efficiency, usability and accessibility of their products.
The complimentary services provided by Guidea will help burnish the credibility of the 2024 Femovate companies, putting them in a far stronger position to acquire new funding and media opportunities.
UX design support may include researching and testing digital designs, identifying areas for differentiation in the market, collaborating with industrial designers and engineering teams to create user-centric products that exceed expectations, and delving deeply into the patient, provider and customer journey.
“Femtech is the industry that will change the world,” said Guidea co-founder and CEO, Theresa Neil.
“We see incredible promise with the start-ups we’re sponsoring while understanding the challenges they face bringing innovation to generally taboo health topics. Femovate can provide a small but powerful boost for these companies to jump to the forefront of femtech and bring solutions to millions of women globally.”
The 30 companies selected for the 2024 Femovate programme include:
Breast health
- Deeplook Medical: Revolutionising radiology for cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment, with their FDA-approved, patent-protected software. The shape recognition software accurately measures, segments, and displays the density of soft tumor masses in Mammograms, Ultrasounds, CT scans, and MRI images — with just one click.
- iSono Health: Transforms breast cancer screening by combining automated ultrasound and artificial intelligence (AI) to empower women and physicians with accessible and personalised breast health monitoring.
- KnowBra: Uses AI and computer vision for post-mastectomy bra fitting. The platform automates insurance claims and offers zero-touch fittings. KnowBra’s solution reduces discomfort, boosts confidence, and guarantees a proper fit.
Cardiovascular
- Armor Medical: A biomedical device company that dares to innovate better health for all. The company’s groundbreaking wearable device, Maternal aRMOR, is revolutionising early obstetric haemorrhage detection, offering objective, real-time monitoring to enhance patient outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.
Chronic conditions
- Afynia Labs: Developer of an at-home screening test that will shorten the path to diagnosis and treatment for endometriosis.
Fertility
- PherDal Fertility Science: Stands at the forefront of innovative reproductive healthcare, dedicated to transforming fertility assistance with groundbreaking and accessible solutions. The company’s flagship product, the PherDal Kit, is a patented, sterile, FDA-cleared over-the-counter option, meticulously designed to empower individuals on their path to parenthood.
- Plan Your Baby:A global fertility and pregnancy telehealth clinic providing end-to-end clinical, digital, affordable, effective, personalised and fast solutions for fertility and pregnancy-related problems.
Hormone health
- Iameno: An end-to-end hormonal health management platform leveraging AI, data and sciences to provide daily step-by-step personalised guidance and action plans to women going through hormonal changes impacting their physical, emotional and cognitive health. Our mission is to create a new generation of women who are smarter about their health.
- Impli: Developer of subdermal implants that monitor fertility hormone levels frequently and in real-time so that clinicians can make better decisions during the IVF treatment. Clinicians need more data points to deliver precision care to move the dial on success rates and increase women’s safety.
- Proov: A proactive fertility testing platform that helps couples identify the leading causes of infertility at home. Proov is the only FDA-cleared test to confirm ovulation at home. It combines simple urine-based diagnostics with an easy-to-use app to give women a clear view of their menstrual cycles and fertility status.
Maternal health
- BB Imaging: A telesonography® provider that connects healthcare facilities and their patients with remote, expert sonographers. By combining a facility’s existing resources with FDA-cleared and HIPAA-compliant technology, TeleScan can bring high-quality prenatal ultrasound care to all patients.
- Ciconia: The first AI-based medical device that allows clinicians to base critical labor decisions on accurate and user-independent measurements, providing a safe and gentle process for both mum and baby.
- EXO: A company battling disparities in women’s health research and treatment while enhancing the standard of care for maternal health.
- Health Evolve: Brings care delivery closer to home and is the creator of LAUREN, a digital health platform to help pregnant and postpartum women manage their health while receiving support from a personalised care village outside of the walls of the clinic.
- Partum: A hybrid clinic delivering the best of online and offline care to women and families through the fertility, pregnancy, and postpartum journey.
- riskLD: A clinician-facing perinatal patient safety software platform developed to elevate situational awareness of inpatient obstetric units and improve outcomes for pregnant patients and their newborns.
- Villie: A platform that connects expecting parents with support from loved ones through cash, gifts, and services while also helping brands target mums by placing products in front of their villagers to drive revenue.
Menstruation
- Joni: A menstrual care brand that’s making organic and sustainable products mainstream to make period care accessible for everyone.
Oncology
- Cacta: Creator of MyLymphCare, a research-based home-monitoring solution for early detection of lymphedema, one of the major side effects of breast cancer treatment. The company empowers women to monitor at home to catch symptoms before they are visible, enabling early treatment that results in a dramatically lower risk of chronic lymphedema.
- Prosoma: A global medical company delivering digital healthcare solutions for oncology, with a product portfolio that supports the patient’s mental and behavioral health.
- Thyia:A digital health platform providing women with access to at-home cervical cancer screening tests making cervical cancer a thing of the past.
Pelvic floor health
- HyIvy: Provides data-driven medical devices that facilitate pelvic floor rehabilitation.
Safety and privacy
- Epowar: A wearable technology to make women safer. The company recently launched the first safety app that detects if the user is physically attacked, alerting their chosen contacts, sharing live location data and storing valuable evidence in the cloud.
Uterine health
- Nesa Medtech: A leading deep-tech medtech startup specialising in developing patented, scarless image-guided surgical solutions in women’s health using advanced technology.
Women’s wellness
- Bloomful: A diagnostic solution delivering streamlined, accessible gynaecological care to underserved women globally.
- Celeste: Celeste’s ExactRx is a medication diagnostic tool that transforms traditionally diagnostic lab panels into actionable medication safety and efficacy insights. Using AI-powered precision medicine, it enables healthcare providers and payers to pre-emptively assess how a patient will respond to medications and subsequently create personalised adherence plans.
- Girls First Finance: Girls First Finance (GFF) promotes equitable access to education and financial services for vulnerable young women starting in Africa who are otherwise at risk of exploitation to cover their education expenses. Through its mobile super app platform, GFF provides access to student loans along with tools focused on safeguarding, financial literacy, career development and community support across over a dozen features.
- Health in Her Hue: A digital health platform dedicated to connecting Black women and women of colour to culturally sensitive healthcare providers, evidence-based, culturally-tailored health content, and community support.
- Incora: Empowers women to meet their fertility and wellness goals by providing actionable health insights using the Incora smart earrings.
- NAWAT Health: A digital platform that provides Arab women access to sexual and reproductive health educational programs and judgment-free and pleasure-positive online care with diverse, trusted, and trained sexual and reproductive health experts.
Ida Tin, founder of the period tracking app Clue, who coined the term femtech in 2016, said: “The world is finally waking up to the staggering data that shows both the investment gap into women-led companies, women-centric innovation, and the huge untapped potential of both — and some are taking real tangible action.
“I’m impressed with the caliber of the femtech companies I’ve been part of selecting for the 2024 Femovate cohort and the practical support they receive from Femovate.”
GLP-1 drugs taken before conception were not linked to higher pregnancy risks in new research, which suggested they may even offer some protection.
Women of reproductive age are increasingly prescribed GLP-1 drugs for weight-management support, but the risks and benefits of using them before pregnancy remain poorly understood.
The findings support continuing the use of GLP-1 medicines in women with metabolic risk factors who are considering pregnancy, said Cara Dolin, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist and co-author of the research, which was presented at the Society of Maternal-Fetal Medicine pregnancy meeting in February 2026.
“While there’s more research to be done, this data provides some reassurance that it is not harmful to be taking a GLP-1 if you’re planning a pregnancy, and that having done so may in fact benefit you by optimising your preconception metabolic health.”
The researchers examined electronic medical records for patients with a pre-pregnancy BMI of more than 30 who delivered at more than 20 weeks’ gestation. The data were reviewed for two studies: one assessed the link between pre-pregnancy GLP-1 use and the risk of gestational diabetes, while the second looked at the risk of severe maternal morbidity in patients with obesity.
Women with obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other cardiometabolic disorders have a higher risk of pregnancy complications including preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, stillbirth, caesarean section and other outcomes. While GLP-1 medicines can help manage these conditions, they are contraindicated during pregnancy, and women are typically advised to stop the medication two months before trying to conceive.
However, stopping the drugs can often lead to rebound weight gain or worsening metabolic health. A 2025 study suggested this rebound worsened some pregnancy outcomes, but the risks and benefits are still poorly understood, Dolin said.
“There is a lot we just don’t know, which is why we wanted to look at our experience here with our Cleveland Clinic patients and see whether taking GLP-1 drugs before pregnancy was causing harm or if it was beneficial and helping patients have healthier pregnancies.”
Researchers analysed data for more than 8,000 women who had obesity but did not have diabetes before they became pregnant. They compared outcomes for 208 women who had been prescribed GLP-1 receptor agonists before pregnancy with those who had not been prescribed the medication.
Women in the GLP-1 group had more risk factors heading into pregnancy. They tended to be older and have a higher body mass index, higher rates of bariatric surgery and chronic high blood pressure, and present earlier for prenatal care.
However, outcomes for the two groups were similar. Researchers found that the GLP-1 group did not have higher rates of gestational diabetes, severe maternal morbidity or other adverse maternal outcomes, suggesting that the medication may have helped mitigate elevated risk factors.
“I think this is a really important signal, and it may reflect that these patients were able to optimise their metabolic health prior to conception.”
“It shows there’s potential to use these drugs in a more targeted way with patients who are planning a pregnancy and have these different comorbidities and obesity.”
While the findings suggest that using GLP-1 drugs before pregnancy may be beneficial in women with metabolic risk factors, having a plan to stop the medicines before conception is essential, Dolin noted. In some cases, patients may be moved to an alternative medication that is safe for pregnancy and can be used to help manage their metabolic health during pregnancy.
Providers with patients who are taking GLP-1 medicines and planning a pregnancy should consider referral to a maternal-fetal medicine specialist for pre-pregnancy counselling.
“We can have a nuanced conversation with the patient about taking the medication, what the benefits are, what the potential risks are, and help them formulate a plan to transition off the medication once they’re ready to start trying to conceive,” she said.
Obesity may be a key driver of rising rates of 11 cancers in adults under 50, a study has found.
The 11 cancers were thyroid, multiple myeloma, liver, kidney, gallbladder, colorectal, pancreatic, endometrial, oral, breast and ovarian cancers.
All except oral cancer are known to be linked to excess weight, with researchers saying raised insulin levels and inflammation may play a part.
The findings come from researchers at the Institute of Cancer Research, London and Imperial College London, who analysed national cancer registry data for England from 2001 to 2019.
In England, around 31,000 cancers were diagnosed in people aged 20 to 49 in 2023, equal to roughly one in every 1,000 people. This compares with 244,000 cases in the 50 to 79 age group, where the rate is around one in 100.
Concerns have been growing in recent years over rising rates of cancers such as bowel and ovarian in younger adults.
Among the younger group, breast cancer was the most common, with 8,500 cases, followed by bowel cancer at 3,000 and melanoma skin cancer with 2,800 diagnoses.
For nine of the 11 cancers identified, rates are rising in younger adults but also increasing in older adults, who are much more likely to develop the disease. Bowel and ovarian cancer were the exceptions, rising only in younger age groups.
The researchers found that bowel cancer rates in younger women linked to BMI rose faster, from 0.9 to 1.6 per 100,000 people, than those not linked to BMI, which rose from 6.4 to 9.6 per 100,000 people. Similar patterns were recorded for men.
However, the authors noted that the overall number of cases of BMI-linked bowel cancer in younger women remained lower than those not linked to BMI, suggesting other factors must be contributing to the increase.
Several suspected contributors, including ultra-processed foods, antibiotic use and air pollution, have been proposed in recent years. However, many of these factors have also shown stable or declining trends in the UK, the team said.
Despite the rise in several cancer rates among younger adults over the past two decades, most established risk factors, including smoking, alcohol consumption, red or processed meat intake, low fibre diets and lack of exercise, remained stable or even declined in the period leading up to diagnosis.
This suggests these traditional risk factors are unlikely to account for much of the increase in cancer cases.
By contrast, overweight and obesity, which have increased steadily since 1995, could be key factors in the rise in cases. The team suggested that between 2001 and 2019, around 20 per cent of the increase in bowel cancer was explained by increases in BMI over that period.
However, the researchers said rises in BMI alone are not enough to explain the overall increase in cancer among younger adults in England and that there are likely to be other causes.
Data also suggest around 15 per cent of bowel cancer in younger people could be linked to being overweight or obese, with around 40 to 50 per cent in total linked to the combined effect of known risk factors such as obesity, lack of exercise, alcohol and smoking.
Montse García-Closas, professor at the ICR, said more research was needed, but “we cannot wait to act”.
She told a media briefing: “Our main conclusion is that although BMI is our best clue, much of the increase still remains unexplained, and we’ve done some additional analysis that show that most likely what’s missing is not just a single cause unexplained, but it’s likely a combination of multiple factors that act together.”
Amy Berrington, professor at the ICR, said: “Although rates have been increasing, cancer in young people is still a rare disease.”
Marc Gunter, professor at Imperial, said obesity was a known risk factor for around 19 different cancers.
He added: “For some of these cancers, including colorectal (bowel) cancer, we think this could be partly caused by higher levels of hormones such as insulin, which is often elevated in people with obesity, as well as inflammation.
“We know people with obesity have higher levels of insulin, and insulin is a growth factor and has been linked to cancer.
“In a recent study, we actually found that insulin in particular might be playing a role in early onset colorectal (bowel) cancer, and this is actually an area of very active research at the moment.”
The researchers called for large, long-term studies to identify all the biological and environmental factors that could explain rising cancer rates in young adults.
García-Closas added: “Tackling obesity across all ages, particularly in children and young people, through stronger public health policies and wider access to effective interventions, could slow the rise in cancer and prevent many cancers and must become a national priority.”
Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, said: “Globally, and in the UK, we’re seeing a small increase in cancer rates in adults under 50.
“The picture is complex and we need more research to understand what’s driving the trend, but this study helps to fill in some gaps.
“Overweight and obesity doesn’t explain the rise in full though. Improvements in detection are likely to also be playing a part, meaning that more people are being diagnosed at a younger age.
“Preventing cancer cases must be a priority for the UK government. Smoking remains a leading cause of cancer in adults under 50, which is why the Tobacco and Vapes Bill receiving royal assent this week is such a historic moment.
“Measures to restrict the advertising and promotion of junk food, introducing mandatory reporting and targets on healthy food sales, and making nutritious food more accessible to everyone would all help people keep a healthy weight.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) has launched an AI tool in beta to help policymakers, experts and healthcare professionals access sexual and reproductive health information faster.
Called ChatHRP, the tool was created by WHO’s Human Reproduction Programme and draws only on verified research and guidance collected by HRP and WHO.
It uses natural language processing and retrieval-augmented generation to produce referenced content and cut the time spent searching through documents across different platforms and databases.
WHO said ChatHRP also has multilingual capabilities and low-bandwidth functionality to support use in a wide range of settings.
The beta-testing phase is aimed at a broad professional audience, including policymakers, healthcare workers, researchers and civil society groups.
WHO said the tool can help users quickly access up-to-date evidence, find sources for academic work and verify information on sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Examples of questions it can answer include the latest violence against women data in Oceania for women aged 15 to 49, recommendations on managing diabetes during pregnancy, and whether PrEP and contraception can be used at the same time. PrEP is medicine used to reduce the risk of getting HIV.
WHO added that the system will be updated regularly as new HRP materials are published and includes a feedback loop so users can flag gaps in the information provided.
The launch comes amid wider concern about misinformation in sexual and reproductive health.
A 2025 scoping review found that misinformation in digital spaces is a systemic issue that can undermine human rights, reinforce discriminatory social norms and exclude marginalised voices.
The review also said misinformation can affect health systems by shaping provider knowledge and practice, disrupting service delivery and creating barriers to equitable care.
WHO said ChatHRP is intended to give users streamlined access to reliable information as a counter to “algorithms, opinions, or misinformation”.
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