The Surge of Femtech in MENA

Coined by Ida Tin, founder of the popular menstrual health app Clue in 2016, femtech, of female technology, is a rapidly growing field dedicated to creating tech solutions for women’s health, covering menstrual, reproductive, pregnancy, sexual health, and menopause. From period trackers to fetal monitoring wearables, femtech equips women with tools and information to better manage their health. ^[1]  

Globally, the femtech market is projected to grow from $7.48 billion in 2024 to $14.67 billion by 2029. In MENA, the femtech market is estimated to reach $3.8 billion by 2031.

“Compared to Europe or the US, the MENA region is in the early stage of femtech development because there are not enough companies yet operating in the field. The more founders we can see in this space and in femtech, the better it will be for the overall market development,” Marina Sol, founder and CEO of UAE-based Diagnio, a hormonal health tracker app, tells Inc. Arabia.

Femtech tackles female health using apps and telehealth, deeptech like AI, ML, and Big Data, and devices including wearables, sensors, and remote patient monitoring. One of the aims of femtech is to provide early detection of health problems to improve overall health outcomes for women and their families. Additionally, femtech helps destigmatize women's health issues by encouraging open discussions about menstruation, sexual health, and menopause. By bringing these often-taboo subjects to light, femtech empowers women to seek and obtain the care they need.

Sophie Smith, founder and CEO of Nabta Health

"Femtech can make women more aware of their health and wellness and can help them navigate to the right doctor faster. Innovations like wearables, point of care testing, and AI health algorithms make healthcare more accessible and affordable for women,” says Sol.

"Women are an active part of the workforce. And because women have specific stages through their life-work period, such as pregnancy, postpartum, menopause, we need to bring it to the table, and make workspaces more inclusive for these stages,” she adds.

By providing women with data-driven insights and personalized solutions, femtech enables them to make informed decisions about their health and bodies.

"By tackling health issues such as chronic illnesses and reproductive health concerns, we can decrease healthcare costs and lost productivity, ultimately contributing to closing the gender pay gap,” says Sophie Smith, founder of Nabta Health--a hybrid healthcare platform that blends digital and traditional services to offer personalized care for women at different life stages.

Challenges in the region

One of the biggest challenges facing the sector’s growth is that women-founded startups in the MENA region receive less than one percent of total start-up funding. In 2022, female-founded startups received less than $6 million out of a pool of $622 million raised by startups in the MENA. Because so many femtechs are founded by women, they are often under-funded. ^[2]  

While this trend may be more acutely felt in MENA, it is not exclusive to the region. In July, male-founded femtech Flo became the first women’s health app to achieve unicorn status by raising $200 million. The news set off a debate online about the challenges female-founded startups face while raising funds and the merits of funding a femtech founded and managed by men.

Nesma Amina, founder and CEO of Aziza, an Arabic-language menstrual tracker

In many ways, the incident mirrors what femtech founders from the region have told us: That female-founded startups often face unconscious bias for male founders. It also reflects what FemTech Analytics has reported: That there is a shortage of investors funding women-focused products and encouraging women to prioritize their health. This limited understanding of female healthcare needs often leads to hesitation in funding women-focused products.

“While the femtech market in MENA is expected to reach $3.8 billion by 2030, female-led startups raising funds for their femtech startups in the MENA region is decreasing,” Nesma Amin, founder and CEO of Egypt-based Aziza, an Arabic language menstrual cycle tracker, tells us.

Marina Sol, CEO, Diagnio

Another major challenge for femtech in MENA is the limited capital available for research, development, and commercialization. Furthermore, healthtech regulation is still developing, and healthcare ecosystems are complex with numerous competing interests. 

“Although femtech is an increasingly understood term in MENA and is attracting growing interest, this has not yet translated into the regular and effective deployment of capital, and certainly not at the levels we’re seeing in healthtech locally or femtech globally,” Smith tells us.

Sol agrees, noting that: “I would say there's more knowledge about fertility issues, but really, less knowledge about anything connected to menopause.”

Other challenges include the taboo nature of women’s health in general and limited access to information.

"Women and girls, especially the underserved population, are not getting access to the information they need. Rather, they are getting it scattered and not verified. The main purpose of the Aziza app is to build a localized product for Egyptian women while taking into consideration all possible factors and removing any barriers that could stop them from reaching these tools,” says Amin.

But the landscape is changing-- albeit not at the rate that many femtech founders would like to see. In 2021, the MENA-focused seed and early-stage venture capital firm Flat6Labs launched the Women’s Health Accelerator Program in partnership with global healthcare company Organon to support and fund digital health startups focused on enhancing women’s health in MENAT. So far, it has launched two rounds.

"The femtech sector serves healthtech greatly by allowing healthcare services to be more precise by adapting to women’s specific diseases and needs,” Aly Islam, program officer at Flat6Labs tells Inc. Arabia. “The Women’s Health Accelerator helps startups become investment-ready by offering them financial and business coaching. Moreover, the program offers networking events that increase the startups' exposure to investors and collaborations,” he adds.

The program leverages digital and software solutions for three specific challenges concerning women's healthcare needs: women’s wellness, family planning, and fertility planning. 

A global opportunity

According to FemTech Analytics, one-third of femtech companies in MENA are located in the UAE, with 60% of those tackling women’s wellness and menstrual health.

"The UAE and other countries in the GCC have the potential to become the global hub for innovation in women’s health, given their diverse populations (200+ nationalities), their proximity to emerging economies in the Middle East and Africa, and their growth mindset,” Smith tells us.

Sol agrees, noting that the region’s size and location make it a “gateway” to neighboring countries. She tells us that-- despite the challenges--because femtech is such a nascent industry that serves half of the world’s population, there is room for growth and development.

As the femtech landscape evolves, it holds the potential to revolutionize women's healthcare, offering more personalized, accessible, preventive, and effective solutions that can serve individuals as well as society at large.