Issue # 157 – 🪔 Oura raises $900M, WellTheory $14M Series A, and Town Hall Ventures closes $440M

✨Hey there! You’re reading the free edition of the FemTech India newsletter — your go-to source for the latest in women’s health, industry updates, and opportunities to help you navigate what’s next in your journey.

• In an effort to mitigate breast cancer risk, the West Bengal state health department has initiated a project to develop an AI-based screening protocol along with a mobile application.
• Global virtual healthcare platform Amazon One Medical has unveiled a telehealth platform dedicated to pediatric care. The digital platform provides pay-per-visit services for common health issues like pink eye, skin rashes, and asthma.
• California-based Preventive Healthcare platform Hello Heart has unveiled the world’s first AI heart health assistant, ‘Nia’, along with AI medication management tools.
• Huawei is preparing to launch a smartwatch equipped with blood pressure monitoring in India, with industry watchers expecting the device to be the HUAWEI Watch D2 or a similar model.
• India Unveils First Patented Tool for Emotional Wellness Screening

• Oura has raised over $900 million in funding led by Fidelity Management & Research Company, valuing the smart ring maker at approximately $11 billion. New investor ICONIQ participated in the round, along with Whale Rock and Atreides.
  
• FemTech startup Unfabled out of London has raised €1.4 million for their women’s health platform, as well as expanding into 737 Boots stores across the UK – bringing total Seed funding to just over €3.3 million.
  
• WellTheory has raised $14 million in Series A funding led by General Catalyst, bringing total capital raised to $26.2 million. The round included participation from 7wire Ventures, Ingeborg Investments, Accel, Box Group, Leaps by Bayer, and Up2 Opportunity Fund.
• New York-based leading healthcare-focused venture capital firm, Town Hall Ventures (THV), has announced the close of its fourth funding round with $440 million in capital commitments.
• Everbright Health, a managed services platform for mental health providers, has raised $7 million in seed funding from W Health Ventures and Sanos Capital.
• Medi Assist Healthcare Services has raised ₹198 crore from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) through a preferential allotment of equity shares.
• Mumbai-based healthtech startup Fastest.Health has raised ₹1.2 crore in a pre-seed funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) to expand its quick-service diagnostics platform and accelerate growth across new markets.
• Vega Health, a Durham, NC-based healthcare AI startup, raised USD4m in seed funding.
• Counsel Health, a NYC-based AI care platform provider, raised $25m in Series A funding.
• BridGene Biosciences, Inc., a San Jose, CA-based leader in the discovery and development of small molecule drugs for traditionally “hard-to-drug” targets, closed a $28m Series B+ financing round.

• Women show their fastest reaction times during ovulation, but physical activity level has a stronger effect on brain function, new research suggests. The study examined how menstrual cycle phases and physical activity influenced cognitive tasks that reflect real-world decision-making and reactions, such as timing, attention and response speed.
• New global guidelines aim to end preventable deaths from postpartum haemorrhage. A woman with PPH can die within two hours of the onset of bleeding if left untreated. Given these alarming figures, understanding what postpartum haemorrhage is, how it can be prevented is critical for reducing maternal deaths
• Women who enter menopause earlier in life face a higher risk of dementia, while hormone replacement therapy (HRT) appears to lower that risk, new research suggests. The study of 1,329 cognitively healthy women also found that greater exposure to oestrogen across the reproductive lifespan was associated with better cognitive performance and larger brain volumes.
• Sports footwear manufacturers are being urged to abandon the ‘shrink it and pink it’ approach to women’s running shoes, new research suggests. The practice of simply making men’s shoes smaller and changing the colour fails to address women’s distinct anatomical and biomechanical needs, researchers found.
• The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plans to update the black box warning on menopause hormone therapies soon, commissioner Dr Martin Makary has said. The move follows years of debate over safety alerts that have limited access to treatment for millions of women with menopause symptoms.
• Researchers have created human eggs from skin cells, in a breakthrough that could transform IVF treatment for couples who have no other options. The work remains at an early stage, but if scientists can refine the process it could allow women who are infertile due to age, illness or medical treatment to have genetically related eggs.
• Eating several kiwi fruit a day can help relieve constipation and is a better starting point than worrying about a high-fibre diet, according to new guidance for doctors on the condition. The advice says drinking water high in minerals is better for constipation than tap water, and magnesium oxide supplements are good for improving symptoms.
• An injection to prevent HIV is to be offered to patients on the NHS in England and Wales for the first time, bringing the policy in line with Scotland. The long-acting shot, given six times a year or every other month, is an alternative to taking daily pills to protect against the virus. Experts hope the cabotegravir (CAB-LA) injections will help meet the ambition of ending new HIV cases by 2030 in the UK.
• The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that less than one in three countries around the world has a national policy to address the growing burden of neurological disorders, responsible for over 11 million deaths globally each year. The WHO’s new Global status report on neurology released shows that neurological conditions now affect more than 40% of the global population – over 3 billion people.

• BioMed X has launched XFem Labs, a women’s health research and development accelerator in Heidelberg, Germany. The initiative is supported by a $2 million grant from the Gates Foundation.
• Hims & Hers Health, Inc.  announced the launch of a new specialty in women’s health, offering access to affordable treatment plans built specifically for women experiencing perimenopause and menopause.
• Natural Cycles has launched NC° Perimenopause, a new app mode for tracking perimenopause symptoms and hormonal changes, alongside the NC° Band, a wearable device that collects overnight biometric data.
• Blue Cross partnered with Carrot, the leading global fertility and family care platform, to deliver comprehensive fertility, family-building, and hormonal health benefits to its expatriate members.

• Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister directed the state’s Health Department to develop a mobile application facilitating online payments for medical tests across government hospitals.
• The Kerala Health Department is exploring the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance operational efficiency in patient care and disease diagnosis.

📳 – Quick Reads: 

• Did you know that oral health is important for women’s overall well-being?: Women face unique oral health challenges due to hormonal changes across life stages
• From ‘OCD’ to ‘depressed’: How people misuse mental health terms in everyday conversation : Misuse of mental health terms is blurring the lines between everyday stress and clinical disorders, fostering self-diagnosis and misinformation
• Fact check: Does a healthy relationship really make you gain weight? Studies on married and cohabiting couples show a positive association between stable relationships and gradual weight gain
• FACT CHECK: Are gel nail paint manicures harming your fertility? Gel nail paints and manicures are the latest trend, but could this beauty fad be harming your health?  

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See you next Friday, friends 👋
Navneet

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