Issue #64 : ON A MISSION

🎉 Happy New Year, beautiful people! 

Huge thanks for the love and support 🙌

Here’s to making 2024 the year of transformation together.

From day one, our mission has been to empower women’s health. With 63 dope issues down, it feels like we’re just getting started.

• We hosted 11+ empowering events, touching the lives of 2000 women, and sharing insights on FemTech and women’s health.
• Represented India at MedFemTech Congress Paris, putting Indian FemTech on the global map.
• In just 14 months, we’ve grown to 80+ startups spanning South Asia, collaborating with founders from the USA, Canada, Australia, France, Pakistan, Israel, and beyond.
• Participated in the G20-DIA Summit,—uniting 29 nations, and driving digital innovation for global economic transformation.
• Launched.FemTech India Book, an ambitious project spotlighting India’s dynamic and transformative FemTech sector.
• 🎙The FemTech India Podcast celebrated one year of empowerment, 24 episodes featuring inspiring stories of FemTech founders from around the globe, and a global audience from 90 countries – this has been an incredible journey of amplifying voices, sharing stories.

• New Markets: We are now expanded into new markets, covering the entire South Asia region. 

• Consulting: We identified a significant pain point in the market— a common challenge faced by many startups in FemTech space. We launched our consulting services , we assist startups with strategy, execution, go-to-market, and Business development and gaining access to new markets.
• Press Releases: Driven by passion, our newsletter has evolved into a premier source for women’s health trends in India. Introducing a press release platform, we empower companies to captivate decision-makers and investors.We now invite you to enhance your brand’s visibility by sharing new products and releases—to reach to your targeted demographic. 
• Research: We offer 360° look at Femtech—from pre-seed to exit. Get insights, predict trends, spot gaps, and discover opportunities. We’ve got the scoop on everything shaping the women’s health market in India.

• Community: FemTech Circle powered by FemTech India, where our shared passion for Women’s Health unites us. A hub for idea exchange, discourse on innovations, sharing opportunities, and mutual support. 

Join the waitlist…..

• White papers: Addressing a significant gap in women’s health research, we aim to offer a comprehensive sector-wise overview. Stay tuned as we launch white papers on various segments, providing valuable resources for founders to showcase to potential investors.

Most downloaded episodes that you won’t want to miss:

• IVF, Infertility & PCOS
• Maternal Benefits & Reproductive Health Rights in India 
• Handling Tough Conversations around Sexual Health
• Syncing the Physiological Cycle
• Getting Investment Ready
• New-Age Padman
• Tackling Menstruation and Mental Health with Medical Cannabis
• Integrating Ayurveda into FemTech

We’re all about driving this industry forward. We appreciate your ongoing support and the impactful work you contribute.Your support means the world.

This year, get ready for major moves as we level up and push the game forward. Big things coming –

Navneet, Jayant & FemTech India team

• Larkai Healthcare, a  med-tech company that provides advanced, affordable, and accessible healthcare solutions has secured an investment of US$ 500k for the seed funding round from Faad Network, QI Ventures, RTAF, and additional government grants. Larkai was founded in 2020, by Pritam Dhalla and Abhilash Chakraverty, Larkai Healthcare bridges the gap between diagnosis and treatment

• Manina Medtech, secured €1.75M in funding to support the development and clinical trials of their new medical device, SEEDCHRONY. This device is positioned to advance In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) outcomes by improving embryo implantation processes.
• The technology company LTS has bagged a US$4.3m grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop contraceptive microneedle array patches (MAP) for women in low- and middle-income countries.

• According to global estimates, from the onset of symptoms to the identification of endometriosis disorder can wait anywhere from four to 11 years. This delay greatly reduces quality of life and can worsen the burden of symptoms. To combat these wait times, College La Cité  in collaboration with SYNG has begun a study meant to develop a non-invasive endometriosis rapid detection kit called EndoID that could help facilitate earlier diagnosis. 
• The UK medical research sector is uniting to support the introduction of dedicated sex and gender policies in biomedical research. This movement is evidenced by a collective endorsement from 29 organisations, including key research funders and academic publishers, in alignment with The George Institute for Global Health’s Medical Science Sex and Gender Equity (MESSAGE) project. 
• All new mums in England will receive better mental and physical check-ups from their GP in the weeks after giving birth, as part of a significant NHS guidance update. GPs will carry out the comprehensive postnatal check-up six to eight weeks after women give birth, covering a range of topics such as mental health, physical recovery and breastfeeding.
• Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool called iStar (Inferring Super-Resolution Tissue Architecture) that has the potential to revolutionise cancer diagnosis and treatment. The tool uses advanced techniques to interpret medical images with unprecedented clarity, providing highly detailed views of individual cells and a broader understanding of how genes operate.
• A government study has found “remarkably high” prevalence of antibiotic use, with 71.9 percent of surveyed patients at 20 tertiary care hospitals being prescribed it. The study found that 45 per cent of the patients were being prescribed antibiotics for therapeutic indications and 55 per cent for preventive reasons. It also showed that 4.6 per cent of the patients took four or more antibiotics.
• In 2023, AI, like ChatGPT, became a big deal in healthcare. The World Health Organization thinks AI can change healthcare. Now, in 2024, Canadian experts are figuring out how AI will be a big part of healthcare. AI will look at a lot of information about a patient, not just X-rays. It will look at notes from doctors, lab results, medicines and genetics. This helps not only to find out what is wrong but also to make a special plan for each person.
• India has developed an all-terrain portable disaster hospital ready to be shared with the world. The unit can handle bullet, burns, head, spinal and chest injuries, fractures and major bleeding and is billed as the world’s first portable disaster hospital

• TMRW Life Sciences, known for its automation technology in IVF labs, has announced its expansion into the United Kingdom. The company’s CRS system automates the storage and management of frozen eggs and embryos, aiming to enhance safety and efficiency in fertility treatments.
• The US fertility clinic and family-building benefits provider Kindbody has launched a training programme to help more people access fertility treatment. Kindbody will see its first cohort of fertility doctors graduate after completing didactic training and in-clinic technical training.

• Deep Bajaj, founder of Sirona, was featured on The Gut Feel Show and addressed prevalent issues faced by women.
• HempStreet released a new case study showing how Vijaya helps alleviate nerve pain and improves life quality naturally.
• Hera is presenting a series of content to help understand reproductive health better. In its recent series, Hera has curated a quiz to kickstart the reproductive health journey.
• Archish IVF released its founder note series featuring its founders and narrating the story of the role of IVF in bringing hopes to families, and about fertility care in general.
• Niramai Health Analytix inaugurated its Breast Health Center at the Royal Meenakshi Mall, Bengaluru.

• Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has acquired MenoLabs business, a leading women’s health and dietary supplement branded portfolio from Amyris, Inc. (Amyris) in Amyris’ Chapter 11 sales process.
• Suzhou Ribo Life Science Co., Ltd. and Ribocure AB (Ribo) announced a collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim to develop novel treatments for nonalcoholic or metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (NASH/MASH).

• A Parliamentary Panel has recommended that the Centre may consider inclusion of some of the provisions of the US government’s much deliberated Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, in India’s flagship health assurance scheme Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).
• Union health ministry has said that it achieved a significant milestone of screening more than one crore people for sickle cell disease (SCD) under the National Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission. The Mission endeavors to screen seven crore population in three years.
• In a step to improve the ease of doing business to the industry stakeholders, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has launched the National Single Window System (NSWS) portal initially offering three activities for the medical devices industry.

• Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have now identified a crucial mechanism that allows the tuberculosis (TB) bacterium to persist in the human host for decades. TB is caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), which can be present in the human body for decades without any symptoms.
• Cutting-edge research has revealed that an AI-driven system has the capability to accurately identify facial expressions that convey emotions, including fleeting ones. This breakthrough discovery holds great potential in bolstering psychotherapy.