AXA is searching for FemTech’s ten rising stars
On the first day of the 2019 Women’s Forum, we are proud to announce, in partnership with 50inTech, a call for applications to find and support the world’s 10 best FemTech startups. ALL ARTICLES | InnovationFemTech, a fast-changing market
FemTech (Female Technology) is a term used to describe innovations designed to improve women's health. It is a fast-growing market that is currently underfinanced, despite its considerable potential. That is because FemTech has been long overlooked by (overwhelmingly male) investors and treated as a “niche” market – even though its products and services address 50% of the world’s population!
This status quo is changing. The FemTech market is expected to reach $50 billion by 2050, and several startups have already grabbed attention, such as ObsEva, a Swiss FemTech whose successful IPO made a splash in 2017, and Clue, a startup founded in 2013 by Ida Tin, FemTech pioneer, which already has more than 10 million users worldwide.
The FemTech Accelerator Program: for FemTechs by FemTechs
As a longtime supporter of women's entrepreneurship and women's health, we decided to launch our FemTech Accelerator Program. Our goal is to co-build a personalized support program with the selected FemTechs that will operate as a “business accelerator”.
We are looking for FemTech startups in the seed or Series A rounds of funding and headed by women. The 10 selected startups will be involved in building the program to ensure a close fit with their specific needs. Three types of support are planned:
- Mentoring: Creation of a network of mentors, including top managers at AXA, strategic partners, and investors, to help project leaders raise funds or develop their business model.
- Learning: Organization of a “Learning Expedition” to the FemTech hub of Tel Aviv.
- Acceleration: The AXA Group’s innovation ecosystem made fully available to the selected FemTechs, to give them opportunities to grow their businesses.
If we want the next wave of Healthtech to circumvent bias against women in diagnosis and treatment, we must do more to make sure that FemTech products and services are built by women, who can better identify the issues and pain points that need to be solved.
Women’s health and entrepreneurship: two key commitments for AXA
“Women are key to developing our overall vision of being an ever closer partner for all our customers, since women engage us and push us to answer their specific needs in innovative ways”, Thomas Buberl, CEO of AXA.
Published in 2015, the “She for Shield” report was the first to comprehensively explain women’s lack of financial protection, especially in emerging economies. Since then, we have stepped up our efforts to stop discrimination against women, in the area of business financing as well as access to healthcare. This acceleration program is a major step forward in our strategy to promote women’s entrepreneurship and women's health.
50inTech is the ideal partner to make this program happen. The aim of this community of entrepreneurs is to strengthen women's influence in the tech industry. AXA has partnered with the 50inTech platform since May 2019.
For the fourth year in a row, AXA is an official partner of the Women’s Forum, an international event devoted to ideas and solutions for unleashing women’s leadership in the economy and society. Read more about AXA's participation in the 2019 Women's Forum.
