Avestria Ventures announced that it has closed a new venture capital (VC) fund that invests in women-led health care and life sciences startups.
New Risk Fund
The venture capital (VC) firm is based in the San Francisco Bay Area and has yet to reveal the dollar amount of its new business fund, fund i.
The business invests primarily in seed and Series A start-ups in the health and life sciences fields. Avestria Ventures evaluates each startup’s employees, market opportunity, proof of concept, and effectiveness before selecting its grantees. The main criterion is that startups should bring a new technology product or service that makes health care more affordable and accessible for women.
Some companies the venture capital firm has invested in include emerging healthcare technology companies such as Madorra, Mae, DrugViu and Raydiant Oximetry, all led by women. Avestria Ventures has even led successful outings like nVision Medical, Uqora, and Alydia Health.
In fact, the venture capital business said in a company statement that the new venture fund follows shortly after Alydia Health was acquired by Organon for $ 240 million. Uqora was also acquired by Pharmavite earlier this year.
Linda Greub, co-founder and general partner of the venture capital business, said in a company statement: “Men still make up about 85% of investment partners in venture capital firms … and many of them They are missing out on huge investment opportunities when they don’t invest enough in the health of women and businesswomen. We believe that our two focus areas, women’s health and women-led life sciences companies, are ripe for innovation”.
Female Venture Capital Financing
While venture capital financing for start-ups happens every day, there is a clear disparity between the amount of business funds that are invested in female and male entrepreneurs. Forbes reported earlier this year that in 2020, startup founders raised $ 3.5 billion in venture capital funding. This equates to about 2.3% of total venture capital funding last year. The same report added that men’s founding teams received 86% of all venture capital funding in 2020.
Despite the inequality between male and female VC funding, the founders have made a name for themselves as they continue to develop the emerging femtech industry. Femtech start-ups are companies that develop software, products, or services with the help of technology as a means of improving the quality, affordability, and access to health care for women. For example, Startup Savant recently reported that femtech company Kindbody raised $ 62 million in a Series C funding round to help women with fertility and family planning.
In addition to offering fertility resources, femtech startups can provide women with other resources and tools to help them before, during and after pregnancy, as well as with breastfeeding. As a result, there is significant market potential for the femtech industry, as healthcare for women is so vast. The New York Times reported that women spend an average of $ 500 billion a year on health care. As a result, the NYT added that in 2019, the femtech industry received $ 592 million in venture capital funding due in part to the fact that it generated $ 820.6 million in global revenue.
