Over the past few years, the femtech industry has grown massively. What started as a sector dominated by period trackers and fertility apps has evolved into a huge startup sector, helping women access personalised healthcare.
In fact, according to The Data City, the UK’s femtech industry attracted over £480 million in investment funding, growing at a rate of 30%.
And as 2026 rolls around, it doesn’t look like the sector is slowing down anytime soon.
What Actually Is FemTech?
Femtech, or female technology, refers to tech, products and services designed around women’s biology. This could be in regards to reproductive health, fertility, menopause, maternal care or general wellness.
The aim of femtech is to give women better insights into their bodies and bring more attention and investment to women’s health, an area that was historically overlooked.
So, what does 2026 have in store for femtech? To find out we asked the experts…
The Experts
- Anastasia Shubareva-Epshtein, Founder at Carea
- Justyna Strzeszynska, Founder at Joii
- Kristina Simmons, Founder and Managing Partner at Overwater Ventures
- Charlotte Lewis, Principal Associate at Mills & Reeve
- Alisa Sydow, Associate Professor Entrepreneurship at ESCP Business School
- Dr Laura Geige, Medical Director at It’s Me & You
- Sophie Bruce, Founder and CEO at MOLO
- Nancy Scotford, Co-Founder at Get Rude
- Sonja Rincón, CEO and Co-Founder at Menotracker
- Ariane Marie, Founder in FemFinTech
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Anastasia Shubareva-Epshtein, Founder at Carea
“It is an incredibly exciting moment to be innovating in FemTech. My prediction for 2026 is a major shift toward personalisation and genuinely women-centred design. Women are increasingly frustrated with apps, wearables and health solutions that rely on data models built for men. One of my favourite quotes from Dr Stacy Sims is that ‘women are not little men’, a reminder we still need to repeat given that women were only included in clinical research from the mid-1990s onward.
“But things are finally changing. I am seeing more products created with women’s hormonal rhythms as the starting point rather than an afterthought. In 2026, consumers will expect an even deeper level of personalisation, and advances in AI will make this possible. Digital tools and medical devices will be able to provide care that reflects a woman’s own biology and daily experience, helping to ease the pressure on our already stretched healthcare system.
“I am also thrilled to see the growth of sustainable innovation. Menstrual and pregnancy related products were traditionally wasteful and single use, yet we now have the chance to redesign them so they are reusable, environmentally conscious and even able to deliver valuable biomarkers that can help us further personalise the care we provide.”
Justyna Strzeszynska, Founder at Joii
“2026 will be the year that women’s health finally moves away from vague symptom tracking and towards objective, measurable data. Across FemTech, we’ll see a clear shift toward biomarker-driven tools in menstrual health, fertility, menopause and endocrine conditions, because the sector is collectively realising that women have been asked to self-report symptoms for decades without meaningful clinical metrics.
“AI will accelerate this shift. Not in a sci-fi, ‘AI will diagnose everything’ way, but in a practical way by analysing patterns, quantifying change and giving clinicians actual evidence rather than guesswork. A lot of this momentum is coming from the growing acknowledgement that there’s a major gender data gap, and women’s health desperately needs more high-quality datasets to close it.
“Within that broader movement, menstrual blood will become one of the most important, and long overdue, sources of women’s health insights. We’ll move beyond labels like ‘light, medium, heavy’ into measurable bleeding metrics, including actual volume, clot size, flow characteristics and trends across cycles. Menstrual blood will start being recognised as a completely untapped diagnostic fluid, with relevance for heavy bleeding, anaemia, fibroids, adenomyosis, suspected endometriosis and more.
“Period products will evolve too and they’ll stop being passive absorbents and start becoming data-enabled health touchpoints. By 2026, using your period as a long-term health data point won’t feel unusual. It will feel like the natural next step in closing the evidence gap in women’s health.”
Kristina Simmons, Founder and Managing Partner at Overwater Ventures
“Advances in biology, AI, and automation are transforming women’s health from a niche into one of the most technically ambitious sectors in healthcare. What used to be framed as “femtech” will increasingly be understood as core infrastructure for human health, reproduction, and longevity.
“Breakthrough platforms in molecular sensing, cell engineering, and embryology automation will shift women’s health from reactive care to predictive, continuous insight.
“Longevity science and reproductive science will converge, with new therapies targeting menopause, ovarian aging, and hormone-driven cellular decline.
“Robotics and AI will streamline complex workflows in fertility and reproductive medicine, enabling higher precision, lower cost, and global accessibility.
“Investors and healthcare systems will treat women’s health as a foundational pillar of population health, not a consumer segment, as technical rigor and clinical outcomes rise.
“Potential for multiple billion dollar companies to be built.”
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Charlotte Lewis, Principal Associate at Mills & Reeve
“Femtech, coined in 2016 by Ida Tin, refers to technology-driven innovation in women’s health. Once a niche, it is now a fast-growing sector projected to hit $75 billion globally, powered by AI diagnostics, clinical wearables, and integrated health APIs. In 2026, Femtech will shift from reactive tracking to proactive, personalised health management – covering pregnancy, menopause, and autoimmune conditions.
“The UK is emerging as a key hub, supported by the government’s Women’s Health Strategy and new research from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists outlining top priorities. Investors are bullish, with startups eyeing IPOs amid rapid AI adoption, signalling both financial opportunity and cultural change. Women’s health tech is evolving from simple tracking to predictive coaching.
“Three trends dominate globally: AI-driven symptom analysis predicting issues before they arise; fertility and pregnancy apps transforming into real-time health coaches; and seamless integration of wearable data into healthcare systems. Devices like the Oura Ring and continuous glucose monitors promise actionable insights on cycles, hormones, and fertility.
“Challenges remain – fertility solutions thrive, but menopause, sexual health, and non-hormonal contraception lag due to funding gaps. Sustained investment and cross-sector collaboration are vital to ensure innovation benefits all aspects of women’s health.”
Alisa Sydow, Associate Professor Entrepreneurship at ESCP Business School
“FemTech is entering a period of accelerated growth and recognition. After years of underfunding, the sector is backed by compelling economic evidence. A recent McKinsey report shows that for every $1 invested in women’s health, about $3 is projected in economic growth, highlighting the vast potential of closing the gender health gap[1].
“In 2026, we will see an expansion of holistic, data-driven women’s health platforms that integrate menstrual, fertility, menopause, and mental-health insights into continuous, personalised care. With the NHS opening more digital pathways, collaborations between FemTech start-ups and public healthcare providers will increase.
“We will also see the rise of specialised acceleration programmes, such as The Northern FemTech and Women’s Health Tech Accelerator, designed to fast-track innovation, clinical validation, and market access. These programmes signal a maturing landscape and the need for a stronger ecosystem ready to leverage FemTech innovation.
“Demand for menopause solutions, employer-backed women’s health benefits and products designed for underrepresented groups will continue to grow. At the same time, investor appetite will evolve, as more funds recognise women’s health as one of the most overlooked, high-return opportunities of the decade.
“The UK in 2026 is poised for smarter, more inclusive and economically transformative FemTech innovation.”
Dr Laura Geige, Medical Director at It’s Me & You
“The most significant shift we will witness is FemTech moving emphatically beyond reproductive cycles and towards holistic healthspan optimisation. By 2026, the industry will transition from generalized diagnostics to hyper-personalised, preventative care, leveraging sophisticated AI-driven biomarkers.
“From an aesthetic and medical perspective, we will see the true emergence of the ‘clinic-at-home’ model, where consumer devices seamlessly integrate with professional oversight.
“The core prediction is clear. FemTech success in 2026 will be defined by data depth and privacy-first personalisation.”
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Sophie Bruce, Founder and CEO at MOLO
“The FemTech industry is entering a defining phase in 2026, driven by two powerful forces: growing investor appetite for women’s health and increasing recognition that the mental load carried by mothers is both a wellbeing issue and a major economic drag.
“In 2026, three shifts will stand out. First, the scope of FemTech itself is expanding. Solutions that improve daily life for women, including those that reduce cognitive and emotional labour, are now seen as core to the sector.
“Second, infrastructure will outperform intervention. Tools that simplify logistics and administration will scale faster than consumer wellness apps.
“Third, employer backed models that generate strong data and clear return on investment will dominate.
“Founders who solve real and often overlooked problems such as unpaid labour, decision fatigue and fragmented care pathways will attract the most attention. The winners in 2026 will build evidence informed products that support women in the everyday realities of work and life.”
Nancy Scotford, Co-Founder at Get Rude
“Femtech in 2026 will be defined by hardware emerging as the new competitive advantage. As LLMs commoditise software, companies that combine intelligent devices with strong early distribution are creating something software alone cannot replicate: unique, high-resolution data.
“Despite economic headwinds and talk of an AI bubble, wellness spending remains resilient, echoing the historically recession-proof nature of the sex and intimate industry.
“As a result, 2026 will push femtech further into previously taboo areas, sexual wellness, hormonal optimisation, and menstrual health.
“Ethical data stewardship will become a defining expectation, with inclusive, privacy-first models crucial to unlocking femtech’s projected £130bn potential.”
Sonja Rincón, CEO and Co-Founder at Menotracker
“2026 will be the year femtech’s privacy crisis reaches breaking point. The industry faces an uncomfortable truth: apps are farming out sensitive data, and women are catching on.
“Privacy policies mean nothing when companies still hold the keys to identifiable user data.
“Companies that can’t guarantee anonymity will haemorrhage users. The market projection assumes women keep trusting femtech with their secrets. That trust is already gone.”
Ariane Marie, Founder in FemFinTech
“Like FinTech for women, there’s clearly a growing interest from both the public and the industry to improve products and experiences designed specifically for women – this includes FemTech.
“But despite all this attention, investors often underfund female founders, especially when building solutions for women.
“My hope for 2026 is that women step up to support women-led ventures, by using their products, referring them to friends, and amplifying their work.
“If we want better FemTech products and services, we need to fund the women building them. Together, our choices can help female founders survive and thrive in a landscape that too often overlooks them.”
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