INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA – SEPTEMBER 11: Caitlin Clark #22 of the Indiana Fever dribbles the ball while being guarded by Sydney Colson #51 of the Las Vegas Aces in the first quarter at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on September 11, 2024 in Indianapolis, Indiana. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
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The landscape of women’s health is shifting from the periphery to the main stage. Long regarded as underfunded and overlooked, the sector is now attracting the attention of the world’s most influential capital allocators. Only last week, at the Forbes Power Women’s Summit, Melinda Gates announced a $100 million partnership between Pivotal Ventures and Wellcome Leap, each committing $50 million to fund women’s health R&D. Launching in 2026, these programmes will target historically neglected areas, including cardiovascular disease, autoimmune disorders, and mental health, demonstrating how swiftly institutional momentum is building. This follows the Gates Foundation’s broader $2 billion commitment through 2030 to invest in maternal, menstrual, gynaecological and sexual health innovations for women globally.
This recognition is reinforced by the Milken Institute’s Women’s Health Network, which confirmed its global membership announcement under the guidance of Esther Krofah and their Chair, the former First Lady Dr Jill Biden, bringing together a diverse coalition of leaders and experts in the women’s health ecosystem—from academia and research to finance and investment. This collaborative group is committed to breaking down silos in women’s health by building existing and creating new relationships and collaborations to influence continued action to improve the health, wellbeing, and economic potential of women, and by sharing resources with stakeholders to support the scaling of innovation and development of new businesses.
Such developments underscore a structural inflection: women’s health is no longer treated as a charitable adjunct, but as a central pillar of healthcare’s next growth era. The economic case is incontrovertible. McKinsey estimates that closing the gender health gap could unlock $1 trillion annually in global productivity by 2040, yet the current financial architecture remains fragmented. According to SVB, in 2024, women’s health companies raised $1.19 billion, but Nasdaq states this represented only 2.3% of total healthcare VC funding, a stark decline from a 4.1% peak the year before. Structural underinvestment persists, compounded by entrenched gender bias: FemHealth Insights found female-founded femtech startups raise 23% less per deal than male-founded counterparts, despite outperforming on growth metrics.
Sport as a Catalyst
While institutional investment is beginning to stir, sport remains the most potent distribution engine for women’s health innovation. Deloitte projects that the global market for elite women’s sports will surpass $2.3 billion by 2025, a figure that understates its wider cultural significance. Women’s football, tennis, and athletics have become more than spectator pursuits—they are fertile grounds for innovation in performance, recovery, nutrition, and mental resilience. Within investment strategies like those at GG Ventures, sport is intentionally positioned as both a cultural catalyst and a commercial engine, an arena where breakthroughs in female health can be validated at elite levels and then scaled to wider populations, rendering women’s sport simultaneously a platform for discovery and a launchpad for global healthcare transformation.
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This approach has already gained significant traction in the US market. Notable examples include the NWSL’s D.C. United FC partnering with feminine hygiene company Sequel, Bay FC securing Sutter Health as their front kit sponsor, and the WNBA partnering with Opill (a daily contraceptive pill) while the New York Liberty secured a deal with feminine care and reproductive wellness brand LOLA. This demonstrates how consumer health brands can leverage women’s sports for authentic product validation and market penetration. However, this model remains embryonic in Europe, presenting substantial opportunity for early movers.
Elite women’s sport is the ultimate proving ground for female-specific health innovations. The demanding environment naturally reveals which solutions can perform under the most challenging conditions – from recovery technologies to nutrition approaches and mental wellness tools. When products prove themselves effective in elite sport, they create a powerful pathway to wider adoption: what works for professional, elite athletes becomes aspirational for everyday consumers, sponsors invest in scaling successful solutions, and the broader healthcare market gains confidence in their efficacy.
From Niche to Necessity
The trajectory of women’s health mirrors sport itself. Previously, women’s leagues were undercapitalised, undervalued, and ignored by mainstream broadcasters. Today, they represent one of the fastest-growing global sports markets, commanding significant sponsorships, audiences, and cultural influence. Women’s health stands at precisely the same threshold.
Investment firms such as FemHealth Ventures, Portfolia, Amboy Street, and RH Capital have been deploying dedicated capital for some years now, however, these remain specialized vehicles within a healthcare VC industry exceeding $65 billion annually, according to Dealroom and a $12 trillion dollar healthcare market. This trajectory is indicative of a broader shift: just as women’s sport has transitioned from overlooked niche to institutional asset class, women’s health is positioned for a similar transformation—provided capital is mobilised at scale and innovation is tied to cultural momentum.
What sport demonstrates is that cultural capital accelerates economic capital. To invest in women’s health is not merely to fill a moral void; it is to seize one of the greatest inefficiencies in global healthcare. The question is not whether women’s health will become an institutional asset class, but who who is positioned to capitalise on it.
The Path Forward
While U.S. firms have pioneered early efforts in dedicated women’s health investing, the scale mismatch remains profound: against a trillion-dollar market opportunity, most dedicated funds operate with sub-$100 million vehicles. This represents one of the most significant capital allocation inefficiencies in healthcare today. GG Ventures, now on their second fund, views this as both a challenge and an opportunity.
The convergence of sports, longevity, and AI-native healthcare represents more than a market gap—it’s a fundamental restructuring of how healthcare innovation reaches and serves half the global population. Anchoring women’s health innovation in sport reflects a broader understanding: that breakthrough solutions need cultural momentum as much as capital backing. Sport creates natural demand for better solutions while building the commercial pathways that can move women’s health from underfunded category to institutional asset class.
To invest in women’s health is to capture one of the greatest inefficiencies in global healthcare. The precedent set by women’s sport suggests the transformation is inevitable— the question is who will build the playbook to capture it. Women’s health is no longer a niche—it is the next institutional asset class.
Disclaimer: This article is written by GG Ventures.