🚹 Founder Allies in the Femtech Community in Asia
- lindsaydavissg9
- May 27
- 4 min read
Listening to the The New York Times podcast “The Interview” with Rutger Bregman, the Dutch historian and author known for his viral TED Talk and bestselling book Humankind, we were intrigued by the term "heroic masculinity". Bregman discusses a positive approach to manhood that is rooted in protection, courage and care for the under-represented groups; men playing an active role in societal health, caregiving and advancing equity. This resonated with us as the organisation leading the femtech and women’s health ecosystem in Asia, which is largely driven by women founders.
While women's leadership is imperative, many impactful femtech innovations in Asia are being driven by men. There is a misconception that we hear regularly in Asia that the femtech industry is for women founders only. This is absolutely untrue. While FemTech Association Asia is over 80% female founder, male founders and allies recognise the urgency - and also the opportunity - to advance health equity.
In October 2024, we polled FemTech Association Asia members asking for the top reason why they founded their femtech startups. While 52% of femtech startup founders responded that they wanted to make impact and advance gender health equity as the main reason for starting their business, ALL male members responded that they want to build businesses where opportunity exists - and they see the femtech industry as this space in Asia.
Here are a few of the male founders in FemTech Association Asia who are looking to address the untapped regional market potential:
🧠 Amrish Nair – Biorithm. A Singapore-based medtech founder using AI and wearables to monitor maternal and fetal health. Amrish and his team are building better outcomes for pregnant women through early detection of complications like preeclampsia and fetal distress.
🔬 Lewis Owens – Dignostics Asia. Providing access and accuracy for diabetes diagnosis, wherever and whenever needed. Women may experience more severe complications with diabetes as a chronic illness and be at higher risk of experiencing complications than men.
🧬 Kyle Lao – MenSC Labs. This startup is looking at menstrual blood-derived stem cells for therapeutic applications. Lao and his co-founder Immanuella Indradjaja are conducting research and development to utilise menstrual blood for various medical purposes, including potential treatment for conditions like cancer.
💌 David Ong – Dear Kyra. A patient-driven digital healthcare platform empowering women to take control of their health and wellbeing. Best known for providing online access and on-demand delivery for birth control and STD services across Malaysia. This direct-to-consumer business offers an easy-to-use subscription model to create as market-leading digital women’s health platform accompanied by discreet to home pharmaceutical delivery.
🌱 Clement Chia 谢乐勤 – Reborn. A digital health startup that helps women with breast cancer makes better informed consent decision regarding breast reconstruction. It has been shown to improve patient satisfaction and reduce clinic consultation time by 40%, thus increasing clinic efficiency.
🔎 Yusong Leng - HiCura Medical Pte Ltd. This Singapore-based startup uses advanced AI and robotics to empower medical professionals for better decisions for women during image-guided procedure with precision diagnostics, such as with epidural anesthesia.
📱 Rio Hoe – Ease Healthcare. A venture-backed ecosystem of digital health brands dedicated to transforming access to health and wellness.
📊 Albert Dashi, PhD – Sequential - The Skin Microbiome Testing Co™. Bringing microbiome science to the forefront, offering vaginal microbiome testing to help women better understand infections, fertility, and overall intimate health, an area long overlooked in clinical research.
👫 Benjamin C.K. Tee & Prusothman Sina Raja – twoplus Fertility. This duo has developed a device to increase the chance of conception at home, giving couples agency and privacy in their fertility journeys without immediately resorting to IVF or invasive clinical procedures.
These men are not speaking for women but are building with women. They are listening to clinicians, patients, partners, consumers and communities. They are backing taboo-breaking ideas with funding and technology.
The main challenge with gender imbalance in the regional femtech space is the disproportionate funding of male-founded startups. It is worth noting that many of the male founders listed above from FemTech Association Asia are working hard to amplify voices of fellow founders and consumers with women's healthcare needs that may otherwise go unheard in male-dominated conference platforms, investor meetings, etc.
As of February 2024, just over 21% of femtech businesses in Southeast Asia reported raising funds, whether through grants, angel investors and/or venture capital, while the remainder bootstrap. Note: "SEA" = IDN, PHL, SGP, THA, VNM.
84% of femtech companies in SEA have a woman founder or woman as co-founder.
71% of femtech companies in SEA that have raised funds have a woman founder or woman co-founder.
50% of femtech companies in SEA that have raised funds have a woman founder or woman-only co-founders.
33% of femtech companies in SEA that have raised funds have a man founder or man-only co-founders.
57% of total funds ($) raised by femtech companies in SEA were raised by a man founder or man-only co-founders. (February 2024)
This disproportionate investment in male-founded femtech businesses is a global challenge according to Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education data and research(1), highlighting women receiving a disproportionately small share of venture capital funding: 2.3% for all-female founding teams and 10%.4 for mixed-gender founding teams. Generally, female founders receive approximately a quarter of the amount of funding they seek, while their male counterparts receive half, on average.
However, the future of femtech in Asia should not be gender-exclusive, as we need everyone - not just women - to drive the industry forward. To scale and sustain impact in women's health Asia, we need male founders, investors, ecosystem-builders and champions who treat women’s health not as a niche, but as a global imperative. Male founders can open doors and create opportunities for their peers to further extend the reach and impact of femtech.
The willingness to stand in solidarity with women, to design better systems, and to use one’s privilege to advance equity is heroic masculinity in action and these FemTech Association Asia founders are demonstrating exactly this.
Comments