After surging to record levels in 2024, venture investments in women’s health companies plummeted last year. Some industry watchers think a shift in the way entrepreneurs and startups are marketing themselves could spark a more sustainable rebound.
A recent report from Silicon Valley Bank, an investment firm that tracks startup funding and a division of First Citizens Bank, put the situation in context. In that report, SVB found that the total venture funding flowing into women’s health companies — which include makers of therapeutics, devices and health technologies — plummeted from $3.2 billion in 2024 to around $2 billion in 2025. The percentage of healthcare venture deals these companies were involved in fell from 7.4% to 5.7% over that timeframe.
Biopharma startups were hit particularly hard, with venture funding numbers plunging from $1.3 billion to $610 million, according to the SVB report.
The report’s authors argued that women’s health companies were swept up in a broader change across the healthcare ecosystem. Investors have increasingly turned their attention to more established companies that seem to be surer bets.
“There's a shift in healthcare investing as a whole,” said Megan Scheffel, head of life sciences and healthcare for SVB, in an interview with BioPharma Dive.
