Investing in Women's Health: Ulla Sommerfelt on the 2% Problem | Blush & Bloom Podcast | Ep. 49

Investing in women's health is often waved off as a niche bet, even though it touches half the population. On this week's Blush & Bloom, Gigi Kenneth sits down with Ulla Sommerfelt, CEO and Founder of FemTech Studios, to unpack why women's health still receives only two percent of funding, and why that number says more about the market's blind spots than about the opportunity.

Ulla is an exited founder who co-founded and led EGGS Design, a firm she grew to 130 people across 27 nationalities before selling it. She is the author of Firesoul Leadership, a longtime angel investor who now backs only women's health, and the person building FemTech Studios as a venture studio to help more founders launch, scale, and eventually exit.

In This Episode, We Cover:

• Why women's health receives just 2% of funding, and the market math that proves it is not niche
• Why femtech is far more than period trackers, and the taboo that keeps it quiet
• What Ulla looks for before she invests: coachable teams, science-backed proof, and market thinking
• How she sold a 130-person company without breaking the trust of the people who built it
• Why design thinking and empathy belong at the center of women's health innovation
• What founders need most from the ecosystem, beyond a check

Why does women's health only get 2% of funding?

Ulla points to a simple gap: women's health has been under-researched for decades, so the data that investors rely on is thin, and the conditions involved carry stigma. As she puts it, "women only get two percent of the funding" for women's health. Yet the addressable numbers are enormous. She notes there are around one billion women in perimenopause or menopause this year alone.

Is femtech just period trackers?

No. Ulla argues the category spans some of the most common and least discussed conditions in medicine, from menopause and endometriosis to pelvic organ prolapse, which affects a large share of women who have given birth. The barrier is rarely demand. It is taboo, shame, and stigma, which keep both patients and investors from naming the problem out loud, let alone funding it.

What makes a women's health startup investable?

Ulla looks first at the team: the right qualifications or the ability to attract them, and above all coachability. Then she looks for a scalable product and science-backed proof rather than a hunch. She is drawn to founders who think market, not just product, pointing to one startup that built a training simulator to generate revenue while its clinical device moved through trials.

Design thinking as a women's health tool

After 25 years working alongside designers, Ulla sees empathy as their core skill, not aesthetics. Design thinking, she says, is about "designing the right thing, and then designing it right," which is exactly what vulnerable, high-trust products for women's health require. It is why the design methodology sits at the heart of the FemTech Studios approach.

Building the ecosystem, not just the cap table

Ulla keeps returning to one line: "it takes a village to grow a startup." Women's health has very few exited founders to pay it forward, so FemTech Studios brings capital, competence, and connections, runs founder programs and fractional services, and is even building its own menopause clinic. She also credits community moments, like the FemTech Lounge at TechBBQ, with normalizing conversations that used to happen in whispers.

FAQ

What is FemTech Studios? A venture studio founded by Ulla Sommerfelt that backs and builds women's health startups across the Nordics and Europe, offering capital, hands-on support, and fractional services rather than a check alone.

Who is Ulla Sommerfelt? An exited founder and former CEO of EGGS Design, author of Firesoul Leadership, angel investor focused on women's health, and CEO and Founder of FemTech Studios.

Why is investing in women's health considered a big opportunity? Because the conditions are common and long neglected. Ulla cites roughly one billion women in perimenopause or menopause this year, alongside large under-served markets in endometriosis and pelvic health.

What should founders do about the "50% of the population" pitch? Skip the shortcut. Ulla and Gigi agree founders should do the real market research and show specific numbers, rather than leaning on the broad "half the population" claim.

How do you exit a company without losing your team's trust? Ulla ran a transparent, roughly nine-month sale process, kept her people informed throughout, and prioritized culture fit in choosing a partner, so the news broke as no surprise.

Is this medical advice? No. This episode and post are for general information only and are not medical, legal, or regulatory advice.

Resources mentioned

• Book: Firesoul Leadership by Ulla Sommerfelt, her book on building cultures of trust and turning founders into leaders.
• FemTech Studios: femtechstudios.com
• Nordic Women's Health Hub: a Nordic non-profit uniting researchers, founders, investors, and policymakers around women's health.

Listen to the full episode

Hear the whole conversation on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube, and explore more guests on the Blush & Bloom podcast hub. If you are building in this space, Asele works at the intersection of technology and women's health at asele.tech.

You can connect with Ulla Sommerfelt on LinkedIn and follow FemTech Studios.