Can Impact and Profit Coexist? A FemTech Investor Answers | Blush & Bloom Podcast | Ep. 63

On this week's Blush & Bloom, Gigi Kenneth sits down with Rachel Elsinga, a gender lens impact investor and an investor in Portfolia's FemTech funds. After around 15 years in corporate banking and a career spanning eight countries, Rachel now backs female founded and underrepresented startups working in women's health, active aging, longevity and sustainability. Her thesis: gender lens investing in FemTech is not charity, and women's health is not a niche.

In This Episode, We Cover:

• What impact investing means and how Rachel defines it
• Why she moved from corporate banking into gender lens investing
• Whether impact and profit can coexist
• How she judges whether an investment advances gender equity
• Portfolia's FemTech funds and how investors take part
• Why FemTech is not a niche market
• How successful women's health founders pitch
• Gaps in FemTech in emerging markets
• Her advice for women who want to start investing

From banking to impact investing

Rachel always wanted her work to have an impact. She studied international development, then took an MBA and went into banking with a plan to pay off her debt first. The plan shifted in 2016, when she returned to work in Amsterdam after a year of maternity leave and felt she could no longer delay doing work that matched her values. She left to co-found a company focused on gender equality, then took a one year family sabbatical of travel. That year has turned into five, spent travelling with her family and investing full time in startups that have a positive impact.

Living and working across eight countries also shaped how she invests. Cultural context, she says, decides whether a solution is relevant at all. "There isn't a one size fits all," and blanketing over that is a missed opportunity that can sometimes cause harm.

What is gender lens investing?

Gender lens investing means looking at an investment through the question of who holds power and who benefits. Rachel looks at the management team and board, whether the product benefits women and girls, and internal policies such as fair parental leave. Most gender lens investors, she adds, take an intersectional view that includes non-binary people and people from different ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.

In FemTech and healthcare specifically, a big part of that lens is making sure women are included in medical research, so male bodies stop being treated as the default.

Can impact and profit coexist?

Rachel calls the idea that they cannot one of the biggest myths in investing. "There is no reason why impact and profit cannot coexist," she says. In her experience, mission driven founders stay laser focused on the problem they are solving, use their capital more efficiently and are less likely to change direction to please whichever investor is in front of them.

Is FemTech a niche market?

No. Rachel laughs at the idea of calling half the population a niche. Her message to investors who still see it that way: "go ahead, stay in your lane, leaves more room for the rest of us to invest in the future." Women are taking control of their health, she says, and women entrepreneurs are leading the way.

Through Portfolia, a venture capital firm with one of the largest networks of women investors, Rachel has invested in FemTech funds backing companies working on areas such as a non-hormonal male contraceptive and earlier detection of endometriosis and ovarian cancer. Investors can listen in on startup pitches, ask questions and weigh in on which companies are ready for a fund. Telehealth is the area that excites her most, because it can reach women in rural areas or difficult home situations who might otherwise go without care.

How do successful women's health founders pitch?

The strongest women's health founders connect the data to the story. Rachel sees them start with the fundamentals: clinical trials, testing that meets industry standards, users and a clear understanding of how insurance and the healthcare system work in their market. That proof, not a hockey stick revenue chart, gives them a head start with investors.

For founders more broadly, she has seen through mentoring programs like FoundersBoost that passion needs to turn into execution quickly. Founders who spot their gaps, hire for them early and stay focused on getting a first product out the door tend to move fastest.

Where are the gaps in emerging markets?

Localised solutions. Rachel sees the biggest need, and the biggest opportunity, in tools built for a specific population within its cultural context, along with better data on populations that are currently unseen.

Advice for women who want to start investing

Do not wait, Rachel says. Start small. Portfolia is open to accredited investors, and she points to other entry points too, such as Hypatia Capital's WCEO ETF, which invests in companies led by women CEOs. Angel investor groups are another way in, even just to listen to pitches and learn from experienced investors. You do not always need a finance background, she adds. Do your due diligence, or join a group that does, then trust your gut.

Her hope for the future is simple: that terms like gender lens and impact investing disappear, because "investing in these groups should just be called investing."

FAQ

Who is Rachel Elsinga? Rachel Elsinga is a gender lens impact investor with around 15 years of experience in corporate banking. She invests in female founded and underrepresented startups, including through Portfolia's FemTech funds, and mentors early stage founders.

What is gender lens investing? Gender lens investing evaluates companies by who leads them, who benefits from the product and how fairly they treat people, for example through board representation and parental leave policies. Many gender lens investors take an intersectional approach.

Why does Rachel say FemTech is not a niche? Women make up half the population, and Rachel sees women's health as a long overdue growth area led by women entrepreneurs.

How can women start investing in women's health? Rachel's advice is to start small and start now, through options like angel investor groups, funds such as Portfolia for accredited investors, or public market products, while doing due diligence and trusting your own expertise.

Listen and connect

Listen to the full conversation on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn. For more conversations, visit the Blush and Bloom podcast hub, including Ep. 49 on investing in women's health and Ep. 57 on funding women's health startups, and track your own health with the Asele app.

This episode is for general informational purposes and does not constitute medical, legal, financial, or regulatory advice.