impulse, a University of Cambridge entrepreneurship programme, has seen a sharp rise in the number of participants contributing novel innovations to the FemTech sector.
Chemical biologist Melis Ekinci (pictured in main image, left) is one of the standout female entrepreneurs from impulse’s latest 2024 cohort focused on addressing health inequalities in the UK. Through her company, Woost, Ekinci is on a mission to improve women’s health and address the unmet needs of women in the healthcare system.
Woost’s initial focus is a home blood test kit for women, enabling them to regularly track biomarkers in their menstrual blood in order to detect gynaecological conditions earlier. Aimed primarily at those suffering with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) – which affects 1 in 10 women of childbearing age – the kit works in conjunction with a digital platform, where women can analyse their results, understand their symptoms, and access reviewed health information and treatment support.
Ekinci was awarded an impulse fellowship, sponsored by The Henry Royce Institute, to help her build her unique diagnostics company. She is currently conducting a clinical study funded by Innovate UK Smart grant to demonstrate technical feasibility, and begins a fundraise at the end of the year.
“The only way for women to impactfully improve or maintain their health is by self-testing – because the accessibility of healthcare for such regular testing just isn’t available,” she said. “If women aren’t aware of what’s happening inside our own bodies, we are no more than living timebombs until something severe happens.”
The FemTech market is set to be worth $1 trillion by 2027, according to McKinsey & Company, while a report from The Department of Health and Social Care claims 84% of women feel unheard or overlooked by healthcare professionals.
This highlights the urgent need for women to be empowered with the means to better understand their own individual health journeys, and be able to advocate for themselves.
Ekinci says she was prompted to do something about this after herself suffering the debilitating symptoms of PCOS for 10 years before being given a positive diagnosis.
She says: “I was displaying all the physical symptoms – yet the sporadically timed blood tests I was given over the years always came back ‘clean’, and so never led to a diagnosis.
“Menstrual blood testing, however, is convenient, non-invasive and uniquely, it offers gender-specific blood testing and the opportunity to test for novel biomarkers. The potential market for this is huge because of the number of women with undiagnosed PCOS – and Woost is building an AI-assisted system where we target symptom tracking specially associated with PCOS, alongside menstrual blood testing.”
She adds: “The impulse programme dissects every aspect of an entrepreneur’s journey and fills in the gaps. The network it offers was one of my chief reasons for participating – and now to be part of that network is incredible. The conversations I have had just opened my mind in so many different ways: both the conversations with my fellow participants and the one-to-ones with the experts as well.”
The impulse programme runs over three months and is aimed primarily at early-stage founders, entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, researchers and Postdocs across all aspects of technology and life science.
Significantly, impulse alumni have been behind a succession of recent multi-million-pound company success stories including Riverlane, Xampla, Wave Photonics, Echion Technologies, Abselion and Tenyks.
Mentors include Arm co-founder Jamie Urquhart, award-winning geneticist Prof Anne Ferguson-Smith, Cambridge Silicon Radio Ltd co-founder Phil O’Donovan and Jane Dancer, who has held executive roles in life science startups such as F-Star Biotechnology Ltd (acquired by invoX Pharma for $161million) and Cambridge Antibody Technology (acquired by Astrazeneca in 2006).
Lorna Maclean (main image, right) is another from this year’s 2024 cohort targeting the gender health gap.
Her company Demetria aims to revolutionise the diagnosis of endometriosis, an excruciatingly painful condition which is the leading cause of female infertility, affecting 190 million women globally. In the UK, the average time to diagnosis is nine years and increasing – and, currently, invasive laparoscopic surgery is the only definitive way to diagnose the condition.
Demetria, however, is making use of game-changing AI technology to detect endometriosis during an ultrasound scan, speeding diagnoses, improving patient outcomes and, importantly, eliminating the need for any surgery at all.
“Every woman has an ultrasound scan as part of the diagnostic workup – but it can be missed, even if the woman has the disease,” said Maclean. “But, if endometriosis isn’t found on an ultrasound, the NHS won’t refer you on to the laparoscopic surgery, and neither will private health insurance fund it. As a result, there are many women getting caught up in the system, experiencing pain again and again, unaware of this flaw in the diagnostic process.”
She adds: “I lived with the debilitating pain of endometriosis for 15 years and underwent 50 ultrasound scans, all of which failed to detect my endometriosis. Even when I found a surgeon willing to do the surgery, I had to self-fund because the ultrasound scans had shown nothing – and that’s an expensive option, which is not open to all women.
“impulse has given me the tools and connections to turn an idea born of frustration into a viable solution. It is quite remarkable that such a programme exists, where so many of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs are willing to offer their time so generously to young startups. You only have to look at the alumni of this programme to see the value it delivers.”
Yupar Myint, head of impulse (pictured above), added: “FemTech startups are more likely to be founded by female entrepreneurs, and we are delighted to support these innovative women who are committed to improving care delivery and diagnoses, addressing stigmatised areas, enabling self-care, and generally helping women take greater charge of their health and health-related data.
“It is important to spotlight the involvement and impact of women in entrepreneurship as this will encourage others to follow suit.”
The impulse programme is run out of the Maxwell Centre, the University of Cambridge’s hub for industry and research on the West Cambridge Science and Technology Campus.