FemHealth Ventures invests in drug, medical-technology, and digital health start-ups advancing women’s health. Part of FemHealth’s mission is expanding the definition of women’s health beyond conventional standards to include all health conditions that impact women, ranging from breast cancer to cardiovascular disease. Pulse writer Niki Bakhru connected with Founder and Managing Partner Maneesha Ghiya to learn about her experience launching and leading FemHealth Ventures.

Maneesha Ghiya, Founder and Managing Partner, FemHealth Ventures

The Pulse: Your firm FemHealth Ventures’ mission is to invest in innovations that will improve women’s health across the care continuum. When did you first discover your passion for this mission? 

Maneesha: I received my undergraduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania’s Jerome Fisher Program in Management & Technology, so I graduated with degrees from Wharton and Penn Engineering. After I graduated, I went straight into an investment role at JP Morgan Partners, which at the time was one of the biggest venture capital and private equity firms in the world. While there, I first identified my passion – investing in women’s health. From then on, over the last 20+ years, I’ve been investing on the private side as a healthcare venture capitalist and, following my MBA from Harvard, on the public side at hedge funds specifically focused on healthcare investments. 

Most recently, I launched FemHealth Ventures, which was inspired by my passion for women’s health investments – much due to my own personal experience. Today, I have a healthy 12-year-old daughter but, unfortunately, when I gave birth to her, I had major complications. I had an emergency C-section, after which I was bleeding internally to the point where my clinicians had to re-operate to identify the source of bleeding. They couldn’t find it. I went through multiple transfusions before my obstetrician told my husband that she did not know if I would make it until the next morning. She brought my newborn to me in the ICU – not standard procedure – because she didn’t know if I’d have the chance to see her otherwise. I remember bits and pieces of the entire experience, including being handed my baby for those few moments. 

Fortunately, my body caught up with the bleed and after a almost two weeks in the hospital, I was released. The entire experience brought to light for me both the need and opportunity in women’s health. I gave birth at one of the country’s top academic hospitals with a highly experienced care team. Still, there was much that could have been improved. After this experience, it has been a calling for me to put together an investment vehicle focused on improving healthcare experiences for all women. 

The Pulse: First off, thank you for sharing that story – your experience is such a personal and powerful example of why the work you do today is important. Taking a closer look at FemHealth Ventures’ mission, can you describe your fund’s investment framework and how it has evolved since launch?   

Maneesha: Sure, I think a great place to start is with an overview of the women’s health landscape today. We’re finally seeing increasing momentum, excitement, and interest in this space, which made it the perfect time for a vehicle like FemHealth Ventures. For example, five years ago, I’d attend early-stage healthcare conferences and there would be at most five women’s health companies on my schedule. This year, I attended the same conference and there were twenty-five. This highlights the increasing opportunity in women’s health. 

When looking at potential investments, our fund defines women’s health more broadly than just what an OBGYN treats; instead, our investment framework spans three categories: conditions that affect only women (e.g. what OBGYNs typically treat), conditions that affect mostly women (e.g. lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, MS), and conditions that present differently in women (e.g. cardiovascular disease). With this perspective, we consider the whole woman and the opportunity to improve care for her. If you take a skin cell from a man versus a woman, each has different chromosomal makeups and that can translate into the same disease presenting differently or even the same treatment can have different impacts in men versus women. We see an opportunity for the companies we invest in to take this into account in their innovations for women, keeping these important differences and a mission for better care in mind. 

The Pulse: Can you share a few examples of companies you’ve invested in that meet this criteria? 

Maneesha: One example is BioAesthetics – a company providing a solution for breast cancer patients who have undergone a mastectomy followed by reconstruction. Unfortunately, a majority of these women don’t have a nipple following reconstruction, partially depending on the proximity of cancer to the nipple area. BioAesthetics’ founder developed a way to provide a decellularized, biologically-derived nipple graft for these patients. This type of biologically-derived graft has been around and used for many surgical applications over the years, but nipple reconstruction is a new and impactful application in women’s health. 

Another example is our investment in Raydiant Oximetry – a company developing a device to measure fetal oxygen saturation during labor. Raydiant Oximetry’s device is designed to be placed on the mother’s belly and shine a light through the mother’s skin to the fetus’s skin to determine the fetus’s oxygen saturation. This is an exciting opportunity to make labor safer for mothers and their babies in a space that has not seen much innovation in decades. 

The Pulse: These two investment examples are innovative solutions at very different points in the women’s health spectrum – supporting your earlier point about how this space is much broader than what our industry previously imagined. Beyond these examples, are there other areas of unmet need where you hope to see more investment activity and innovation? 

Maneesha: Absolutely. A few broad categories that we’re excited about include solutions related to pregnancy, fertility, postpartum, menopause, cancers that affect mostly women, PCOS, and endometriosis. I’m hoping, as we look forward ten years from now, we will have many new treatments in these areas so that women can access more complete care.

We are also interested in intersections between behavioral and women’s health – postpartum depression is an important example. In many cases, innovations should not only focus on treating, but also preventing conditions like postpartum depression. Also, we’ve seen some companies focus on the health and life transitions for women, from menarche to childbirth to menopause – each has mental health implications that are areas for potential treatment and investment. 

The Pulse: As we wrap up, I am excited to ask about your experience as a female investor. In 2020, women represented just around 13% of all venture capital check-writers. With daunting numbers like this, it’s inspiring to see your success as a female investor. Can you talk about your experience and how you hope to see numbers like this increase in the near future? 

Maneesha: I’m excited to see the growing presence of women in the investment community today. I’ve been investing for over 20 years since I graduated from Wharton and, since then, there have been substantially more women entering the space. I look forward to seeing the number of women investors continue to grow and similarly am excited to see the proportion of female entrepreneurs leading portfolio companies increase as well.

Interviewed by Niki Bakhru, December 2021.

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On Feb 10-11, 2022, Wharton is excited to feature more expert perspectives like this one at our annual Wharton Health Care Business Conference. This year’s conference is virtual and themed ‘A Fair Shot at Health’. Tickets available here.