This is an excerpted English translation of a Korean-language article. Only the portion provided is included.

As the “femtech” market—short for “female” plus “technology”—continues to grow rapidly in Korea and around the world, more women CEOs, who tend to have a deeper understanding of women’s life cycles, are emerging as standout leaders. Many are focusing on developing products and services that address issues only women experience, such as infertility, parenting, and menstruation, and are seeing strong market response.

According to Global Market Insights, a market research firm, the global femtech market—valued at $22.5 billion (about KRW 30 trillion) in 2020—is projected to grow to more than $65 billion (about KRW 86 trillion) by 2027. Against this backdrop, femtech startups founded by women CEOs are also gaining popularity by “winning women’s hearts.” Observers say a key factor has been that, before being CEOs, these founders listened closely to and empathized with the real-life challenges women face—from menstruation to infertility and parenting—as consumers themselves.

Women’s wellness care startup Rael, for example, was co-founded by CEO Yanghee Baek—who personally experienced menstrual pain—along with CPO Binna Won and CCO Agnes Ann. Baek previously worked for seven years at Disney in the U.S. as a director in film distribution, and decided to start the company after seeing the growth potential in the market for safe women’s products, including organic sanitary pads. After launching organic sanitary pads on Amazon, Rael reached No. 1 in its product category within six months. Rael has since expanded its product lineup to include women’s health supplements and cosmetics.

Kai Health was founded by Hyejun Lee, an OB-GYN physician. Its flagship product is Vita Embryo, an AI-based solution designed to help address infertility. The product supports couples undergoing IVF by helping them identify embryos most likely to increase the chance of pregnancy. By enabling fertility treatment decisions to be guided by objective, data-based insights, it aims to improve users’ pregnancy outcomes. The article notes that IVF success rates are currently around 30%, but using Kai Health’s Vita Embryo could increase success rates by up to 10 percentage points.

Lee founded Kai Health by drawing on her experience both as a physician working at fertility hospitals and from seven years in the healthcare tech industry. She explained, “As a doctor performing fertility procedures firsthand, I believed that if decisions that used to rely on experience could be made more objective through data, we could help many more people,” adding, “Working at a healthcare tech company helped me build an instinct for IT, which ultimately led me to start the company.”

Source: Seoul Economic Daily (Sedaily) · By Jeonghyun Park · Published March 7, 2024 · Originally published in Korean · English translation (excerpt).

Women CEOs Who Understand Women’s Needs Are Driving Femtech Growth