Women constitute 50% of the population, make 80% of healthcare purchasing decisions and birth 100% of the population. However, women’s health has historically been underinvested in and underserved. Modern medicine, from anatomy textbooks to dosing regimens, is male-biased and women were systematically excluded from clinical trials for decades. Today, over 19 million women in the United States live in “contraceptive deserts” and 36% of counties lack access to basic obstetric and gynecological care.
The tides are changing and we are at an exciting inflection point today with increasing innovation, capital and public discourse. “FemTech” has increasingly entered mainstream conversations. At the same time, the definition of women’s health is expanding beyond female-specific conditions to all of healthcare. Companies are paving the way with game-changing innovations and creating new markets.
We know that improving women’s health has downstream impact on health systems costs and society, including the elderly and children they care for. But the case for women’s health is not just about gender equity, clinical unmet needs or large market sizes. Addressing women’s health is business imperative. For investors in particular, it is a rapidly growing white-space investment opportunity with potential for outsized returns.
Join us on this journey to catalyze change with impact on generations to come! Reach us at info@rhcapital.vc.
We seek innovations that create a substantial impact on improving outcomes, access, affordability and health equity in women’s health, particularly for historically marginalized populations. We invest broadly across the life sciences (devices, diagnostics, therapeutics), digital health, health services, and consumer health.
Our sweet spot is Seed to Series A rounds, but we’ve sometimes invested earlier or later.
Our checks typically range from $500K to $1.5M for the first check and we reserve for follow-on investments.
We can lead, but we are also open to participating in syndicates.
We like to be hands-on investors. We’ll roll up our sleeves with you – whether on strategy, fundraising, hiring – anything! We bring a wealth of sector expertise in women’s health and a vast network in the space. We do like to have board involvement (director or observer) whenever possible. We also go all in – we do not invest in competitors to avoid conflicts of interest.
No, but we do require a near-term focus on the US market.
RH Capital is a for-profit venture capital fund investing in early-stage women’s health start-ups. RH Capital is a fund of Rhia Ventures, a non-profit social impact organization leveraging the private sector to advance reproductive and maternal health equity. We operate independently but collaborate to spur innovation and address disparities in the space.
We do not seek concessionary returns. We screen all deals with a typical venture capital lens as much as we screen for impact. In a world in which the negative externalities of modern capitalism, particularly among historically underserved groups, are increasingly recognized, we believe in the opportunity to “do well” by “doing good.” We also see this as a business imperative. In the US, for example, Medicaid covers over 40% of births and is therefore a significant market segment.
