Meditation and sleep apps are not fixing women’s health. Karen Berg explains why femtech needs real clinical answers instead.
In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, I talk with Karen Berg, partner at Healthy Capital, a venture capital fund investing in digital health, about her path from law and investment banking into impact investing, and why she thinks femtech needs to move past wellness apps and into real diagnosis and treatment.
This episode is for founders building in health tech, women entrepreneurs, people in women in tech, and investors who want to know what makes a digital health startup investable.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
- Why regulatory complexity can work as a moat, not a burden, for healthcare startups
- What Healthy Capital looks for before investing: a distinctive, hard-to-replicate solution
- Why femtech needs to move beyond wellness apps for meditation or sleep, and focus on serious medical issues
- How the Life Impact Framework measures healthcare startups across cost, quality and capacity
- Why AI in women’s health is limited by a lack of historical medical data on the female body
- Why closing the funding and health gap for women requires men and women working together
Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
02:47 Karen Berg's background
03:44 Karen's transition from finance to healthcare
04:56 Impact of personal loss and career change
06:12 Attraction to complex, regulated markets
08:38 Experience with her brother’s illness and sabbatical
11:38 Why healthcare and impact matter to Karen
14:37 Investing in digital health and early-stage companies
16:09 The role of AI and data in women's health
21:48 Bias, representation, and funding disparities
29:42 Defining impact and measurement frameworks
38:58 Women's health as a serious, underserved market
47:17 Impact of societal awareness and education
52:29 The importance of diversity in investment teams
56:33 The debate: FemTech vs. HealthTech branding
1:02:02 AI funding coach for female founders
1:03:33 Closing remarks and where to connect
Connect with Karen Berg and Healthy Capital:
Karen Berg on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-berg-9a97213
Healthy Capital website: https://www.healthy.capital/
Healthy Capital on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/healthydotcapital/
Connect with me:
Dirkjan Hupkes on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dirkjan-hupkes/
About Women Disrupting Tech
Every week, Women Disrupting Tech covers the decisions, patterns, and structural realities that female founders and investors rarely discuss in public but run into every time they meet. Follow to get it in your feed.
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