A discussion with Katheleen Eva, Annie Thériault, Hilary Kilgour, and Shelley Kuipers at the Femtech Canada Forum in Montreal
The global landscape of femtech innovation is set for change driven by passionate founders committed to enhancing women’s lives. Four Canadian investors—Katheleen Eva from StandUp Ventures, Annie Thériault, from Cross Border Impact Ventures, Hilary Kilgour, from Audaxa Ventures, and Shelley Kuipers from The51—shared invaluable insights relevant to the journey of femtech founders.
The panel offered crucial takeaways on innovation, scaling, and overcoming common barriers, directly addressing challenges founders might face while raising capital. Their experiences highlight how dedication, strategic thinking, and community support are propelling women’s health forward.
For a full breakdown, watch the video or read the key takeaways below.
Current landscape, trends and funding challenges in femtech
The panel delved into the current state of femtech investing, offering crucial insights for founders navigating this dynamic sector. Kuipers noted a significant “wave of health tech companies” is emerging, featuring a mix of hard tech and digital solutions. While digital health provides quicker traction, hard tech requires a longer development timeline. She emphasized the importance for entrepreneurs, even those in hard tech, to “leverage digital strategies to capture customer information, build community, and gather insights.”
Both Kuipers and Thériault highlighted the challenges of using traditional venture models for long-term health tech. Kuipers argued that a standard 10-year fund “doesn’t serve that model” and often forces an exit before a company is ready.
Thériault, a later-stage investor, agreed, stating that for seed-stage investors, the math simply “doesn’t work.” She suggested solutions could include longer fund lifespans, such as a “15-year fund”, or a greater reliance on early-stage grants and incubators to help companies mature before seeking venture capital.
How Canada is leading the global femtech charge
The discussion shifted to Canada’s unique position in the global femtech landscape and how it can solidify its role as a leader. Kilgour passionately asserted that Canada boasts some of the world’s best academic institutions, highly educated populations, and a significant increase in women entrepreneurs.
She recounted a conversation in Berlin where, expecting to learn from German leaders in gender-based investing, she was surprised to be told, “Canada is the leader in this category, and for us we’re looking to you for your example.” Kilgour urged founders to overcome any “inner critic” and highlighted the importance of funding early-stage ventures and taking risks on exceptional founders, supporting them with all available resources.
Kuipers built on this, emphasizing the need for Canada to transition from being an “R&D center to a commercialization center.” She challenged founders to be as adept at selling their solutions globally as they are at developing them, recognizing that global commercialization is where true power lies. Kuipers stressed the importance of being bold, building big companies, and adopting a global perspective from the outset. She also underscored the role of grassroots efforts and direct engagement with policymakers, noting the work of groups like The51 in escalating issues.
Thériault proposed creating a “sandbox” in Canada to test, demonstrate, and clinically validate innovation in women’s health, drawing parallels to the successful fintech sandbox. This would attract companies with amazing solutions from all over the world. Additionally, she advocated for grant capital for clinical validation, easier regulatory approval, and streamlined reimbursement processes by provinces.
Eva advised founders to attract sector-agnostic funds by positioning their ventures for “really really big markets” and “interesting pain points.” She noted a common challenge: femtech founders, despite addressing significant needs, can inadvertently present their market as too small. The key, she explained, is to “show a vision that’s really really large” without straying from the core mission, as the actual market is often “much larger than that.”
Kuipers added that this misperception often stems from investors simply “don’t understand it,” highlighting the need to change capital allocation perspectives.
What investors look for in femtech founders
The panelists then shared what they specifically look for when conducting due diligence on a femtech company, offering direct insights for founders preparing to raise.
Kuipers wants to see that founders deeply understand the user’s experience, or that the team possesses this intimate knowledge. For Kuipers, the key questions are: “Why are you building this?” She believes that a founder’s profound connection to the problem and the consumer is paramount, as other business aspects can be built around this core understanding.
Kilgour added a crucial element, a sustainable business model. While acknowledging that this might look different in femtech, founders must have a clear vision of how their business will achieve sustainability and growth. Her advice: “Know your numbers and know how you’re going to get there, so you don’t outsource that, you own it.”
Thériault, from a later-stage perspective, first assesses if a company will “drive health outcomes” and then, if there are acquirers interested in buying it. Her team conducts detailed M&A analysis, evaluates comparable transactions, and scrutinizes IP. Thériault noted that while some companies are highly prepared for diligence, others “grumble a little bit” but often find the diligence templates useful for future rounds.
Eva emphasized that while she evaluates femtech businesses with the same rigor as any other, at the seed and pre-seed stages, business models and price points are fluid. Her core question is: “How badly do you want to solve the problem?” She believes that founders narrowly focused on solving a real problem will naturally evolve their business to extract value from large markets, even if initial per-person revenue projections seem small. These passionate, problem-solving founders are the ones StandUp Ventures likes to back at the earliest stages, as they are “going to be building this in an enduring way.”
How to connect with investors
Connecting with investors often boils down to direct and persistent outreach. Panelists universally encouraged founders to reach out directly via LinkedIn, email, or at events, dispelling the myth of warm intros being the sole path. They emphasized not fearing a direct approach, as investors appreciate passion and are genuinely open to hearing from founders.
Key insights for femtech founders included knowing individual investor contact preferences (e.g., website over LinkedIn), utilizing networks like The51 for introductions when a direct fund thesis isn’t a fit, and crucially, always sending a follow-up if an initial message is missed. Ultimately, investors like Kuipers and Thériault affirmed they “live and die by deal flow” and don’t want to miss a good idea.
This panel served as a powerful reminder that while significant progress is unfolding in women’s health, its pace needs to accelerate. As founders, active participation—by innovating, collaborating, and advocating—can collectively build a future where women’s health is not merely prioritized but genuinely transformed.
Looking for resources and support for your femtech company? Connect with Femtech Canada today!