Gen Z’s Loneliness Fuels Health Communities. AI-Powered Femtech Raises Millions. Asan Takes on Period Poverty.
Maybe the real femtech play isn’t just tracking but actually bringing people together?
FOUNDER JOURNEY: 46 Subs <3
It’s officially been two months since I launched this very niche newsletter, and I’m grateful for all 46 of you who’ve joined me on this ride. A small but mighty group—if I were talking about this with 46 people in a room, that’d feel pretty full.
Even more unexpected (but deeply appreciated): my first two paid subscribers. Wild.
If monthly subscriptions aren’t your thing but you’d still like to support, you can always buy me a coffee here. Either way, thanks for following along as I explore how female health, wellness, and technology shape what we buy, how we think, and the culture we move through— all from a Gen Z lens. And because theory is useless without action, I pull insights that founders and operators can actually use.
More to come.
GEN Z DE-CODE: Gen Z is So Lonely, They’re Running (Literally) to Find Connection
Gen Z is lonely. And they know it. The most connected generation in history is also the most isolated, with social media feeding an endless loop of curated highlight reels but little real-life intimacy. Instead of wallowing in it, they’re doing something different about it. They’re running—literally.
From Strava-fueled run clubs to wellness festivals blending biohacking with silent discos, Gen Z is redefining community through shared experiences centered on health and movement. This shift is a social response and market gap from a chronically online generation with a massive opportunity for femtech brands to integrate into how the next generation engages with their health.
Traditional wellness such as self-care routines, fitness apps, and solo meditation have expanded into collective experiences. The success of Strava’s run clubs, Hot Girl Walks, and group fitness challenges proves that Gen Z is seeking community-driven accountability and IRL (in real life) engagements and not just health insights.
This is evidenced in:
73% of Gen Z report feeling alone
60% preferring to invest in experiences over material goods
Wellness festivals like Eudemonia and SOUL are seeing record attendance, offering group-based activities from breathwork to endurance training.
Femtech brands need to rethink of health and wellness as embedding solutions into social ecosystems.
So How Can Femtech Companies Integrate into the Loneliness Economy?
1. Rethink Digital Health as Social Health
Femtech apps and devices are great at tracking cycles, hormones, and symptoms, but they don’t create a connection. Gen Z isn’t looking for another one-way relationship with an app—they want communal support systems baked into their experience.
You could…
Sync with tracking and performance optimization apps (Strava or WHOOP) for community programs.
Add live challenges or group accountability features (e.g., “7-Day PMS Hack Challenge” with shared progress tracking).
Launch city-based meetups for users to connect beyond the app
2. Embed in the IRL Wellness Movement
Wellness festivals, run clubs, and boutique fitness spaces are the rising health hubs. If femtech brands aren’t showing up where Gen Z is already gathering, they’re missing the moment.
You could…
Partner with wellness festivals to host hormone-tracking stations or cycle-syncing workshops.
Sponsor run clubs or hiking groups, integrating wearables and health tracking into their routines.
Host pop-ups at co-working spaces and fitness studios to make femtech feel social, not clinical.
3. Create Meaningful Community Spaces (That Aren’t Just Forums)
Gen Z is weary of passive online communities that feel like endless Reddit threads. They want interactive spaces that encourage real-world connection.
You could…
Launch in-person retreats where users test new femtech innovations together.
Create real-time group chats within apps that foster real-time engagement.
Build peer mentorship programs around reproductive health, menopause, or cycle syncing.
The brands that understand this shift will win. Those who stay locked into individualized digital experiences will fade. Gen Z’s loneliness is reshaping how they engage with health, fitness, and wellness.
Femtech has the opportunity to build the future of social health but it won’t happen from the sidelines.
THE CYCLE: Beyond the 1% – Making Femtech Accessible for All
Welcome back to All Things Femtech’s The Cycle interview series, where we take coffee chats and turn them into deep dives with the leaders shaping the femtech space.
If you’ve been following All Things Femtech, you know we’re here to break down who’s getting funded, who’s being overlooked, and who’s pushing the envelope in women’s health. This series is meant to feel like you’re sitting down with someone who’s actively making decisions in the venture world, having an honest, no-holds-barred conversation.
Today’s guest is Ira Guha, the founder of Asan, a social enterprise working to end period poverty worldwide. Ira’s journey started with a conversation that made her realize how harmful the “solution” to period poverty—cheap disposable pads—was to the people who needed them most. So, she did what any founder would do: she created something better.
Ira went on to design and patent the Asan cup while at Harvard, developing a product that’s not only sustainable and easy to use, but also culturally accessible. Since then, Asan has become a global movement, operating in 15 languages, and backed by organizations like the Cartier Women’s Initiative and Innovate UK.
In this conversation, we’re diving into how Ira approached solving a complex issue like period poverty, what it really takes to drive behavior change, and why femtech innovation can’t just be for a select few. She’s also sharing her ambitious goal of ending period poverty by 2030.
What We’re Getting Into:
The overlooked flaws in the global fight against period poverty
How Asan redesigned the menstrual cup to be actually user-friendly
The hardest part of getting people to switch to reusable
Why pitch competitions were a game-changer for Asan’s funding
The real problem with femtech innovation today
What it will take to end period poverty for good
Let’s get into it.
This wasn’t supposed to be a "podcast" by any means. Just a conversation pulled off a Zoom conversation with less-than-ideal audio quality, something to pull apart and condense into text later. But some stories don’t fit neatly into summaries, and Ira’s is one of them. So here is our full conversation, where she fills in the gaps, adds the details, and gives the kind of insight that doesn’t always make it to print. You can read the transcription below.
Nilah: What inspired you to start Asan, and how did your encounter with a domestic worker shape its mission?
Ira: My inspiration for Asan came from witnessing period poverty in the community I grew up in, in South India. Between 2010 and 2015, there was a major push to distribute cheap disposable sanitary pads across the Global South, particularly in rural India. Governments and nonprofits were celebrating this as a win for menstrual health.
But then I met a domestic worker who had severe rashes and wounds on her thighs from these low-quality pads. Her entire community had abandoned them and gone back to using rags. When I saw the pads, they were like bricks—uncomfortable, ineffective, and without proper disposal infrastructure. People had to throw them in lakes, on the streets, or burn them. It was a wake-up call. Everyone assumed pads were the solution to period poverty, but they were failing women in multiple ways. We needed something better.
Nilah: How did you approach designing a menstrual cup that is both user-friendly and culturally sensitive?
Ira: The starting point was a reusable product—more sustainable and cost-effective than pads. But I knew from personal experience that menstrual cups can be tricky to use.
So, we tested all the high-quality cups on the market with a diverse user group—rural and urban users in India and the U.S. We asked them to document their experiences: what worked, what didn’t, and what made cups difficult to use.
Two major pain points emerged: first, removal was hard, so we added a ring for easier removal, making it more like a tampon. Second, users were put off by staining, so we made the cup red to prevent discoloration.
Cultural sensitivity was another key factor. Many menstrual cup brands use sizing terminology based on cervix height and anatomy, which is inaccessible to most women—even in the U.S. Instead, we based our sizing guide on flow levels (light, medium, heavy), something universally understood.
Nilah: What has been the biggest challenge in scaling, and how are you overcoming it?
Ira: Behavior change. People are used to disposable products, especially in the U.S., where pulling a tampon out of a wrapper and throwing it away is second nature. The shift to reusing and cleaning a product is a big leap.
To overcome this, we focus on peer-to-peer education. If we want to convince a Gen Z student in the U.S. to try the Asan Cup, the message has to come from someone who looks like them, speaks their language, and shares their experiences—maybe through TikTok or Instagram. The same applies in Tanzania, where we work with the Ministry of Defense. It wouldn’t make sense for an American or Indian trainer to educate Tanzanian military women; the message needs to come from a local woman in their own language.
We now operate in 15 languages and across multiple platforms. It’s a community-driven movement. Interestingly, we see the fastest adoption among teenagers. They don’t have decades of entrenched habits with pads and tampons, and they’re more open to sustainable options.
Nilah: How did you secure your initial funding, and what role did competitions play?
Ira: Pitch competitions were huge for us. I received a small summer fellowship at Harvard to start research, then won a competition from my undergrad college, which funded the entire mold for manufacturing.
In total, we won nearly $200,000 in grants and pitch competitions, all equity-free. That gave us enough runway to start selling before raising a pre-seed round from impact investors focused on reproductive health. We didn’t take traditional VC money—our investors align with our mission.
Nilah: What trends or gaps do you see in the femtech space?
Ira: The biggest gap is that most femtech innovation serves the wealthiest 1% rather than the 99% who actually need solutions.
So many startups focus on high-tech, AI-powered solutions for women in high-income countries. But what’s the point of putting a temperature sensor in a menstrual cup when over 50% of menstruating people globally don’t have access to any period product?
Femtech innovation needs to center on equity. Period poverty isn’t just a problem in the Global South—it exists in the U.S. and the U.K. too. We need solutions that prioritize accessibility over luxury.
Nilah: What advice would you give to early-stage femtech founders, particularly regarding fundraising?
Ira: First, focus on solving a real problem. If you don’t have a clear problem you’re addressing, you’ll end up building something no one needs. For me, everything at Asan revolves around solving period poverty and increasing access to high-quality menstrual care.
For fundraising, be honest with yourself and investors about the kind of business you’re building. Asan is a social enterprise. We could have pitched a hyper-growth, VC-friendly narrative, but that’s not our reality. It’s better to turn down the wrong investor than to take money from someone misaligned with your mission.
Nilah: Asan aims to end period poverty globally by 2030. What are the key steps and partnerships driving this vision?
Ira: We started in India but can only scale globally through partnerships. We now work in Tanzania, Malawi, and Mozambique, but we depend on local organizations to spread the message.
Asan doesn’t send trainers across the world. Instead, we create resources—like our free period tracking app—that local partners can use. Our app is 100% free, doesn’t collect data, and is accessible to anyone.
Most of our partnerships are with nonprofits and CSR initiatives that share our goal.
Nilah: How do you balance Asan’s social mission with environmental goals like reducing sanitary waste?
Ira: They go hand in hand. Every Asan Cup we distribute replaces about 3,000 disposable pads or tampons. The more people use our product, the less waste goes into landfills. Our mission is both social and environmental.
Nilah: What systemic changes are needed to fully address period poverty?
Ira: Period products need to be treated as a basic necessity—like toilet paper, water, or shelter—not a luxury.
Governments, schools, and workplaces must ensure universal access. Until that happens, period poverty will persist.
Nilah: Any final thoughts? How can people support Asan?
Ira: If this conversation resonated with you, talk about it. Share what you’ve learned about period poverty.
And if you want to make a direct impact, you can donate an Asan Cup to a woman or girl in South Asia or Africa through our website at asancup.com/donate. Every donation helps break barriers to period care.
Are you a founder building cool things and solving problems in the female health and wellness space? Reach out to me.
DEAL SHEET & FUNDRAISING
Delfina Care Secures $17M to Scale AI-Powered Maternal Health Solutions: Delfina Care has raised $17M in Series A funding to expand its AI-driven maternal health platform, aiming to improve outcomes for high-risk pregnancies. Backed by USVP and other investors, the company is leveraging predictive analytics to intervene early, reducing complications like preterm birth and gestational diabetes. As the U.S. faces a maternal health crisis, Delfina's data-driven approach is gaining traction, promising measurable impact and cost savings for healthcare providers.
Ovum Lands $1.7M to Revolutionize Women’s Health with AI:
Australian femtech startup Ovum has raised $1.7M to bring its AI-driven health assistant to market, offering women a central hub to store medical data, track health concerns, and access personalized insights. Led by Giant Leap, the funding will accelerate Ovum’s mission to close gender gaps in healthcare by building a women-specific AI dataset. With privacy at its core and a focus on proactive care, the platform aims to transform how women navigate chronic conditions and reproductive health.
Lindus Health Raises $55M to Disrupt Clinical Trials with AI:
Lindus Health, the “anti-CRO” running faster, more efficient clinical trials, has secured $55M in Series B funding, led by Balderton Capital. The company’s AI-powered platform, Citrus™, reduces trial timelines by up to 3x while improving data quality. While Lindus operates across multiple therapeutic areas, it launched an “All-in-One Women’s Health CRO” in October 2024 to streamline trials for women’s health products. The new funding will fuel further development of its AI-driven platform and expand its clinical trial capabilities.
CURATION
Femtech Market Poised for Growth, Expected to Hit $130B by 2034:
The femtech market is projected to grow from $55.86 billion in 2024 to $130.80 billion by 2034, with an annual growth rate of 8.88%. Growth is fueled by increasing investment and a wave of startups developing new solutions in women's health.
HARDY HAR HAR
Gen Z speaks in memes the way poets speak in verse. They’re not just jokes but a whole language, compressed into images and inside references, layered with meaning that only makes sense if you’re fluent. We process life through them, turn struggles into punchlines, and make the existential feel manageable in 1080x1080 pixels.
If femtech brands want to understand how Gen Z thinks about health, they need to understand how we joke about it. So, of course, this newsletter needs a meme section because if you’re not in on the joke, you’re not in the conversation.
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