The World Economic Forum insight report Women’s Health Investment Outlook: 6% of Funding for Nearly 50% of the Population – Not Just a Gap, but Untapped White Space, developed with Boston Consulting Group, examines the scale and distribution of private investment in women’s health. Dated January 2026, it introduces the Women’s Health Investment Index, analysing private-sector financing between 2020 and 2025 and identifying underfunded conditions, emerging investment opportunities and actions needed to build a more mature women’s health market.
Key Insights
Women’s health received only 6% of the $2.87 trillion invested privately in healthcare between 2020 and 2025, while women’s health-specific companies received less than 1%, as shown in Figure 4 on page 13.
Funding is highly concentrated: reproductive health, women’s cancers and maternal health account for around 80% of funding events and 90% of identified capital. Conditions such as menopause, PCOS, endometriosis and menstrual health receive less than 2% combined.
Investment remains early-stage. Figure 17 on page 40 shows that 50% of investments in women’s health-specific companies are at pre-seed or seed stage, compared with 32% across healthcare overall.
IVF demonstrates the potential for market scale. The global assisted reproductive technology market reached about $13 billion in 2024, with Figure 2 on page 10 projecting growth to $19 billion by 2029. However, only 24% of infertile couples currently have access to the full range of fertility care.
Figure 6 on page 16 shows that women’s health investment is concentrated in North America and Europe, while low- and middle-income countries remain under-represented despite substantial health needs.
Figure 7 on page 19 identifies six promising investment areas: women’s cancer therapeutics, virtual women’s healthcare, remote maternal monitoring, women-focused mental health, women-first longevity services and metabolic-health wearables.
Among these opportunities, women’s cancer therapeutics represent the largest market, with around $119 billion raised across approximately 650 transactions between 2020 and 2025. Virtual women’s healthcare also represents an estimated $31 billion global market.
The report recommends six actions: strengthen women-specific evidence, mobilize blended capital, modernize regulation and clinical end-points, expand reimbursement, involve established healthcare companies and improve transparency on investment returns.
No major internal numerical inconsistency is clearly identified. The report uses different definitions for total women’s health investment and women’s health-specific companies, which explains why some funding figures differ across sections rather than representing contradictions.
