Tokyo Olympics, Femtech Investing Signal Progress On Gender Parity – Crunchbase News

By Michael Proman

In the midst of the current state of emergency in Tokyo, preparations for the postponed 2020 Olympic Games suffer setbacks and controversy just a few weeks before the planned opening ceremony. The disappointments may not be all that surprising as our pandemic-weary world struggles to get out of an equally smooth time.

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Think of the recent sexism scandals, where the main creative body of the Games shamed a woman and the ex-head of the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee publicly complained that women in general “talk too much”.

In addition, there is the fact that female political empowerment and corporate governance are still a rarity in many countries; Women everywhere carried the brunt of job losses during COVID-19; and the latest World Economic Forum report estimates that it will be at least another century before the gender parity gap is closed in much of Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and most of Asia and the Pacific.

But despite all these imbalances (most recently embodied by the image of the women’s training facilities at the NCAA tournament in San Antonio) and whatever the medal balance may be, I am convinced that gender parity is already the Olympic favorite at these games.

As someone who works with early stage startups in many industries, I feel lucky to be able to help entrepreneurs solve big problems.

For me, this meant promoting visionary ideas in such compelling industries as Smart Cities and Sportstech. And just as I see sport as a force influencing social change, I see the emerging femtech industry – which brings software and technology startups together to meet women’s specific needs – as an urgently needed balance. The trend bodes particularly well for countries like Japan, which have long-standing gender equality challenges.

Michael Proman leads Scrum’s SPORTS TECH TOKYO program.

The numbers aren’t pretty, but Japan isn’t alone – especially among some of the most powerful global nations, where regional neighbors like Korea and China are also below the index.

According to a corporate survey by Reuters published in October 2020 and released in October 2020, more than 70 percent of Japanese companies do not have women at the executive level, and less than 4 percent of listed Japanese executives are women. Japan ranks lowest among the G-7 nations in the world in the Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021 ranks 120th out of 156 nations. In connection with this, the third largest economy in the world is just ahead of Sierra Leone and Guatemala.

As my 10 year old daughter would say, “That doesn’t look good.”

Fortunately, change is coming. Seven-time Olympian Seiko Hashimoto (also a pioneering politician and mother of six) was unanimously named this year’s director of the Games after the denigrating statements of her predecessor.

“The world is watching and the organizing committee itself must move quickly to gender equality, diversity and inclusion for this to lead to government and social reform,” she said. “I see this as an opportunity to change unconscious prejudices in order to change the way the entire nation thinks.”

The public discourse on women’s rights has now intensified. In addition, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics are well on their way to breaking a new record – an unprecedented, almost equal number of female and male athletes. And the IOC is committed to achieving full gender parity for the Paris Olympics in 2024. The games are already helping to shed light on issues such as increased government subsidies for fertility treatments.

Femtech businesses are emerging in places like Marubeni and casual wear maker Fast Retailing, while CVS Health is launching a special fund and Merck recently launched a new company, Organon, to strengthen the company’s vision and focus on women’s health.

Global FemTech market

In 2020, the global femtech market attracted more than $ 1.68 billion in new funds, according to CB Insights. This new capital is pursuing what experts predict it will be a $ 50 billion industry by 2025.

This is not just about traditional personal hygiene and reproductive health, which make up a large part of the market. Femtech’s definition has been expanded to include STEM and educational resources, as well as women-specific content platforms designed to connect and empower the next generation of women leaders on and off the pitch.

Startups like Just Women Sports, The GIST and Freeda Media, which recently secured growth capital, as well as the recent IPOs of female-first companies like Progyny and Bumble and the recent acquisition of Modern Fertility by Ro, the parent company of Roman, are joining forces growing trend: the appetite for femtech is real and is just beginning.

The growth and ultimately the success of the entire femtech industry correlates directly with gender equality and can be seen as a model for the pace of progress. While many would argue that recent growth rates reflect how underserved this space has been, no one should be satisfied with the recent growth spurt; Rather, we should see this as a torch being lit – signifying the beginning of something much greater than an event.

Michael Proman is a Managing Director at Scrum Ventures and leads the company’s SPORTS TECH TOKYO program. Proman worked in global marketing and development capacities at Coca-Cola and the National Basketball Association before founding (and eventually leaving) his first startup, OptionIt. With additional roles in the early stage area, he helped lead several startups to acquisitions and continues to play an active role in supporting and advising founders in various industries. Michael is a graduate of Amherst College and lives in Minneapolis.

Illustration: Dom Guzman

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source https://dailyhealthynews.ca/tokyo-olympics-femtech-investing-signal-progress-on-gender-parity-crunchbase-news/