LunaJoy, an early-stage company focused on mental healthcare for women, won the Impact Challenge at Cure’s Power of X Summit on March 25. The company won $100,000 in equity investment funding from the Catalytic Impact Foundation (CIF) and $10,000 in legal services from Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, the competition’s two sponsors.
The competition spotlighted innovative startups working to close the persistent funding and care gaps in women’s health. Women make up more than half of the population, but only 4 percent of R&D healthcare funding targets women's health.
"Who do we think is going to be finding the next generation of cures? They are the startups and entrepreneurs. They are the finalists of the Impact Challenge," said Seema Kumar, CEO of Cure. "We have ideas, we have solutions, and these startups are bringing forward ideas for investment."
CIF and Cure created the Impact Challenge to provide funding to early-stage entrepreneurs in the women's health arena to support research and development that spans the gap between preclinical and clinical projects.
Six Finalists Compete for Funding to Advance Health of Women
Six Impact Challenge finalists, from a field of 120 applicants, made live pitches at the event, which culminated the two-day Power of X Summit, an in-person event that brought together thought leaders, healthcare CEOs, investors, R&D experts and others at Cure in its New York City headquarters to discuss healthcare trends, the investment landscape, new business models and related topics.
The Cancer Vaccine Coalition, CIF, and Women’s Health Access Matters (WHAM) also collaborated on the Summit, for which KPMG was the lead sponsor, with additional sponsorship support from Orrick and Rubix Life Sciences. Cure also partnered with the Society for Women's Health Research and G2G Consulting on the event.
LunaJoy’s winning pitch presented its investment case for being a “care engine” for women at all stages of their lives, including those experiencing postpartum depression, anxiety and infertility-related concerns.
Co-founder Sipra Laddha, MD, a reproductive psychiatrist, noted that among pregnant and postpartum women last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 23 percent of all preventable maternal deaths were related to mental health issues and overdose. Statistics also show that one in three women who come into an OB/GYN office screen positive for mental health issues, but only 33 percent of providers are able to carry out these screenings according to guidelines.
"When women get specialized treatment from providers trained specifically in reproductive psychiatry, we see an 80-percent decrease in post-hospitalization and a 27-percent improvement in medication adherence,” Laddha said, “and women get better faster because they engage in their treatment."
Limax Biosciences Named Runner Up, Receives $50K in Funding
The Impact Challenge also awarded Limax Biosciences $50,000 in equity funding from CIF as runner-up. Limax created an innovative hydrogel surgical adhesive designed to reduce the risk of postpartum hemorrhage, which is a significant cause of maternal mortality. Benjamin Freedman, PhD, Co-Founder of Limax, made the company's presentation.
In addition to LunaJoy and Limax, four other companies excelled as finalists in their approaches to addressing unmet medical needs, displaying strengths in scientific and medical technology, and offering management teams of outstanding individuals who worked well together to make progress.
These finalists included:
DeepLook Medical, whose technology enhances the ability of mammography to diagnose tumors more accurately in women with dense breasts, reducing callbacks for additional screenings. Presenter: Marissa Fayer, CEO.
Flourish Care, which provides personalized doula care from pregnancy through birth and into early motherhood. Presenter: Melissa Bowley, Founder and CEO.
InSoma Bio, which has developed a more effective way to graft the fat needed to perform autologous breast reconstruction after mastectomy. Presenter: Stefan Roberts, PhD, Co-Founder and CEO.
Maipl Therapeutics, which is developing a small molecule therapy for endometriosis — a disease for which no cure exists. Presenter: Yong Yue, PhD, President and CEO.
After the winners announcement, the finalists had opportunities to network with Power of X Summit participants, including other potential investors.
Impact Challenge Powered by Regenerative Philanthropy
At first glance, CIF appears to be a venture capital firm. But look closely and you'll see one very big difference. The company is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that takes a "funding forward" approach that its founder created, called regenerative philanthropy.
"Through our self-sustaining and self-growing platform, we have a permanent endowed evergreen fund that we use to invest in companies addressing unmet medical needs such as women's health, children's health, brain health, aging and rare diseases," explained CIF founder Richard Lipkin.
Whenever there is a success, CIF re-invests profits into other companies. If something doesn't work out, the investment is written off as a grant.
"We optimize for future innovation. The success of one entrepreneur funds more entrepreneurs. That's what funding forward means," Lipkin added. CIF has been funding forward since 2018.
Growing Attention to Health of Women
Women's health does not just refer to reproductive health, but any health issues where women are affected either exclusively, differently or disproportionately. Women's health has a long history of being understudied and underfunded. In fact, women were not even participants in clinical trials until 1993.
"Women are not just smaller men. There are sex differences in women that change how drugs interact and affect the dosages of drugs," noted Rachel Butler, president of CIF. "The symptoms women experience when having a heart attack, for example, are different. Eighty percent of people with autoimmune disorders are women. And lung cancer in nonsmokers affects twice as many women as men."
The good news is that there is a growing number of funding opportunities for women's health innovators. Former President Biden launched the White House Initiative on Women's Health Research in 2024 to change how our nation approaches and funds women’s health research. ARPA-H — Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health — launched Sprint for Women’s Health as part of this initiative to champion innovations and address critical unmet challenges. Numerous other funding competitions are underway to support innovative ideas designed to improve the quality and length of women's lives.
CIF's regenerative philanthropy approach and women's health funding seemed like a natural fit. "The more we got involved, the more we realized what a funding deficit there was in this space," said Butler. "We chose to support a women's health challenge where we could bring front and center some early work. We decided to partner with Cure, a wonderful convening organization that has made huge inroads to being a leader in women's health."
In an ever-changing and uncertain funding climate, such opportunities are vitally important for accelerating advances in women's health.
"We all need to speak out and showcase the importance of investing in this area," Butler emphasized. "It's more important than ever."