042 - What I'm Reading: Week of May 6th
👋 Hello everyone.
🔗 Links in this newsletter route back to my blog or directly to the original content.
⭐️ = What excites me most this week.
🚨 Unplanned pregnancies are extremely common, nearly half of all pregnancies in the United States are not planned. This includes women across all socio-economic classes, races, and relationship status. There are many reasons why a woman may choose to terminate a pregnancy planned or unplanned. Taking away a woman’s right to access for proper healthcare when it comes to this decision is terrifying, and has consequences far beyond a politically motivated decision. Brittany Barreto, the founder of Femtech Focus, centered this week’s podcast on educating listeners on the history of abortion, the procedures, Roe v. Wade and the new laws that are being passed. I urge anyone who wants to be more informed on the topic to take a listen (side note she recorded this before the announcement on Monday evening):
💭 Now, onto this week’s newsletter aka ‘how enzymes will save the world’: How femtech startups are gearing up for a post Roe v. Wade world, a retergent (not a typo) to restore clothes, a portable desalinization solution, an enzyme capable of rapidly breaking down plastic, the link between UTIs and the gut, a biopsy free technique to analyze the skin, a number of exciting reports across the metaverse, fashion tech, grocery and much more.
🗞 NEWS & PRODUCTS
⭐️♀ Normally this would be filed under femtech, but this week it is more than that: A look at how digital health startups are bracing for a post Roe v. Wade world.
The Verge reports on new findings suggesting Amazon Alexa’s voice data is being used to target users with ads, both from Amazon and third parties. In other data news, GRINDR is found to have sold user location data…
👩🎤 Celebrity Brands...
Fast Company looks at Alicia Keys’ approach to growing her brand both her wellness focused brand from E.l.f. and her partnership with Athleta.
🧴 Skin / Personal Care:
Dr. Barbara Sturm’s plans for Gen-Z. The line leverages the ‘scientific’ backing of the brand, will be focused on blemishes, and offered at a lower price point.
Pat McGrath Labs launches its first skincare product, Divine Skin Rose 001 Essence ($86).
🇨🇳 CurrentBody is the largest retailer of beauty devices both third party and their own brand. The brand has found success in China through a partnership with Alibaba, developing data driven country specific devices.
👩🦱 Hair:
Ouai launched (re-launched) supplements for fuller hair and a scalp serum. This is not their first supplement, here is a link to the older version. The new formula includes pea shoot extract instead of Ashwagandha - both have biotin and amino acids.
🦷 Oral Care:
🇮🇳 Bentodent is a boot-strapped oral care company based out of Delhi, founded by Dr Ravi Narula, Dr Monika Narula, Dr Kajal Chhabra, Dr Neha Chhabra, and Kanishk Chhabra. The brand claims to have grown 3X in the last year. Their products include: dental floss picks, biodegradable bamboo toothbrushes, cornstarch toothbrushes, interdental brushes, anti-sensitivity toothpaste, a kids’ toothpaste range, and bamboo tongue cleaners.
🧺 Homecare:
⭐️ BIORESTORE: An enzyme based ‘retergent’ helping to remove pilling, restore color, and shape to garments preventing clothing waste. Ingredients: < 5% Ethoxylated fatty alcohol. 10-60% granulated enzymes, sodium sulphate. > 5 - 15% Non ionic tensioniser, sodium citrate, adipic acid.
Swiff, a plant based clothing spray providing odor protection for fabric, using a silver solution.
💊 Supplements:
Everlywell, known for their at home diagnostic tests launched a line of supplements to complement their offering.
BeMe Wellness founded by Michelle Chang, is a line of liquid supplements for beauty, energy, immunity, memory, & sleep.
⭐️ ❤️ If you are ever curious about the growing trends in the food space, and have not checked out Snaxshot by Andrea Hernandez, what are you waiting for? Check out this recent post discussing the convergence of supplements & food.
♻️ Sustainable Design:
⭐️ 💧 MIT’s ICP Water Tech, developed a portable desalinization device, capable of removing salt molecules, bacteria, and viruses producing potable water with a single button. Traditionally desalinization requires large costly pumps (you may have seen pictures of the Israeli desalinization plants), this solution can make desalinization more accessible and scalable.
⭐️ Research out of UT Austin published in Nature identified a new enzyme capable of depolymerizing PET plastics at ambient temperature over a week long period (depending on the plastic 24-hours), and then repolymerizing (put back together plastics). This is a major breakthrough for enzyme based recycling, since it is faster and works at lower temperatures, making it more scalable.
👩🔬 Femtech:
Hologram Sciences, the German DSM backed startup which launched d.velop (a personalized approach to vitamin D supplements) launched a menopause brand called Phenology. The brand offers an assessment to determine the menopausal stage, at home hormone testing, hot flash gummies, a facial glow cream, cooling mist, and clarity mints.
🇨🇳👩🍼 Daxue Consulting: A look at the postpartum confinement business in China.
🩺 Digital Health: Wearables, Smart Devices, and More...
⭐️👂 AudioCardio by Grid110 uses Threshold Sound Conditioning (TSC) a form of audio therapy to improve hearing loss and tinnitus.
🧬 PhoenX, an early stage personal health startup (testing out their MVP), using inputs from your DNA, medical history, lifestyle, and smart devices to provide insights around disease risks, ideal drug dosage, drug predispositions, nutrition recommendations, and workouts. Their free model is based on a data exchange, I wonder how many people would use this given the sensitivity of the data provided by the user.
🐥 Canairi: a beautiful and simply designed CO2 monitor, alerting users to open their windows.
Helapy, is an early stage startup currently in Beta integrating data across trackers to help provide better insights to improve wellness. Something I found interesting, their development roadmap public.
👄 Carnegie Mellon is using ultrasound technology to enhance the haptic experience of VR extending it to the lips, teeth and tongue - making it possible to feel the sensation of drinking water and more.
💸 M&A, IPOs, SPACs...:
👩🦱 Wella acquired Briogeo for an undisclosed amount.
🔬RESEARCH
⭐️♀ New findings show a strong link between gut microbiome composition and susceptibility to recurrent urinary tract infections.
💧 A large scale study published in Nature Communications, pointing to sources of potential water source contamination across the United States.
⭐️ A non-invasive skin scanning device to replace skin biopsies: Researchers at Stevens Institute of Technology are developing a low-cost handheld that uses millimeter-wave imaging to scan a patient's skin. How it works: “Healthy tissue reflects millimeter-wave rays differently than cancerous tissue, so it's theoretically possible to spot cancers by monitoring contrasts in the rays reflected back from the skin.”
🧐 REPORTS
⭐️ Wunderman Thompson: New Realities: Into the Metaverse and Beyond. This report looks at how the metaverse is reshaping eight industries, including retail, finance, health and wellness, food and drink, work, entertainment and sport, fashion and beauty, plus sections focusing on NFT innovation, and more.
⭐️ BOF X McKinsey: The State of Fashion Technology.
⭐️ Report: Modern Fertility X Bumble: State of Fertility 2022: Dating + Fertility
💡Flowing Data: Who We Spend Our Time with As We Get Older.
Retail Brew: Gen Z in Five Charts.
McKinsey - The next horizon for grocery e-commerce: Beyond the pandemic bump.
Beauty
☀️ Spate: The Sun Care Trends Report
🚴♂️ Gophr: Fast Beauty - How same day delivery is now the finishing touch.
🇰🇷 🚴♂️ BeautyTech.JP: A look at rapid delivery beauty in South Korea.
💡Enjoy,
-Anne