2026: When Women's Sport Becomes Healthcare's Most Powerful Platform

Full article can be found at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/priyaoberoi/2026/01/16/2026-when-womens-sport-becomes-healthcares-most-powerful-platform/ Women's sport and women's health enter 2026 not as emergent verticals but as structural components of a global economy under strain. The past year made one truth unavoidable: in a world defined by geopolitical volatility, demographic pressure, and pervasive erosion of public trust, the sectors that support women's health, performance, and participation are no longer growth opportunities, they are stabilizing forces.

At GG Ventures, our thesis forged in 2021 and tested through the turbulence of 2025 has not only held but strengthened. Women's sport has become a high-velocity distribution engine for next-generation health and longevity technologies, while women's health itself has matured into a data-rich, clinically essential, and economically material market.

The Year Digital Health Found Its Discipline

What appeared to be mixed signals was actually a market finding its footing. Rock Health reported that annual funding for U.S. digital health startups reached $14.2 billion, a meaningful 35% increase over 2024's $10.5 billion and the highest total since 2022. This wasn't a return to pandemic-era exuberance, but it was unmistakably a growth year driven by AI momentum and proof that startups are helping incumbents weather uncertainty and navigate structural change. Globally, Galen Growth tracked digital health funding at $28.8 billion, up 9% from 2024, with Europe seeing the fastest regional growth at 15%.

. Yet the year opened against a backdrop of contraction. A change in U.S. political leadership introduced renewed regulatory uncertainty and heightened investor caution, contributing to a discernible deceleration in growth-stage capital deployment. Most funding arrived in the second half of the year once the initial dislocation had subsided. SVB data showed total venture deal counts down 7%, reflecting a more selective funding environment. The correction wasn't about capital availability, it was about capital discipline. JPM found that median check sizes held remarkably steady: about $3.2 million at Seed, $12.5 million at Series A, $30 million at Series B, $43 million at Series C, and $73.3 million at Series D. This was conviction redirected toward platforms delivering measurable operational improvement rather than compelling narratives.

Companies with clinical depth, payer traction, and integrated data architectures continued to raise meaningful rounds. Midi Health's $50 million Series C,one of the largest menopause-focused raises to datesignaled that capital was becoming more selective, not retreating. ŌURA raised over $900 million at an $11 billion valuation, significantly expanding its wearable platform's focus on women's reproductive health and cycle tracking. Tubulis secured €308 million in Series C funding to advance treatments for ovarian cancer. Knownwell raised $25 million led by CVS Ventures to expand its hybrid obesity and metabolic health care model. Visana Health secured $24 million in Series A funding to scale its virtual-first women's health clinic. AI-native upstarts attracted huge rounds at unprecedented speed, validating the thesis that technology could fundamentally reshape care delivery.

The public markets told a parallel story. Omada Health raised $150 million through a public offering to scale its diabetes prevention and weight health programs. Caris Life Sciences raised $494 million in its IPO, bringing AI-driven precision medicine and genomics to institutional investors. Progyny, the only pure-play women's health company on NASDAQ, delivered strong 2025 results with revenue up roughly 16.5% year-over-year to approximately $324 million in Q1, demonstrating that disciplined execution in women's health can deliver public-market returns.

Private equity and strategic M&A provided the clearest signals. The pending approximately  $18.3 billion take-private of Hologic by Blackstone and TPG represented a watershed moment. Hologic isn't branded as a consumer women's health company, but it's foundational to women's health outcomes—its portfolio spans breast and cervical cancer screening, molecular diagnostics, imaging equipment, and consumables embedded deeply in clinical workflows. KKR's acquisition of Karo Healthcare for $2.5 billion, spanning intimate care, over-the-counter products, and everyday women's health brands, showed that even categories once considered fringe can attract large-scale private equity capital when bundled into diversified, cash-generating platforms.

This dynamic was particularly evident in fertility services. The US Fertility partnership with L Catterton and Amulet Capital reflected a move away from broad, financially engineered clinic roll-ups toward deeper investments in operational standardization, data infrastructure, and technology-enabled service delivery. With fertility demand structurally strong and reinforced by state-level IVF mandates, investors focused on assets that could address capacity constraints through better lab workflows, staffing efficiency, and outcomes tracking. Meanwhile, OpenAI's acquisition of the startup Torch for $100 million to integrate unified health record analysis into its new ChatGPT Health feature signaled that frontier AI companies see healthcare data infrastructure as core to their platform ambitions.

The depth of capital flowing into women's health reflects something more fundamental than trend-following. New research from AOA Dx unveiled that women's health has matured into one of healthcare's most proven exit markets. The data is unambiguous: over $100 billion in M&A and IPO activity since 2000, with $27 billion in deals completed in 2025 alone. Nearly half of all tracked exit value occurred in just the past five years, with total disclosed exit value reaching $91.5 billion across 272 exits from 2000 to 2024. This acceleration is unmistakable—exit value increased roughly 70x from $738 million in 2000–2004 to $48.2 billion in the most recent five-year period. The sector delivered a record-breaking year in 2024 with $21.4 billion in total exit value, building on an already proven foundation. Twenty-three women's health companies have achieved unicorn status, with nearly half reaching that threshold since 2020, demonstrating the sector's capacity to generate category-defining scale across multiple verticals. Exit mechanics mirror mainstream healthcare with strategic precision. Strategic buyers acquired 91% of women's health companies since 2000, with repeat acquirers demonstrating sustained, long-term category commitment. 

Yet the sector is entering a phase of meaningful diversification that challenges outdated assumptions about where value concentrates. While reproductive health historically anchored the category, oncology, multi-condition platforms addressing autoimmune disease, and menopause now drive the sector's largest and fastest-scaling exits. Menopause and midlife health represent the next major frontier, with growing focus on cardiometabolic risk, musculoskeletal decline, and hormonal aging positioning this segment to become a new pillar of deal activity. The capital deployment pattern, however, still reveals persistent blind spots. Investment remains narrowly concentrated in fertility and breast cancer, while cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's, and menopause remain structurally underfunded. This concentration represents both market inefficiency and strategic opportunity. 

A key takeaway from JPM this year was that AI in healthcare has moved decisively from promise to practice: with interoperable systems, digitized workflows, and real budget holders now aligned, AI tools are being adopted not as experimental interfaces but as embedded solutions delivering measurable value across core healthcare operations.

Women's Sport Graduates From Marketing Play To Distribution Infrastructure

The same maturation played out in women's sport. While early-year sponsorship spending slowed amid broader economic uncertainty, the second half of 2025 saw a resurgence in institutional commitments. Unrivaled's Series B valued the basketball league at $340 million with backing from Serena Williams and Warner Bros. Discovery, demonstrating that women's sport is no longer a marketing experiment but a commercial asset class with durable economics. Franchise valuations across the NWSL continued their upward trajectory—Angel City FC held its estimated $280 million valuation while Kansas City Current climbed to $275 million from $182 million the year prior.

The WNBA added three expansion teams in Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia at a record $250 million cash expansion fee, by far the largest ever paid for a new team in a U.S. women's sports league. Individual franchise valuations reflected this institutional confidence—Sportico valued Golden State Valkyries at $500 million while ESPN placed New York Liberty at $400 million. Sportcal estimates women's sport revenues are projected to reach $2.35 billion in 2025, roughly triple the value of three years prior, marking a critical threshold: the category has cleared a billion dollars and is now compounding off that base.

Media rights deals validated this trajectory. The WNBA signed an 11-year agreement with Versant to show regular-season games and portions of playoffs beginning in 2026 on USA Network, with at least 50 games annually through 2036. League One Volleyball announced new teams coming to Los Angeles and Minnesota for the 2027 season after fielding ownership offers from groups including G9 Ventures, Bolt Ventures, Spurs Sports & Entertainment, Cal and Hannah McNair, and Alexis Ohanian. CNBC reported that LOVB secured a media rights deal with USA Network worth between $1 million and $2 million annually, while maintaining an existing ESPN deal.

Attendance delivered genuine headline moments that demonstrated authentic fan demand. The Women's Rugby World Cup Final saw a sell-out crowd of 81,885 at Twickenham Stadium in London. Bay FC versus Washington Spirit drew 40,091 at Oracle Park, setting a single-game NWSL record. The UEFA Women's EURO 2025 Final sold out St. Jakob-Park in Basel with approximately 34,000 fans. The UEFA Women's Nations League Final drew 55,843, setting a new national record for a women's match in Spain. A Cricket World Cup group stage fixture between India and Sri Lanka attracted 22,843, a record for that tournament format. Yet the global reality remained uneven. Average attendance across most leagues sat far below these peaks. That spread isn't weakness, it's opportunity. The upside lies in engineered monetization, smarter scheduling, and deeper community activation that convert trust and repetition into measurable health engagement.

The strategic evolution is profound. Women's sport now functions as both distribution channel and data layer for women's health initiatives. Clubs and leagues represent high-trust communities with consistent touchpoints, making them ideal for onboarding fans and families into longitudinal health journeys covering menopause protocols, metabolic screening, musculoskeletal prevention, and mental health support. Because these programs produce adherence and outcomes rather than just impressions, the commercial model evolves accordingly. Sponsors and rights-holders start pricing on conversions and retention, not merely reach, creating more resilient revenue mixes, stickier partnerships, and a virtuous cycle where health outcomes reinforce fan loyalty.

The Information Crisis That Nobody Can Ignore

Compounding every strategic decision was the information environment. KFF research found that just over half of adults use social media to find health information and advice at least occasionally, with larger shares among young adults and Black and Hispanic adults. Most adults reported seeing health-related content in the past month on social media, with 72% encountering content about weight loss, diet, or nutrition and 58% seeing mental health content. Even people who claim they never use social media for health information reported being exposed to it.

Oxford research identified misinformation as a major threat to society and public health, with social media significantly contributing to its spread and global reach. Health misinformation produces a range of adverse outcomes, including influencing decisions such as choosing not to vaccinate and eroding trust in authoritative institutions. The tension is now structural: high-trust health platforms cannot scale inside low-trust information ecosystems without explicit investment in education, transparency, and evidence-based communication.

This information crisis intersected with a broader mental health emergency. The WHO released data showing that more than 1 billion people are living with mental health disorders, with anxiety and depression inflicting immense human and economic tolls. In a year defined by geopolitical instability, from Gaza to Ukraine, and a pervasive sense of being on the brink of global conflict, mental health strain became a defining risk factor. Priory Group reported that in the UK in 2025, 37.1% of women and 29.9% of men experienced high levels of anxiety. Women, who disproportionately shoulder caregiving responsibilities alongside workforce participation pressures, are particularly affected.

Seven Forces That Will Define 2026

First, women's sport continues to mature as both distribution channel and data layer. The global 2026 calendar, anchored by the Winter Olympic Games and the ICC Women's T20 World Cup, creates sustained attention that's fundamentally different from the isolated demand spikes of previous cycles. These events no longer stand alone, they sit atop increasingly professionalized domestic leagues, building on established broadcast reach and persistent fan communities. The result is a conversion engine that transforms attention into repeat engagement, longitudinal data collection, and ongoing product adoption. With an expanding calendar of elite competitions extending beyond 2026, these dynamics are expected to compound rather than reset, making women's sport infrastructure rather than spectacle.

Second, commercial fundamentals are now established across leading women's sports, with basketball and football setting the pace through franchise valuations, media rights deals, and institutional capital commitments. The next phase of growth extends beyond these early movers. Rugby, cricket, and volleyball are reaching scale with increasingly professionalized leagues, stronger international calendars, and growing participation bases that create new distribution opportunities. Partnerships are shifting away from short-term sponsorship spend toward operating relationships that prioritize data access, digital performance metrics, and measurable outcomes across training, health monitoring, and fan engagement platforms.

Third, in health technology, AI is moving women's care decisively upstream. Predictive systems built on continuous data streams are replacing episodic monitoring across fertility, metabolic health, and chronic disease management. Platforms that persist will integrate wearables, diagnostics, imaging, hormonal profiling, and clinical records into longitudinal health infrastructure rather than operate as disconnected point solutions. This integration is increasingly required by payers who demand validated algorithms and demonstrable outcomes. The platforms building unified systems within single patient profiles designed for payer recognition and electronic medical record interoperability from inception will emerge as category leaders.

Fourth, longevity is becoming more precise. The most ambitious operators are linking fertility and ovarian health to metabolic, cardiovascular, and cognitive trajectories, reframing fertility from a discrete life-stage product to a core input into lifespan performance and preventative care. Fertility and ovarian health are increasingly recognized as early indicators of broader aging trajectories that extend decades beyond reproductive years. This shift from aspirational to precise and predictable longevity is becoming clinically validated and commercially viable, creating new categories of preventative intervention that payers are beginning to recognize and reimburse.

Fifth, mental health represents a parallel inflection point. The sector is moving from crisis management to systematic intervention. Mental health startups are experiencing renewed investment interest as the market recognizes that psychological wellbeing intersects directly with metabolic health, chronic disease management, and workplace productivity. The platforms gaining traction are those integrating mental health screening and intervention into broader health journeys rather than treating it as a standalone vertical. This integration is particularly powerful within women's sport communities, where the combination of physical performance optimization, community belonging, and mental health support creates a holistic value proposition that traditional healthcare delivery struggles to replicate.

Sixth, geographically, the center of gravity is shifting. The United States remains a large market but is increasingly saturated and politically volatile. Policy swings, regulatory ambiguity, and cultural flashpoints have made long-term strategic planning more complex, with the regulatory environment oscillating with each administration. This volatility is pushing innovation capital and platform headquarters toward markets offering regulatory clarity and long-term alignment. The Middle East is entering an institutional phase and becoming a genuine global center of gravity for women's health innovation. The UAE has emerged as a regional hub supported by regulatory cohesion and digital-first care models that allow companies to move from pilot to scale. Saudi Arabia is deploying state-backed investment into women's sport, preventative health, and AI infrastructure, creating conditions for platform-scale companies designed for national deployment and global export. The opportunity is not localization,it is category leadership built from the region. For U.S. and European companies, that means new customers, new capital partners, and new competitors operating with genuinely long time horizons.

Seventh, as capital remains selective, consolidation will accelerate throughout 2026. The market is moving decisively away from fragmented applications toward fewer, better-capitalized platforms with proprietary data, regulatory depth, and defensible technology insertion points. Strategic buyers and private equity will keep assembling full-stack platforms that own both workflow and data exhaust. Point solutions will either find a buyer, find a defensible niche, or fade. Many companies will not make this transition. The winners will be those who own the data exhaust, the regulatory approvals, and the workflow insertion points that create negotiating leverage.

From Marketing Category To Market Infrastructure

Women's sport is no longer a niche. It's a scaled, high-trust distribution operating system for the next generation of women's health and longevity initiatives. Pair that trust infrastructure with AI-native tools, wrap it in transparent communication that addresses the information crisis head-on, and deploy it through geographies that offer regulatory clarity and long-term capital alignment. That's the 2026 playbook.

The question entering 2026 isn't whether this convergence happens. It's who builds it first and who builds it right. The stabilizing forces are in place. Now comes execution.