Just two per cent of all tech startup capital in Australia in 2025 went to all-female founded teams, according to the State of Australian Startup Funding report.
Female health tech innovators came together in Sydney on Tuesday for a health summit, where they discussed the barriers facing women.
Baymatob chief executive Tara Croft, which is behind $25 million AI-powered sensor Oli for pregnancy and childbirth, said her journey to remain an Australian company had been "exceptionally difficult".
"I've done three capital rounds predominantly in Australia, with 30 per cent offshore capital, the other half of my funding has been from government grants," she told the Women's Health and Wellbeing summit.
"Had we had stronger support from investors, we would have been in market two or three years ago.
"I've had to pull the handbrake on so many times because we didn't have the capital to do what we needed to do."
She said Australia could "teach the world what good looks like in women's health" because of its talent and research, if it built a women's health innovation stack.
"If we've chosen to invest in all of those pillars of mining, why wouldn't we choose to invest in all those pillars of the ecosystem for women's health and lead the world?
"I really genuinely hope we don't have to move offshore because we have so much research in women's health here in Australia.
"What it takes is a few success stories based here locally to create an ecosystem."
Associate Professor Helen Frazer, clinical director at St Vincent's BreastScreen who helped develop an AI tool to detect breast cancer and estimate risk, said the grant application system was "really difficult".Â
"A lot of the last 10 years I've spent writing grants and most of them are unsuccessful," she said.
"We do need to reform the research funding system because little bouts, of two to three years of intermittent funding, it's just not possible to build the multidisciplinary teams that you need to build a great innovation."
Ovum's founder Ariella Heffernan-Marks said her mission was to close the gender health gap by empowering women to improve their own health outcomes.
The AI health app is designed to help women track symptoms, manage their medical records and better advocate for their healthcare needs.
"We've only gone to market 12 months ago. It has been quite a journey," she said.
"It's been difficult, but we have got the funding. You need to find the right investors. Ours are impact-focused and also very aware of the women's health gap."
She said Australia was a "great testing market" for investors, and had allowed her to gather helpful data as she now expanded to international markets.
AAP's journalist attended the Women's Health and Wellbeing Summit with travel assistance from Women's Agenda.
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