Cross-Border Impact Ventures is an impact venture capital firm on a mission to transform investing in women’s and children’s health. Their Women’s and Children’s Health Technology (WCHT) Funds invest in early growth-stage companies commercialising medical devices, diagnostics, therapeutics and digital health solutions that benefit women, children and adolescents globally.
The funds target venture returns for investors while helping portfolio companies reach underserved populations in North America, Europe, the UK, and developing economies. WCHT Fund I aims to improve the lives of 8 million women, children and adolescents in emerging markets through Impact Agreements that align fund and company goals and monitor progress during the holding period.
“From day one, we’ve been driven by the conviction that better health for women, children, and adolescents isn’t just a moral imperative—it’s a powerful investment thesis.” – Femke Smeets, MD Emerging Markets
Why this matters
- Women’s health receives only 2% of venture capital funding.
- Children’s health is largely invisible as a sector.
- Applying a child-focused investment lens identifies underserved areas with high unmet needs and untapped potential, creating opportunities for both impact and financial returns.
Strategy
Contribute solutions – centring children in the investment thesis while integrating gender-lens approaches. The combination of a child-focused and gender-lens strategy attracts mission-aligned investors interested in underfunded, high-impact opportunities.
Instruments & approach:
- Equity and minority growth-stage investments
- Sourcing through global networks, accelerators and health innovation hubs
Key aims and reporting metrics:
- Regular portfolio review and advisory support for companies to maximize outcomes.
- Reach 8 million women, children and adolescents in emerging markets (Fund I).
- Child-focused KPIs to track access, health outcomes and technology adoption. These are integrated at fund-level for health impact and financial returns.
- Alignment with UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Applying a child lens to investing
“By adopting a child-focused investment lens, our fund has strategically positioned itself to capitalize on a historically underserved segment of the healthcare market. Traditionally, women’s health has received a mere 2% of venture capital investment, and children’s health is so overlooked that it isn’t even measured as a distinct sector. There is a huge unmet need for innovative solutions addressing women’s and children’s health conditions better and more efficiently than through traditional approaches. It also means that there is a wealth of untapped potential and a large pipeline of viable companies that have not yet been fully accessed. In practice, this approach has allowed us to identify and engage with a pipeline of thousands of investable companies commercializing innovative health technologies relevant to both women’s and children’s health. As a result, we not only uncover financial opportunities that others may overlook, but we also drive significant impact by supporting health solutions that benefit underserved populations.”
– Femke Smeets, MD Emerging Markets
The investment case
The Women’s and Children’s Health Technology (WCHT) Funds demonstrate that child-linked demand can anchor resilient, scalable health technology businesses. The portfolio below highlight the opportunities for innovation:
Raydiant Oximetry (US)
- Clinical-stage platform addressing childbirth complications: emergency C-sections, birth injury, postpartum haemorrhage
- Lumerah sensor measures fetal oxygen levels non-invasively, improving surveillance and reducing neonatal mortality, especially in low-resource settings
mOm Incubators (UK)
- Reduces preterm infant mortality and addresses maternity care gaps
- Low-cost, portable incubator providing safe thermal care for newborns
- Deployed in NHS and globally in Kenya, Haiti, Zanzibar, Gaza and Ukraine
- Targeting expansion in the US, Europe and other regions of sub-Saharan Africa within the next 12 months
Lessons learned
Even if a firm’s primary thesis does not center on a particular lens, applying a lens, whether child-focused, gender, or climate can significantly improve decision-making and impact.
“A lens provides a structured way to categorize investments, look back across the portfolio to identify where certain benefits have emerged, and then intentionally measure and strengthen those outcomes over time. In other words, a lens does not need to define your entire strategy to meaningfully improve decision-making and impact.”
This case study is provided for information only and should not be interpreted as constituting investment advice or any regulated activity. The information and figures provided are accurate as per the latest information publicly available and/or made available to the Impact Investing Institute for the purpose of this research at the time of publication