Newsletter | February 2025 | |
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“We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable network of mutuality. And whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.”
-Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail
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Amid the upheaval in our federal government and broad assaults on human rights and democratic norms, at Rhia Ventures we remain grounded in what we know to be true: Until all of us are free to live the fullest expression of our reproductive lives, none of us is free. Until our economy offers everyone a fair opportunity to thrive, we cannot fully exercise democracy.
We reaffirm our solidarity within and among our communities and coalitions. The intersections of social movements are fulcrums of collective strength, not fault lines for division, no matter how the political climate may intend to strain them.
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Rhia’s purpose is to break down barriers to transformative innovation in the women’s reproductive and maternal health market. We do this by empowering organizations and investors to fund solutions guided by frameworks for achieving financial and social gains.
In 2025 we will continue to:
- Drive investment in reproductive and maternal health innovation and access to care.
- Support emerging founders and entrepreneurs who are innovating in the reproductive and maternal health space but face barriers to traditional financing.
- Offer strategies and tools for investors and organizations that seek to operationalize equity in their business practices and decision-making processes.
In our ongoing evaluation of the reproductive and maternal health market, we ask: who is most consistently denied access to care, dignity, and safety? How are they influencing agendas for change? What solutions do they envision? And how can we create conditions that blunt the reach and force of the harm? These questions ground us in our values, reveal partners and allies, and guide the work moving forward.
Whether you are new to Rhia or have been with us since the beginning, thank you for supporting our mission to build a reproductive and maternal health market that serves everyone who needs care.
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Black history is the history of reproductive and maternal health medicine. “Mothers of Gynecology” is a monument to Betsey, Lucy, and Anarcha, three enslaved Black women who were abused and experimented on by Dr. J. Marion Sims in the 1840s. The results of this unethical experimentation led to foundational advances in obstetrics and gynecology. In commemoration of Black History Month, you can learn more here. Photo courtesy of The Mothers of Gynecology. | |
New Investment in Non-Hormonal Endometriosis Treatment | |
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RH Capital, a Rhia Ventures fund, has welcomed Gesynta Pharma to the portfolio. Gesynta's drug candidate, vipoglanstat, is in clinical phase II development for endometriosis treatment.
This painful, chronic inflammatory disease occurs when the type of tissue that forms the lining of the uterus (the endometrium) is found outside the uterus.
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Current drug treatments are inadequate for many patients. Many patients also face barriers to diagnosis and care. Vipoglanstat offers a non-hormonal option to reduce pain and lesion burden.
RH Capital closed its oversubscribed second fund in 2022, with $38.5 million, bringing its total assets under management to over $40 million. Since its inception, RH Capital has made more than 20 investments and currently has one of the largest dedicated women’s health venture capital portfolios. RH Capital Funds I and II are managed by Foregound Capital.
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Welcome to Our New Team Members | |
Rhia Ventures is proud to welcome several new team members: Jonalyn Denlinger, Managing Director, The REAL; Adewale Oduye, Director of Programs and Legal Affairs, The REAL; and Laura Mesrobian, Program Associate. | |
Catalytic Capital Fund Under Development for Reproductive and Maternal Health Organizations and Innovators | |
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Recognizing the need for complementary fund strategies for impact in the reproductive and maternal health market, Rhia Ventures is in the early stages of establishing a catalytic capital fund to support community-led organizations and pre-seed enterprises to improve women’s health outcomes.
Our Health Equity Assessment & Rating Tool (HEART) framework will be embedded throughout the process, from fund design to deployment of capital. We are taking a participatory investing approach to shift power in the decision-making process and apply impact measurement and management practices to ensure accountability for effecting outcomes.
Establishing a catalytic capital fund to support emerging founders in reproductive and maternal health is both unconventional and creative. We can leverage the tools of capital markets to support overlooked entrepreneurs who are creating solutions for the health care failures they witness and experience but face barriers to traditional financing.
Additional information about the fund will be provided as details are confirmed.
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Community Advisory Committee to Convene in February | |
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Last month Rhia Ventures launched a call for applications for our Community Advisory Council.
The purpose of this council is to ensure that Rhia's strategies and approaches are complementary to reproductive justice, maternal and child health, and women’s health organizational and movement goals.
We received an overwhelming response and thank all who applied. The applicants represent varied backgrounds, disciplines, and geographic regions. The council will convene for the first time in the coming weeks.
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#WhatAreYourReproBenefits
Forbes highlighted Rhia Ventures' What Are Your Repro Benefits database in a list of resources for businesses to create competitive employee benefits. The database is a roundup of corporations who are leading the way in bringing more transparency to abortion care coverage in the private sector.
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Despite Activist Attacks on Shareholder Rights, Companies Aren't Rescinding Reproductive Health Care Coverage | |
Under the new federal administration, the political and legal terrain for shareholder engagement on reproductive and maternal health care continues to get rougher. We expect the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to favor companies more frequently in their quests to dismiss shareholder proposals from company ballots at the request of corporations. This is often the case when the SEC is led by Republican appointees.
But this time around, well-funded activists and politicians are on a mission to undermine or eliminate the rule that regulates the substance and process of shareholder proposals. A half-dozen anti-ESG bills were filed in the previous Congress, passed by the House but deadheaded in the Senate. At least one has been introduced in the 119th Congress and more are sure to follow.
We have operated in similar environments before and prevailed with the process mostly intact. It will be harder this time, and we may lose ground. But we also have an advantage our adversaries do not: we are grounded in evidence and reality, and so are most of the companies we engage with. A small case in point: While votes in favor of our shareholder proposals have declined under right-wing pressure on institutional investors, they exponentially exceed the meager 1-2% of support that shareholder proposals championing conservative social policies receive.
We are quietly hearing from many corporate leaders that they are expanding reproductive health care coverage in response to abortion bans and as a result of our direct prompting. Whatever happens, with or without the ability to file shareholder proposals, we will continue pressing companies until best practices in this area are the norm.
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Empowering Investors with Strategies for Impact and Alpha | |
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In addition to directly deploying capital and leveraging investments to improve reproductive and maternal health outcomes, Rhia Ventures is committed to making the investment industry more fair and increasing capital access to communities, investors, fund managers, and entrepreneurs facing structural barriers.
When The REAL joined Rhia in late 2023, the merger expanded capacity for advisory services and field building across both racial equity and health equity.
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As part of its advising services, The REAL works with investor clients including foundations, family offices, and funds to more deeply understand their current portfolio and ways to operationalize equity in their investment decision-making. The REAL framework provided the model for Rhia’s Health Equity Assessment & Rating Tool (HEART) framework.
Recent field building activities include working with Tideline to assess the current and future state of racial equity lens investing. Findings from this investigation, to be published in the coming weeks, produced a preliminary foundational definition of racial equity lens investing and investor characteristics for those committed to the approach.
The REAL now stewards the Due Diligence 2.0 Commitment as a field-wide resource and is in the process of updating content, engaging signatories, and evaluating use and impact of the framework.
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The founders of Due Diligence 2.0 discussed the origins on ImpactAlpha’s The Reconstruction podcast. Listen here.
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The Diverse Investing Collective, for which Rhia Ventures previously served as a fiscal sponsor, now operates under The REAL to increase transparency and access to data on diversity in investment management. The Collective monitors and documents progress toward increasing the portion of US-based assets managed by gender-diverse and racially diverse teams. | |
The Collective was a finalist for the ThinkAdvisor Luminaries Class of 2024 in the category Research Providers. | |
Rhia Ventures' team members are highly sought-after experts for conferences and events across multiple fields: impact investing, health equity, women's health, reproductive and maternal health, economic justice, racial justice, philanthropy, and more. Below are highlights from recent engagements. | |
Our CEO Erika Seth Davies joined a panel at Morgan Health's "Maximizing Private Sector Momentum Toward Health Equity" event during J.P. Morgan’s annual health care conference. The panel included moderator Brandon Batiste, MPH plus Lauren R. Powell, MPA, PhD of Biogen; Mikelle Moore of Multiplier Advisors; and Jay Bhatt of Deloitte. | |
Erika attended the outgoing administration’s historic White House Conference on Women’s Health Research. | |
Erika presented at the Gratitude Railroad's annual convening of investors, founders, fund managers, and impact leaders | | | | |
