Catalyzing Change in Next-Gen Health: Investing in Women and Deep Tech for Groundbreaking Impact
Catalyzing the Future of Healthcare: Women’s Health and Deep Tech as the Next Frontier
On April 28, the New Health Investment Institute and Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health co-hosted the latest session of the Global Healthcare Innovation & Investing Executive Talks, bringing together exceptional minds from science, capital, and operations to tackle some of the most overlooked—and highest-potential—areas in modern healthcare: women’s health and deep tech.
What is the Global Healthcare Innovation & Investing Executive Talks?
This program, now in its second year, is a rare cross-disciplinary forum. It aims to break silos and equip founders, investors, operators, and policymakers with the tools and thinking needed to translate complex healthcare innovation into scalable, equitable solutions. Last year, we broke new ground spotlighting youth mental health. This year, we turned our attention to how deep tech can transform women’s health—both clinically and commercially.
We are proud to be anchored by Columbia’s Department of Health Policy and Management, which serves as a vital nexus of entrepreneurship, capital, and system-level impact, and to build upon the foundational work by the New Health Investment Institute’s inaugural open-access report and forum, which laid the framework for this growing global network.
Who are this year’s speakers?
We were honored to feature two leaders who are shaping the global investment landscape:
Camilla Macapili Languille, Co-CEO of Mubadala’s Private Equity platform, leads investments across healthcare, tech, and sustainability. She has helped build Mubadala’s healthcare portfolio from the ground up—backing PCI Pharma, Evotec, and Norstella—and sits on the boards of several global firms. Her insights brought global investor depth with real operational fluency.
Charlotte Xia, investor at Fusion Fund and a scientist-turned-entrepreneur, brings rare precision to early-stage investing. She helped launch Formlabs’ first FDA-cleared product, scaled AI tools in regulated healthcare settings, and now invests in AI infrastructure and digital health with an eye for scientific rigor and real-world traction.
The panel was moderated by Lily Jin, founder of the New Health Investment Institute, Operating Partner at Marathon Venture Partners, and a Merit Scholar at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. With over a decade of experience deploying and building more than $2 billion in healthcare investments, Lily bridges science, capital, and execution—currently leading commercialization efforts for deep tech platforms like femtosecond laser bioimaging in reproductive health and oncology.
What were the key learnings? Five Insights You Won’t Hear in Most Panels:
1. Women’s Health Is Not an Emerging Market — It’s a Mispriced One.
Between the 300 private equity buyouts tracked in women’s health, the total transaction volume reached $80B, with a median return of 2x over 4.5 years—matching the broader PE industry. Camilla shared the data that her and her team had tracked and collected. The misconception that women’s health is “uninvestable” needs to end. The data says otherwise.
2. Inclusion Is Not Just Ethical — It’s Economically Urgent.
Women weren’t required in clinical trials until 1993. Today, they experience twice the rate of adverse drug events. Charlotte emphasized that even modest changes in inclusion can unlock major clinical and commercial gains.
3. Deep Tech Has the Tools — If You Know the Problem.
From femtosecond laser bioimaging in IVF to AI-powered digital pathology, both speakers stressed: deep tech can’t scale without clear clinical pull and reimbursement logic. Tech that collects new types of data or radically improves workflow has real legs—if it’s built for the right customer, not just the right journal.
4. Founders Must Translate, Not Just Invent.
Charlotte noted that scientist-founders often focus on why the tech works, but forget to ask who cares and who pays. Strong early signals? Understanding FDA pathways, reimbursement realities, and talking to end users before building.
5. Exits Are Not the End — They’re the Strategy.
Camilla and Charlotte both urged founders to start engaging potential acquirers early. M&A is still the dominant path in women’s health and AI-powered diagnostics. Mapping your exit isn’t premature—it’s strategic planning.
What is next?
Whether it’s Mubadala’s integrated Wellness Hub or Fusion Fund’s bets on AI-powered pelvic diagnostics, both speakers made one truth clear:
If you understand women’s health, you see the unmet need. If you understand deep tech, you see the tools to solve it. Now is the time to build what the system forgot.
At the New Health Investment Institute, we believe the future will be shaped not by hype, but by those with the courage and clarity to bridge clinical urgency, technical depth, and business model discipline—especially in sectors deemed “too hard” for too long.
As an operator-investor who has deployed over $2 billion and now builds ventures from the lab bench to FDA clearance, Lily, the moderator noted that she was deeply moved by the candor, wisdom, and strategic depth Camilla and Charlotte brought to this discussion. They are living proof that visionary capital can be both sharp on returns and committed to impact. The gap isn’t in ideas. The gap is in people willing to bridge clinical insight, technical depth, and business design to build something that actually works—in the system we have, not just the one we wish existed.
If you understand women’s health, you see the unmet need. If you understand deep tech, you see the tools to solve it. Now is the time to build what the system forgot!
📩 The session audio recording is available in public here. To get involved with future sessions or collaborative opportunities, contact the New Health Investment Institute directly.
