In this interview, Angie explains the origins of MIMA Technologies, the challenges of fundraising for Femtech companies, and the difference that having women on the investment table can make.
Could you briefly tell us about your background and about how you got started as an entrepreneur?
I have been specialised in the microwave breast imaging field for over twelve years. Our startup’s microwave breast imaging scanner actually began as a project within a larger French company, where I and one of my co-founders were working at the time, while our third co-founder was a clinician collaborating with the company as principal investigator of our clinical studies.
We developed 2 prototypes of the device at this previous company. Last year, however, the project was cancelled in the frame of corporate and financial restructuring of the company. Our project was not the focus of the Research & Development (R&D) activities of the core business.
A few months later, in mid-2025, together with my co-founders, we made the decision to fund our own startup. We had already gotten very promising clinical results in the previous development activities, and we really believed in the future of the technology. We’ve reached the midway, technologically, we advanced, but not sufficiently to commercialise it yet. That’s where we want to take the technology from here: we want to bring it to the patients.
Could you tell us more about MIMA Technologies and about the challenge you’re trying to solve?
We’re working on a microwave breast imaging technology; a new breast imaging scanner development. Think of the x-ray mammography or the ultrasound scan for the breast, that exist already. Our technology is an alternative to those, based on very low-power microwaves, like the ones used by mobile phones.
When the microwaves are emitted in the breast, there are reflections from the dielectrically contrasted breast tissues. Higher dielectric contrast - and more prominent reflections - are physically expected in areas with potential malignancy. We use this information to generate a 3D image highlighting suspicious regions in the breast, for radiological investigation and aid to diagnosis.
For the patient, there are important benefits, because it’s a safer scan that can be done as frequently as necessary for diagnostic – or prevention- purposes and provides a 3D image of the breast without compression, unlike x-ray mammography. In addition, our preliminary, early-stage, clinical studies have shown that the technology may hold important diagnostic advantage, particularly in the case of dense breasts, in younger women, where the widely available standard-of-care diagnostic breast imaging tools are quite limited.
Our solution combines radar-based 3D image formation and diagnostics to spot suspicious regions in the breast, focus radiological attention and accelerate/enhance diagnosis. The technology is initially meant to be used as a supplemental imaging method adjunct to first-line screening with x-ray mammography, which can be particularly useful for underserved populations to whom mammography underperforms.
Nevertheless, in the future, we may also think of using this technology as a widely available pre-screening tool, providing an initial diagnostic output that can recommend follow-up scans if needed. It can even be made affordable and available outside of healthcare facilities. There are many potential advantages.
What has been your personal experience with accessing funding as a woman entrepreneur?
We founded the company around one year ago, so we spent the first months building the IP strategy and structuring the business case. We only started contacting investors and having some initial discussions towards fundraising in the beginning of 2026, so we are still quite early in the process of raising our first investments.
By now, we’ve seen that this may represent challenges, especially because our solution is a diagnostic medical imaging device, developing it requires an important amount of capital and the time-to-market is quite long. The earliest realistically envisaged exit for an investor is in 2031-2032, after we get our CE (Conformité Européenne) Mark, so the investment case requires significant patient capital. At the same time, it addresses a rather crowded market, as there are many other breast imaging technologies available and/or emerging. Key-Opinion-Leaders (KOLs) and investors need to be convinced, foresee and understand early the clear competitive advantages differentiating our solution, while costly clinical investigations are required to prove diagnostic performance.
It is really not easy, but in MIMA Technologies we strongly believe that our technology has unique advantages and diagnostic potential. An additional asset here is that one of our co-founders (Prof. Michael Kerin) is an experienced clinician in breast cancer management, who knows very well how the healthcare system works in this space, the existing diagnostic gaps and the key expectations for new technologies to be adopted.
It takes time and a lot of effort, but we are optimistic and confident that we are building the venture in the correct direction.
What specific challenges did you face in fundraising that you believe your male counterparts might not have, if any?
I want to believe that the primary challenge comes from our solution’s long time-to-market. However, I do also have the feeling that, as a woman, it takes more time to build confidence with investors, at least in preliminary introductory discussions like the ones we have had by now.
What role do you think investors can play in closing the funding gap for woman entrepreneurs?
They have a very important role, and indeed recently we do see a lot of initiatives and activities to get capital flowing into women-led ventures and Femtech. I believe that we’re going through a phase of reshaping the mindset of the investors and I hope these efforts will flourish more in the near future.
Do you think having more women decision-makers on the investment side would help with this mindset shift?
Unfortunately, we currently see an underrepresentation of women on the investment side, not just on the technological development front. That is a real pity particularly in the case of Femtech ventures, or even Medtech dedicated to women’s health, like ours. As we’re working on solving problems that affect women’s health and well-being, whenever the people on the other side of the table are women with similar experiences, we see that they can better understand the impact of our technology’s advantages and steer the investments towards the right decisions, despite the challenges, such as the long time to market of investing in sectors like ours. I really hope to keep seeing more and more women investors in our sector going ahead.
What advice would you give to aspiring female founders?
You need to be persuasive, patient and courageous, because it’s a long journey. I was told since the beginning that as deep-tech startup entrepreneurs we need to be prepared for a lot of failure and rejection at the beginning; and shouldn’t take it personally! That is very relevant.
We need to keep trying until we find the right people: partners, mentors and investors who will really understand the problem we are solving and will be there not only to provide money, but also the network and the advice to help build the business and make a success of it.
About the WomenINvestEU Matchmaking on Femtech
What motivated you to apply to participate in the matchmaking event?
We are actively fundraising for our pre-seed round and getting to know investors is very important to build our network, even in cases where it is not directly conclusive. This kind of event, especially because it was organised by WomenINvestEU and targeting the Femtech space, was really fitting for us at the moment, so when I saw the promotion, the interest in applying was immediately clear to me.
What were the highlights of the session?
The pitching companies were well-selected, with good quality of content and a wide spectrum of applications in Femtech. The jury members were also very well-selected and quite engaged. They were truly paying attention to the pitches and provided overall useful feedback and relevant questions stimulating constructive thinking ahead.
What would you say to entrepreneurs who may be considering applying for other matchmaking events?
That they shouldn’t think of it twice, it only brings advantages. In the best of cases, you can have very concrete results and meet one of your future investors in such events. In any case though, even the experience of pitching and training yourself to communicate and to receive feedback from the jury, as well as exposing your business case publicly, is a very helpful and rewarding experience. It’s certainly good to participate in this kind of events whenever we have the opportunity.
About the EmpowHerMent Stories
WomenINvestEU is publishing regular stories on women entrepreneurs, women in leadership roles in the investment sector and representatives of wider organizations on gender-focused investing.
Thorough these stories, we are celebrating the achievements of remarkable women at all levels of the supply chain and inspiring you on your journey to raise capital or become a gender-conscious investor.
About the WomenINvestEU Matchmaking Events
As a part of its effort to expand the gender-focused investment ecosystem across Europe, WomenINvestEU is organized online matchmaking events to connect women-led startups with members of its European Network of Gender-Conscious Investors.
Representatives of women-led startups, as well as startups with women in C-level positions, applied for the chance to participate in these events through regular open calls. The selected startups will received pitching support on strategic topics, in order to prepare for their interactions with the gender-conscious investors in attendance.
Visit our Events page to review past events.
- Publication date
- 14 July 2026
- Author
- Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs