E21 - Sabine Flechet, co-founding Partner of Masawa (France)

Mental health is a core driver of how we change the world. What if it was also a smart financial strategy? In this episode, Sabine Flechet, co-founder of Masawa, one of the first funds in Europe dedicated to mental health innovations, shares how she is channeling capital into startups that address emotional well-being, mental illness, and tech-driven solutions, from gamified ADHD awareness to dementia prevention platforms. From cyberbullying prevention to gut-brain innovation. Sabine also shares how 65% of startup failures stem from human capital challenges, like burnout, co-founder conflict, or lack of emotional resilience, and how investors can reduce risk by supporting founders as people, not just performers. But Masawa is more than a fund, it’s a systems-level shift. Sabine talks about how traditional VC models fail founders, and how their approach at Masawa, called “nurture capital”, is designed to protect founders as people and their performance, rewriting power dynamics between founders and investors. It’s a wake-up call for anyone still thinking of mental health as a “soft” issue. Because this conversation proves: it’s systemic, and it’s investable. Please review the episode, share your feedback, and subscribe to the podcast! You can also: Visit our website: womenchangingfinance.org Follow Sabine on LinkedIn To go further, here are some of the references mentioned during the episode: Masawa — https://masawa.fund/ BMW Foundation Herbert Quandt — https://www.bmw-foundation.org La French Tech — https://lafrenchtech.com Purpose Foundation — https://purpose-economy.org Ecosia — https://www.ecosia.org Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — https://www.gatesfoundation.org World Health Organization (WHO) — https://www.who.int Outlive by Peter Attia — https://peterattiamd.com/outlive/ Women Changing Finance is part of the Impact Alpha Podcast Network.