While the global startup ecosystem is growing, it is important to highlight the many women who are taking significant strides to lead this global revolution. From healthtech to fintech, and MORE, They are paving the way as examples for future entrepreneurs to succeed in the global startup ecosystem.
It’s 2022 and women are making waves in all aspects of the corporate world! Should the international startup scene be any different? The path to success isn’t without challenges as chances are still against the favour of female founders. This holds more true for those without at least one male co-founder. COVID-19 has had a profound impact on female founders. According to a late-2020, PitchBook report, it was found that the quarterly VC funding for female founders had dropped to a three-year low. However, some female entrepreneurs have conquered the odds. Let’s celebrate these impactful solutions and the powerful females behind their progress.
FINTECH
Sunday
Thailand based full-stack InsurTech startup, Sunday, uses artificial intelligence/machine learning to offer personalised insurance products and services. Sunday co-founders Joanne and Cindy Kua manage their Malaysian family-owned conglomerate KSK Group while overseeing Sunday’s growth.
Ajaib
Ajaib is an Indonesian investing platform that allows Indonesians to buy and sell stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds. Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Yada Piyajomkwan previously worked at global brands, McKinsey and Unilever.
DRONE Tech
Aerodyne Group
A provider of artificial intelligence-driven drone-based solutions, Malaysian Aerodyne’s Executive Director, Azita Azizan and her husband oversee the company’s operations across 35 countries globally.
SuperAtom
Founder and President, Scarlett Xiao Jie, set up SuperAtom to enable financial services to be more accessible by leveraging data and artificial intelligence to build fintech solutions. These power UangMe, one of the fastest growing fintechs in Indonesia, and Bitrue, a global crypto-to-crypto currency exchange.
Agro-tech
Aruna
An Indonesian integrated fishery platform, Aruna helps to create fair fish trading, improve the livelihood of local fishermen and bring affordable and high-quality seafood to communities. Co-Founder and Chief Sustainability Officer Utari Octavianty brings her industry expertise and family history with fishing and coastal village life to Aruna. Aruna’s position on this list was bolstered by its latest funding round, which also saw participation from Prosus Ventures and East Ventures.
Fashion
Style Theory
Singaporean fashion rental subscription platform, Style Theory, provides economically sustainable fashion choices. Chief Operating Officer, Raena Lim, co-founded the company with her husband in 2016 and today, Style Theory boasts some 200,000 users across Singapore and Indonesia.
Browzwear
Singapore-based startup, Browzwear, offers 3D digital solutions for the fashion industry. Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Sharon Lim, first started out as a distributor for Browzwear in Asia before she acquired the company in 2012.
Space Sharing
Silvernest
Wendi Burkhardt is the CEO and Co-Founder of Silvernest, a startup that’s creating the next generation of roommates. They developed a home-sharing solution for aging-in-place, that enables Americans to surmount many of the financial and social challenges facing them as they age in the 21st Century.
Quos
Céline Dourlet is the Co-founder of Quos, a French startup, whose platform provides parking, waste collection and green space management, as well as indoor air quality monitoring via mobile
Travelio
An online residential real estate management startup, Travelio allows tenants to find and rent apartments from as low as one day to as high as months at a time. Moreover, during the pandemic, Travelio launched its own online grocery store and disinfection services. Chief Strategy Officer Christina Suriadjaja is a scion of the Suriadjaja family, which owns commercial property, construction, and hospitality businesses in Indonesia. Chief Operating Officer, Christie Tjong, worked in retail and banking in Australia before returning to Indonesia.
Food Delivery
Pop Meals
Malaysian startup Pop Meals is a food delivery service that utilises AI in logistics and cooking automation. Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Jessica Li, has a varied background, with previous stints at Foodpanda and PWC.
Assistive Technology
BrightSign
BrightSign is founded by Hadeel Ayoub in London, UK. It leverages assistive technology that utilises a smart glove that can translate any sign into any spoken language in an instant.
HEALTHCARE
Mind Peers
Kanika Agarwal co-founded Mind Peers, a New Delhi-based self-care platform that tracks mood and emotional patterns, as well as connects users to a range of mental health professionals.
1910 Genetics
Jen Nwankos’s 1910 Genetics developed two drug discovery engines – ELVIS™ and ROSALYND™ which facilitates the design of both small molecule and protein therapeutics. Both have an unmatched capability in the AI drug discovery arena.
ART Compass
ART Compass founded by Carol Lynn Curchoe, PhD, is an IVF centric platform which stores patient records as well as critical data, resulting in enhanced outcomes, driven by their AI.
Asia Biome
Asia Biome treats the root cause of IBS, autism, ALS, and multiple sclerosis through microbiomes in the gut. It is cofounded by Shilpa Purdal.
BioXplor
German BioXplor is cofounded by Anna O’Leary and is on a mission to discover novel drug combinations, as well as improve clinical development success through smarter data analysis.
Careteam Technologies
Founded by Alexandra T. Greenhill, MD, Careteam Technologies, its flexible customizable platform enables ground-breaking health care teams to deploy virtual care coordination and collaboration projects within and between health organisations, including the patient, family and community.
FEMININE HEALTH
Veera Health
Shobhita Narain is Co-founder and COO at Veera Health with Shashwata Narain, a provider of healthcare services built to assist women with polycystic ovary syndrome in India.
The Lowdown
Alice Pelton is the Founder of The Lowdown, a London-based digital platform that allows people to report and rate the contraceptive methods they’ve used, as well as their effects, symptoms and side effects.
Aavia
Aavia Co-Founders, Aagya Mathur and Aya Sazuki, are disrupting birth control experiences by helping people with periods learn about their cycles and mental health trends, as well as a smart birth control pill case.
WOOM
Celia Morales is the Co-founder of WOOM with Laurence Fontinoy. WOOM is a Madrid-based reproductive health monitoring and management platform created to help women maximise their chances of pregnancy.
BIOMILQ
Cofounded by Michelle Egger and Leila Strickland, PhD, BIOMILQ is a female-owned, science-centric and mother focused start-up that aspires to create cultured breastmilk with the nutrition of breast milk and the practicality of formula.
Happy Moonday
Founder and CEO of Happy Moonday with Henny Boo and Hae-eun, the top period-product subscription service in Korea that offers pads, tampons and a menstruation management app.
AGEING WITH GRACE
GrandPad
As Chief Gerontologist at GrandPad, Kerry Burnright is responsible for improving the lives of millions of seniors, by reconnecting them with their family, friends, and caregivers.
Soundmind
With a strong background in science, Erum Azeez Khan started a tech company focused on solving the needs of older adults when she met her co-founder and started Soundmind.
CareAcademy
Educator Helen Adeosun, EdM, and a medical doctor and Madhuri Reddy, MD, co-founded this unique initiative. Born out of Helen’s first-hand experience as a caregiver. With Dr. Reddy’s experience as a specialist in Geriatric medicine, CareAcademy is the first and only learning enablement platform for caregivers.
Embodied Labs
Carrie Shaw founded Embodied Labs, after years of caring for her mother who suffered from early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The company makes it possible for elder-care professionals to immerse themselves in how their patients experience the world by using VR tech.
Ask Marvee
As a pioneer in VUI for older adults, Heidi Culbertson created the first ever Alexa skill for older adults – Ask Marvee.
Cala Health
Cala targets to shift the standard of care for patients living with chronic diseases using non-invasive wearable neuromodulation therapies. It is founded by Kate Rosenbluth, PhD.
Neurotrack
Elli Kaplan co-founded and became the CEO of Neurotrack in 2012, with the purpose of developing a cognitive assessment test that will enable earlier and more effective evaluation of patients who may be at risk of cognitive decline.
Savonix
Dr Mylea Charvat is a trained clinical neuropsychologist & neuroscientist and founded Savonix in 2015. At Savonix, Charvat drives strategy to address dementia globally with business & clinical leaders & works as a domain expert in digital cognitive assessment with partners from Boston University to Fortune 50 CEOs seeking to detect & prevent cognitive decline & dementias.
Bird&Be
Birds&Be started in late 2021 and develops prenatal vitamins and supplements, and testing kits for pregnancy, ovulation, ovarian reserve and sperm concentration.
TIBU Health
Hane Akrim is COO and co-founder of Nairobi’s TIBU Health, a healthtech logistics company that connects Africa’s urban populations with high-quality healthcare services in real-time and at an affordable cost.
Plume
The Chief Medical Officer of Plume, a Denver-based provider of gender-affirming hormone therapy via telehealth, co-founded the company to make the process of seeking and receiving gender-affirming care less daunting, confusing and exhausting.
