Some of these women are just starting off their
entrepreneur journey, while others have raised over $800 million in funding.
Many of these female founders champion women in their solutions or are
addressing problems for commonly overlooked members of the community. All are
paving the way for more women in tech.
Here are 50 female entrepreneurs
1.
Cindy Mi, CEO & Co-Founder of VIPKID
Total funding amount: $825
million
Investors include: Learn Capital, Sequoia Capital
China, Tencent Holdings, YF Capital, Northern Light Venture
Capital, Matrix Partners China, Coatue Management.
Based in Beijing, VIPKID connects teachers in North America with children
around the world for real-time English immersion learning online. Founded in
2013 and formally launched in 2014, VIPKid is China’s leading online education
startup with over 500,000 paying students and 60,000 teachers in the US and
Canada.
2.
Nicky Goulimis, COO & Co-Founder
of Nova Credit
Total funding amount:
$19.4 million
Investors include: Index Ventures, General Catalyst, Index
Ventures, Y Combinator
Nova Credit is a cross-border credit reporting agency. Nova is working to
create a global platform for financial identity so immigrants don’t have to
start from scratch when they move to a new country.
3.
Jasmine Crowe, CEO & Founder of Goodr
Total funding amount: $1.1
million
Investors include: Precursor Ventures, Techstars
Founded in 2017,
Atlanta-based Goodr is a sustainable surplus food management platform that
leverages technology to reduce food waste and combat hunger. Goodr’s
blockchain-enabled platform provides an IRS audit-friendly donation record to
improve businesses’ bottom line, reduce greenhouse emissions, and use food
waste to reduce hunger.
4.
Emily Weiss, CEO & Founder of Glossier
Total funding amount:
$186.4 million
Investors include: Index Ventures, Sequoia
Capital, IVP, Thrive Capital
Direct-to-consumer beauty products retailer Glossier raised $100
million in a Series D round led by Sequoia Capital in March of 2019. The financing
reportedly sets a $1.2 billion valuation for the New York-based company.
5.
Julia Collins, CEO & Co-Founder
of Zume Pizza
Total funding amount: $423
millionInvestors include: SignalFire, AME Cloud Ventures, Softbank Vision
FundFounded in 2015, Zume Pizza cooks pizza while it’s being delivered,
sourcing 100% of its ingredients from local farmers. In November of 2018, Zume
Pizza raised a $375 million Series C from Softbank Vision Fund.
6.
Shan-Lyn Ma, CEO & Co-Founder of Zola
Total funding amount:
$140.8 million
Investors include: Thrive Capital, Canvas Ventures, Lightspeed
Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs Investment PartnersZola is a wedding
planning and reinvented registry experience founded in 2013. Based in New York,
Zola is capitalizing on the wedding industry in the United States, valued at
$90 billion, with $19 billion of that spent on wedding gifts.
7.
Anne Wojcicki, CEO & Co-Founder
of 23andMe
Total funding amount: $786 million
Investors include: GlaxoSmithKline, Sequoia, Google
Wojcicki co-founded 23andMe with Linda Avey in 2006. 23andMe is a
human genome research company that helps customers understand what their DNA
says about their health, traits, and ancestry. In 2018, they raised $300
million from GlaxoSmithKline.
8.
Lisa Skeete Tatum, CEO & Co-Founder
of Landit
Total funding amount: $17.6 million
Investors include: WeWork, NEA, Workday Ventures
Based in New York, Landit is a personalized career pathing platform that helps
women and diverse groups succeed in the workplace. Landit creates personalized
solutions that enable enterprises to attract, develop, and retain high
potential diverse talent.
9.
Ritu Narayan, CEO &
Co-Founder of Zum
Total funding amount: $67
million
Investors include: Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, BMW i
Ventures
Founded in 2015, Zum raised a $40 million Series C in February 2019. Zum
provides safe, efficient, and reliable child transportation for school
districts and busy families. The company currently provides services in the San
Francisco Bay Area, all of Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego.
10.
Heidi
Zak, Co-CEO of ThirdLove
Total funding amount:
$68.6 million
Investors include: NEA, L Catteron, Allen & Company
ThirdLove is a fast-growing intimates brand that doesn’t rely on standard
industry measurements. Founded in 2013, Heidi Zak left Google to build a new
kind of bra company to help women reinvent how they shop for bras.
11.
Nora
Khaldi, CSO & Founder of Nuritas
Total funding amount: €53.9
million
Investors include: VisVirers New Protein, NDRC, Cultivian
Sandbox Ventures
Based in Dublin, Nuritas combines artificial intelligence and genomics to
discover and unlock natural bioactive peptides. Nuritas is working to help
manage and improve human health.
12.
Anne
Boden, CEO & Founder, of Starling Bank
Total funding amount: £233
million
Investors include: Harald
McPike, Meridan
Global Investors
Anne Boden founded Starling FS in 2014, which eventually became Starling Bank
in 2016. Based in London, Starling Bank provides a mobile banking application
and a debit card that enables users to manage their finances.
13.
Yunha Kim, CEO & Founder of Simple
Habit
Total funding amount:
$12.6 million
Investors include: Foundation Capital, NEA, Y Combinator
With over 1,500 meditations and audio therapy sessions, Simple Habit is a
mental wellness platform that helps busy people reduce daily stress. Founded in
2016, Simple Habit is headquartered in San Francisco.
14.
Yeva
Hyusyan, CEO & Co-Founder of SoloLearn
Total funding amount: $6.9 million
Investors include: Naspers, Learn Capital, Granatus Ventures
SoloLearn lets you learn and practice a skill of your choice anywhere, for
free. Based in Pleasanton, California, SoloLearn lets students learn, create,
and share programming content with peers around the globe.
Arum Kang, CEO & Co-Founder of Coffee Meets Bagel
Total funding amount: $31 million
Investors include: Atami Capital, DCM Ventures
Founded in 2012, Coffee Meets Bagel is a dating app for
people who are looking for meaningful relationships. CMB raised a $12 million
Series B in May of last year.
Steph Korey, CEO & Co-Founder of Away
Total funding amount: $107.5 million
Investors include: Forerunner Ventures, Global Founders
Capital, Accel
Away is a direct-to-consumer modern travel and lifestyle
brand that offers high-quality luggage at an affordable price point. Founded in
2015, Fast Company reported that the company will add 249 jobs over the next
five years.
Female entrepreneurs & female founders: Steph Korey of
Away
15.
Reshma
Saujani, CEO & Founder of Girls Who Code
Total funding amount: $6.5 million
Investors include: Walmart, Lyft, UberFounded in 2011,
Saujani founded Girls Who Code to equip and inspire young women with the skills
and resources to pursue opportunities for a computer science education. GWC pairs
instruction in robotics, web design, and mobile development with high-touch
mentorship for young women.
16. Payal Kadakia, Executive Chairman
& Co-Founder of Classpass
Total funding amount: $239 million
Investors include: Acequia Capital, Hank Vigil, General
Catalyst, GV, Temasek Holdings
ClassPass is a subscription marketplace that lets users find
and book fitness classes. After four years as CEO, Kadakia stepped down in
March 2017 and currently serves as the executive chairman of the company. In
2016, she landed spots on both Forbes’ Women Entrepreneurs to Watch list and
Fortune’s 40 under 40.
17. Rosanna Myers, CEO & Co-Founder
of Carbon Robotics
Total funding amount: $3.4 million
Investors include: SOSV, HAX, Techstars
Carbon Robotics was named one of the top 50 “most
influential public and private companies in the global robotics industry” by
the Robotics Business Review in 2016. Founded in 2014, Carbon Robotics is
working to bring advanced robotics to the masses.
18. Neeti Mehta, Senior Vice President
Brand Strategy & Culture Architect & Co-Founder for Automation
Anywhere
Total funding amount: $550 million
Investors include: Workday Ventures, NEA, Goldman Sachs,
Softbank Vision Fund
Automation Anywhere offers an advanced, enterprise-grade,
cognitive Robotic Press Automation platform. Their intelligent process robots
work to change the way businesses operate, delivering complex businesses and IT
work across many processes like HR administration, procure-to-pay, and claims
processing.
19. Anita Finnegan, CEO & Founder of Nova
Leah
Total funding amount: €2.8 million
Investors include: Kernel Capital, COSIMO Ventures
Nova Leah develops cybersecurity risk assessment solutions
for connected medical devices. Based in Ireland, Anita Finnegan founded Nova
Leah in 2015 and is an expert in Medical Device Cybersecurity.
20. Tina Sharkey, CEO & Co-Founder of
Brandless
Total funding amount: $292.5 million
Investors include: Slow Ventures, Cowboy Ventures, NEA,
Softbank Vision Fund
Brandless’ mission is to make high-quality products at
simple and fair prices. The e-commerce company manufactures and sells food,
beauty, and personal care products, adding value for the consumer by selling
merchandise without a “brand tax.” Brandless raised a $240 million Series C
from SoftBank Vision Fund in July of 2018.
21. Jessica Richman, CEO & Co-Founder of
uBiome
Total funding amount: $109.9 million
Investors include: a16z, OS Fund, 8VC
uBiome is a biotech company that has developed key
technology to sequence the human microbiome. Richman founded uBiome as a
citizen science project in 2012.
22. Michelle Zatlyn, COO & Co-Founder of
CloudFare
Total funding amount: $332.1 million
Investors include: Venrock, Fidelity Investments, Franklin
Templeton Investments, Pelion Venture Partners, NEA, Union Square Ventures
Founded in 2009, Cloudflare is a web performance and
security company that provides online services to protect and accelerate
websites online. Cloudflare started as a simple application to find the source
of email spam. From there, it grew into a service that protects websites from
all manner of attacks, while simultaneously optimizing performance.
23. Shreya Misha, CEO & Co-Founder of
Flyrobe
Total funding amount: $10.7 million
Investors include: Sequoia Capital India, IDG Ventures
Based in Mumbai, India, Flyrobe is an on-demand apparel
rental platform that provides premium designer wear for special occasions.
24. Marah Lidey, Co-CEO & Co-Founder of
Shine
Total funding amount: $8.3 million
Investors include: Flybridge Capital Partners, Eniac
Ventures, Betaworks, Comcast Ventures
Shine sends a daily text that addresses negative thought
patterns. Anyone can sign up for Shine text and they send users actionable tips
and content on confidence, daily happiness, mental health, or productivity.
25. Mariam Naficy, CEO & Founder of Minted
Total funding amount: $297.1 million
Investors include: T. Rowe Price, Norwest Venture Partners,
TCV, Ridge Ventures, Permira, Benchmark
Minted uses technology to allow consumers to discover
creative talent, making Minted a place where artists can learn, gain exposure,
and build their business. LinkedIn named Minted as one of 2014’s 10 Most
In-Demand Startups among job seekers. Additionally, Naficy was named one of the
25 Most Creative People in Business by Fast Company in 2013.
26. Sheila Gujrathi, M.D., COO & Co-Founder
of Gossamer Bio
Total funding amount: $330 million
Investors include: Omega Funds, Hillhouse Capital Group,
ARCH Venture Partners
Gossamer Bio is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the
discovery and development of novel and differentiated therapeutic products. Founded
in 2015, Gossamer Bio raised $230 million from Hillhouse Capital Group in 2018.
27. Cristina Junqueira, VP of Branding &
Business Development & Co-Founder, NuBank
Total funding amount: $707.6 million
Investors include: Tencent Holdings, Founders Fund, Sequoia
Capital, Fortress Investment Group, DST Global, Goldman Sachs, Tiger Global
Management
Nubank issues, administrates, processes, and transfers
payments related to post-paid credit cards and equity investment in other
entities. Based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, NuBank is a unicorn company.
28. Michelle Cordeiro Grant, CEO & Founder
of WearLively
Total funding amount: $15 million
Investors include: Gelmart International, GGV Capital
Founded in 2015, WearLively is a bra and underwear company
that blurs the aesthetic lines of lingerie, active, and swimwear. Cordeiro
Grant previously was the Vice President of Merchandising at Thrillist and
worked at Victoria’s Secret as a Director, Senior Merchant.
29. Georgina Gooley, Co-Founder of Billie
Total funding amount: $35 million
Investors include: Goldman Sachs, Silverton Partners,
Lakehouse Ventures, Female Founders Fund
Billie is a shaving subscription service designed
specifically for women. The female-first shaving company delivers razors and
body care products at a lesser price than competitors. They have also depicted
body hair in their ads and images to empower their customers to decide for
themselves whether they want to shave it or let it grow.
30. Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, CEO & Co-Founder
of Promise
Total funding amount: $3.1 million
Investors include: First Round Capital, Y Combinator, 8VC,
Kapor Capital, Roc Nation
Promise is working on a solution to reduce the jail
population by providing a cost-effective alternative to incarceration by
extending the capabilities of community supervision. Promise provides arrestees
with tailored plans that include court-mandated conditions and connection to
services such as drug treatment, housing, mental health treatment, job
training, and others.
31. Benedetta Arese Lucini, CEO &
Co-Founder of Oval Money
Total funding amount: $7 million
Investors include: b-ventures, Intesa Sanpolo, Gruppo
Bertoldi
Based in London, Oval Money is an app for financial coaching
and planning. Oval helps users save quickly and effectively, by teaching them
to monitor spending habits and by making savings automatic. The app also leverages
a community experience to make saving more dynamic.
32. Morgan DeBaun, CEO & Co-Founder of
Blavity
Total funding amount: $9.4 million
Investors include: 500 Startups, GV
Blavity is a venture-backed technology and media company
aimed at building beautiful products and experiences for black millennials.
Founded in July 2014, has quickly grown to become one of the fastest-growing
digital media outlets on the web, reaching more than seven million millennials
a month.
33. Afton Vechery, CEO & Co-Founder of
Modern Fertility
Total funding amount: $7 million
Investors include: First Round Capital, Maveron, Union
Square Ventures
Modern Fertility is a women’s health company focused on
making fertility information more accessible to women everywhere. They offer
the first comprehensive test you can take at home to check in on your
fertility.
34. Josefin Landgard, COO & Co-Founder of
KRY
Total funding amount: €79.1 million
Investors include: Index Ventures, Creandum, Accel
KRY is the market leader and only CE-certified, app-based
service for meeting doctors through video meetings in Sweden. They deliver
streamlined healthcare at the patient’s own convenience while reducing the
pressure on traditional healthcare providers so that they can provide better
care for those patients most in need of it.
35. Tracy Lawrence, CEO & Co-Founder of
Chewse
Total funding amount: $33.9 million
Investors include: Foundry Group, Telegraph Hill Capital
Founded in 2011, Chewse provides companies with curated
selections of family-style meals from local restaurants. Their last round was a
$19 million Series C led by the Foundry Group.
36. Anda Gansca, CEO & Co-Founder of Knotch
Total funding amount: $34.3 million
Investors include: Michael Birch, NEA, Xochi Birch
Knotch is an independent content intelligence platform that
helps measure the impact of content. Their end-to-end content intelligence
platforms help marketers plan, measure, optimize and benchmark their content
efforts across all owned and paid strategies.
37. Jessica Mah, CEO & Co-Founder of
inDinero
Total funding amount: $9.9 million
Investors include: 500 Startups, Y Combinator, SPH CAPITAL,
Streamlined Ventures, Signatures Capital
Based in San Francisco, inDinero creates software solutions
to help small businesses track and manage their finances. It aims to provide
its users with instant insights into the finances of their companies, leading
them to save on unnecessary expenses and to earn more money for their
companies.
38. Kelly Peng, CEO & Co-Founder of Kura
Technologies
Total funding amount: $1.5 million
Investors include: HTC, Lucy Lv, CrunchFund
Kura Technologies is an augmented reality company focused on
building the next generation AR optics/display module. Their platform is
designed to be integrated with software companies to provide enterprise and
consumer solutions.
39. Lisa Falzone, CEO & Co-Founder
of Athena Security
Total funding amount: $100K
Investors include: XFactor Ventures
Athena’s mission is to help prevent crime through its
artificial intelligence platform. It helps prevent crimes by recognizing
threatening actions and then taking the appropriate steps to alert the right
parties before a criminal’s actions can escalate.
40. Mariya Nurislamova, CEO & Co-Founder of
Scentbird
Total funding amount: $28.4 million
Investors include: Goodwater Capital, Y Combinator,
FundersClub
Scentbird enables its users to choose and try a sample of
designer fragrances on a monthly basis before buying them. They raised their
Series A in May of last year in a round led by Goodwater Capital.
41. Karime German, Internal Ops Manager &
Co-Founder of Grin Scooters
Total funding amount: $72.7 million
Investors include: monashees, Base10 Partners, Y Combinator,
Trinity Ventures
Based in Mexico City, Grin Scooters is a software company
that operates a network of operational shared electric scooters. Currently,
Grin operates in Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Sao Paulo, and Bogota,
but it has plans to expand to other cities throughout Latin America.
42. Maha Achour, CEO & Co-Founder of
Metawave
Total funding amount: $17 million
Investors include: Motus Ventures, Thyra Global Management,
Khosla Ventures, Denso
Founded in 2017, Metawave is a wireless technology company
that builds intelligent and high-performance automotive radars by leveraging
metamaterials and AI.
Female founder and female entrepreneurs: Maha Achour of
Metawave
43. Aba Schubert, CEO & Co-Founder
of Dorae
Total funding amount: $50 million
Investors include: Aethel Partners
DORAE is a global blockchain-enabled physical commodities
cloud that works to secure the flow of information accompanying raw materials.
Founded in 2015, they raised a $50 million Series B in January of 2019.
44. Allison Robinson, CEO & Founder of The
Mom Project
Total funding amount: $10.6 million
Investors include: Initialized Capital, Grotech Ventures,
Atlanta Seed Company
Founded in 2016, The Mom Project is a career destination for
moms. With a community of over 75,000 professionals and more than 1,000
companies, The Mom Project is committed to building a better workplace for
mothers and the businesses they support.
45. Annie Tao, VP of Operations &
Co-Founder of Horizon Robotics
Total funding amount: $700 million
Investors include: SK Hynix, SK China, Intel Capital
Based in Beijing, Horizon Robotics is dedicated to providing
integrated and open embedded Artificial Intelligence solutions of high
performance, low power, and low cost.
46. Christine Spang, CTO & Co-Founder of
Nylas
Total funding amount: $30 million
Investors include: Formation 8, Spark Capital, 8VC
Founded in 2013, Nylas is building a new platform for
email-powered apps, starting with simple REST APIs and infrastructure for
developers.
47. Edith Harbaugh, CEO & Co-Founder
of LaunchDarkly
Total funding amount: $76.3 million
Investors include: Redpoint, Uncork Capital, DFJ, Bessemer
Venture Partners
LaunchDarkly is a Feature Management Platform that serves
over 100 billion feature flags daily to help software teams build better
software, faster. They recently raised their $44 million Series C in March of
2019.
48. Sandy Jen, CTO & Co-Founder of Honor
Total funding amount: $115 million
Investors include: Naspers, a16z, Thrive Capital
Honor, a home care company, is a pioneering national network
of home care providers. Founded in 2015, Honor is now one of the
fastest-growing, non-medical home care companies in the U.S., currently
providing care to families in California, Texas, and New Mexico.
49. Edith Harbaugh,
CEO & Co-Founder of LaunchDarkly
Total funding amount:
$76.3 million
Investors include: Redpoint, Uncork Capital, DFJ, Bessemer
Venture Partners
LaunchDarkly is a Feature Management Platform that serves over 100
billion feature flags daily to help software teams build better software,
faster. They recently raised their $44 million Series C in March of 2019.
50. Sandy Jen, CTO & Co-Founder of Honor
Total funding
amount: $115 million
Investors include: Naspers, a16z, Thrive
Capital
Honor, a home care company, is a pioneering national network of home
care providers. Founded in 2015, Honor is now one of the fastest-growing,
non-medical home care companies in the U.S., currently providing care to
families in California, Texas, and New Mexico.
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