50 Female Entrepreneurs Everyone Should Know

For Women’s History Month, we are highlighting 50 female entrepreneurs to watch in 2019. These women are solving problems and producing innovative solutions, for all members of society.

We’ve carefully curated this list from a Crunchbase Pro search, where we looked at female founders who have raised funding in the last year, as of March 19, 2019. All these women are particularly impressive, and they are listed in order based on funding raised.

Search less. Close more.

Grow your revenue with all-in-one prospecting solutions powered by the leader in private-company data.

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 to celebrate this month and beyond:

1. Cindy Mi
CEO & Co-Founder of VIPKID

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.

Funding information:

 

2. Anne Wojcicki
CEO & Co-Founder of 23andMe

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.

Funding information:

 

3. Cristina Junqueira
VP of Branding & Business Development & Co-Founder of NuBank

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.

Funding information:

 

4. Annie Tao
VP of Operations & Co-Founder of Horizon Robotics

Based in Beijing, Horizon Robotics is dedicated to providing integrated and open embedded Artificial Intelligence solutions of high performance, low power, and low cost.

Funding information:

 

5. Neeti Mehta
Senior Vice President Brand Strategy & Culture Architect & Co-Founder of Automation Anywhere

Female founders & female entrepreneurs: 
Senior Vice President Brand Strategy & Culture Architect & Co-Founder of Automation Anywhere

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.

Funding information:

 

6. Julia Collins
CEO & Co-Founder of Zume Pizza

Founded 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.

Funding information:

 

7. Michelle Zatlyn
COO & Co-Founder of CloudFare

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.

Funding information:

 

8. Sheila Gujrathi, M.D
COO & Co-Founder of Gossamer Bio

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.

Funding information:

 

9. Mariam Naficy
CEO & Founder of Minted

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.

Funding information:

 

10. Tina Sharkey
CEO & Co-Founder of Brandless

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.

Funding information:

 

11. Anne Boden
CEO & Founder of Starling Bank

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.

Funding information:

 

12. Payal Kadakia
Executive Chairman & Co-Founder of Classpass

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.

Funding information:

 

13. Emily Weiss
 CEO & Founder of Glossier

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.

Funding information:

 

14. Shan-Lyn Ma
CEO & Co-Founder of Zola

Zola 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.

Funding information:

 

15. Sandy Jen
 CTO & Co-Founder of Honor

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.

Funding information:

 

16. Jessica Richman
CEO & Co-Founder of uBiome

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.

Funding information:

  • Total funding amount: $109.9 million
  • Investors include: a16z, OS Fund, 8VC
 

17. Steph Korey
CEO & Co-Founder of Away

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.

Funding information:

 

18. Josefin Landgard
COO & Co-Founder of KRY

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.

Funding information:

 

19. Edith Harbaugh
CEO & Co-Founder of LaunchDarkly

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.

Funding information:

 

20. Karime German
Internal Ops Manager & Co-Founder of Grin Scooters

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.

Funding information:

 

21. Heidi Zak
Co-CEO of ThirdLove

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.

Funding information:

 

22. Ritu Narayan
CEO & Co-Founder of Zum

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.

Funding information:

 

23. Nora Khaldi
CSO & Founder of Nuritas

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.

Funding information:

 

24. Aba Schubert
CEO & Co-Founder of Dorae

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.

Funding information:

 

25. Georgina Gooley
Co-Founder of Billie

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.

Funding information:

 

26. Anda Gansca
CEO & Co-Founder of Knotch

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.

Funding information:

 

27. Tracy Lawrence
CEO & Co-Founder of Chewse

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.

Funding information:

 

28. Arum Kang
CEO & Co-Founder of Coffee Meets Bagel

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.

Funding information:

 

29. Christine Spang
CTO & Co-Founder of Nylas

Founded in 2013, Nylas is building a new platform for email-powered apps, starting with simple REST APIs and infrastructure for developers.

Funding information:

 

30. Mariya Nurislamova
CEO & Co-Founder of Scentbird

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.

Funding information:

 

31. Nicky Goulimis
CEO & Co-Founder of Nova Credit

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.

Funding information:

 

32. Lisa Skeete Tatum
CEO & Co-
Founder of Landit

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.

Funding information:

 

33. Maha Achour
CEO & Co-Founder of Metawave

Founded in 2017, Metawave is a wireless technology company that builds intelligent and high-performance automotive radars by leveraging metamaterials and AI.

Funding information:

 

34. Michelle Cordeiro Grant
CEO & Founder of WearLively

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.

Funding information:

 

35. Yunha Kim
CEO & Founder of Simple Habit

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.

Funding information:

 

36. Shreya Misha
CEO & Co-Founder of Flyrobe

Based in Mumbai, India, Flyrobe is an on-demand apparel rental platform that provides premium designer wear for special occasions.

Funding information:

 

37. Allison Robinson
CEO & Founder of The Mom Project

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.

Funding information:

 

38. Jessica Mah
CEO & Co-Founder of inDinero

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.

Funding information:

 

39. Morgan DeBaun
CEO & Co-Founder of Blavity

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.

Funding information:

 

40. Marah Lidey
Co-CEO & Co-Founder of Shine

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.

Funding information:

 

41. Benedetta Arese Lucini
CEO & Co-Founder of Oval Money

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.

Funding information:

 

42. Afton Vechery
CEO & Co-Founder of Modern Fertility

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.

Funding information:

 

43. Yeva Hyusyan
CEO & Co-Founder of SoloLearn

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.

Funding information:

 

44. Reshma Saujani
CEO & Founder of Girls Who Code

Founded 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.

Funding information:

 

45. Rosanna Myers
CEO & Co-Founder of Carbon Robotics

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.

Funding information:

 

46. Anita Finnegan
CEO & Founder of Nova Leah

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.

Funding information:

 

47. Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins
CEO & Co-Founder of Promise

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.

Funding information:

 

48. Kelly Peng
CEO & Co-Founder of Kura Technologies

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.

Funding information:

 

49. Jasmine Crowe
CEO & Founder of Goodr

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.

Funding information:

 

50. Lisa Falzone
CEO & Co-Founder of Athena Security

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.

Funding information:

 

Female entrepreneurs are seeing more VC dollars

With 2018 setting an all-time high for investment dollars into female-founded startups, female entrepreneurs are receiving more attention and money than ever before. As Crunchbase News reported earlier this year, “Nearly $40 billion was invested in companies with at least one female founder, representing 17 percent of invested dollars in the year.”

And the women who are receiving funding perform 63% better than investments with all-male founding teams, according to a study by First Round Capital.

While these women entrepreneurs are working to close the Venture Capital gap, there still remains much work to do to establish industry ties and crack the male-dominated venture capital world.

Crunchbase solution ad

Find more incredible women in our Female Founder Series.

  • Originally published March 22, 2019, updated April 26, 2023