Being a female founder in Australia has always been an uphill battle. Dynamic Business reported that only 10% of the $1.9B total investments for Australian start-ups went to companies with at least one woman founder. Also, all-female team companies received 5%. Despite these challenges, we made a list of top female founders in APAC.
Why? GEM found that the 6.1% of women entrepreneurship activity in 2001-2005 rose to 10.4% between 2021-2023. Gusto also surveyed 1,300 new business owners in early 2024 and found that 49% of the founders were women.
Women-led startups have grown in the past years. Regions under APAC also saw positive growth. Vertex Ventures said that start-ups with at least one female founder received $1.4B of total investments. This amounted to 18.3% of raised capital in 2023 – a pleasing improvement from 2023’s 12.6%. India’s competing too, as Tice News’ reported 42% of Fintech start-ups have at least one woman director.
These reports show that more women are joining start-up activities, and that’s why we get to make a list of top female founders!
10 Top Female Founders in APAC to Watch
Here are our top female founders in APAC who showed competence in their fields and are now scaling to reach wider markets. Their innovative products aim to address societal concerns or improve existing solutions, a testament to women’s great contribution to the tech market.
Jeanette Cheah
- Australia
- Co-founder
- The Hacker Exchange (HEX)
- EdTech
- Crunchbase Recent Funding Data: A$1.3M (Seed)
Jeanette won the “Women In Tech Global Ally” award in 2019. She won the 40 Under 40 Most Influential Asian-Australians in 2021 under the entrepreneurship category. She also represented Australia at the G20 Young Entrepreneurs Alliance.
Quote:
“If I wanted to see a different kind of leadership emerge in business and technology, I might have to do something myself.”
Kimberly Randle
- Australia
- Co-founder
- Fair Supply
- Information Technology
- Crunchbase Recent Funding Data: $6.3M (Series A)
Kimberly has over 15 years of experience as a human rights advocate focused on modern slavery. She was a senior director of corporate and legal affairs for International Justice Mission Australia. With her degree in law, she is now Fair Supply’s co-founder and CEO, using the start-up to help companies mitigate their ESG risks.
Quote:
“Giving up and complacency are the adversaries of positive change. As an entrepreneur, you cannot bear either of them. You have faith. This is a resource that should be diligently stewarded and deployed for positive impact.”
Tongtong Li
- Singapore
- Co-founder
- Advance Intelligence Group
- FinTech
- Crunchbase Recent Funding Data: $80M (Privat Equity)
Tongtong founded two information services companies. She’s one of our top female founders in APAC because, within a year, these companies grew to profitable revenue and were sold. She took part in spearheading the Advance Intelligence Group to reach unicorn status.
Ankita Vijavergiya
- India
- Billion Carbon Solutions
- Co-founder
- Climate Tech
She was included in the LinkedIn Top Voices 2022. Has an MBA from London Business School and a degree in Computer Science Engineering from BITS Pilani. She was also featured as a Top Green Voice in LinkedIn News India.
Quote:
“We are a part of nature and have been forever. When we try to build in sync with nature, we get the best out of us. Bridges stronger and more sustainable than concrete.”
Saba Samiei
- New Zealand
- Comfort.AI
- Founder
- MACSO Technologies
- AI
- Recently closed NZ$2.4M
Her recent awards include the 2023 Woman in AI Innovator award. She also won the 2023 AI in Agribusiness and Rural Development award. Was named the Emerging ICT leader of 2022. And Young Professional of the Year in 2022. Her quote below is an empowering message for women in IT.
Quote:
“I’ll find a way or make one!”
Tessa Wijaya
- Indonesia
- Co-founder
- Xendit
- Fintech
- Crunchbase Recent Funding Data: $300M (Series D)
She took part in leading Xendit to reach unicorn status by 2021. This big achievement also led her to be one of our top female founders. She won the ASEAN Entrepreneurs Award in 2023. The 2024 Best Woman COO – Fintech leadership award.
Quote
“I’ve been given the great opportunity to change how the workplace behaves, so more women can move up.”
Megha Aggarwal
- India
- Fundamento
- Co-founder
- AI
- Crunchbase Recent Funding Data: Seed
Besides Fundamento, Megha is also the founder of Leap Skill, a start-up created to give employment opportunities to eager students. She was also an investment banker at Morgan Stanley, both in London and New York. She studied at Delhi University, University of Oxford, and was a Chevening Scholar at the London School of Economics.
Shanru Lai
-
Singapore
- Co-founder
- ShopBack
- Fintech
- Crunchbase Recent Funding Data: $40M (Series F)
She was an accountant graduate whose first career was as a banker. Then, she switched to her forte in e-commerce under Zalora. She was on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2018 list, received the Prestige’s Vanguard Award in 2019, and received the EDGE “35 Under 35” award in 2020.
Quote
“Can’t is not an option.”
Uma Roa
- Philippines
- Pic-A-talk
- Founder
- Communication App
She is a former web developer and UX Designer who started the idea for Pic-A-Talk for a college project. Inspired by her sister with nonverbal autism, she continued the start-up after graduation and has then successfully presented it at various start-up events. This beautiful goal landed her a spot among our top female founders.
Quote
“Each child deserves to have a voice and be heard, and it is our mission to make that a reality.”
Oyungerel Munkhbat
- Mongolia
- Co-founder
- Airee Felt
- CleanTech
- Crunchbase Recent Funding Data: $5000 (Seed)
Last but not least in our top female founders in APAC list is Oyungerel. She is the winner of the Youth Ecopreneurs Awards 2023. She is also the founder of an ESG consulting firm, Antifragile LLC. She is also the co-founder of Breath Mongolia NGO and the Hobby School Alumni NGO. She shows us how useful tech is for taking care of the environment.
Inspirational Impact
With our top female founders’ success and existing groups like Empowerbiz Global, LIFTWOMEN, and Women in Tech, women around the world continue to advocate for change. Not only that, we are consistently moving to close the gap of tech gender parity. At Women in Tech Sales, we believe that these initiatives are a way to inspire more girls in tech, opening up a more diverse and creative tech industry for the future. Surely this will land them on multiple top female founders in APAC list and globally.