10 Female Founders Rocking It In 2018

The business case for diversity has never been clearer. Last week McKinsey delivered the follow-up to its 2015’s Diversity Matters report “Delivering through Diversity”, which showed businesses in the top quartile for gender diversity are 21% more likely to have above-average profitability than companies in the bottom quartile.

 When you combine this with the fact that women-led tech startups generate a 35% higher ROI (source: Kauffman Institute) and that 2018 marks the centenary of women’s suffrage in the UK, it feels like there’s never been a better time to shout about all the amazing, inspiring female founders out there! We’re already seeing businesses and political leaders keen to use this historic year as a catalyst for more progress and a moment to celebrate women’s achievements - the Mayor of London’s #BehindEveryGreatCity campaign has a calendar of events and initiatives drawing attention to inspiring women who are powering the UK capital.

So I thought I’d kick off the new year by celebrating 10 female founders who are scaling up their businesses this year - if you don’t know them already, prepare to be inspired and impressed by the stories of 10 phenomenal women who are rocking it in 2018…

1. Bethany Koby - Tech Will Save Us

Given the UK’s major skill shortage and the fact women are substantially underrepresented in STEM positions, businesses like Bethany Koby’s are sorely needed. Tech Will Save Us, founded by Bethany and her partner in 2012, is creating award winning make-it-yourself kits and digital tools to help all children make, play, code and invent using technology. With stockists from Selfridges to the Science Museum, this East London scaleup is saving our future workforce one smart toy at a time.

2. Emma Sinclair - Enterprise Jungle

Emma Sinclair is the youngest ever person to IPO a company in the UK and is a self-confessed serial entrepreneur. Her latest successful venture is EnterpriseAlumni, which helps businesses manage alumni and retirees to increase talent pools and save big bucks on recruitment fees. With a raft of serious blue chip clients, it’s causing a tropical storm in the world of enterprise tech. As if that wasn’t enough, Emma took her entrepreneurial spirit to the next level in 2017 by launching a Crowdfunding campaign with Unicef supporting aspiring young entrepreneurs in the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan. #Inspirational

3. Kate Tancred - The Smalls

2017 was a bumper year for The Smalls and Australian-born founder Kate Tancred. The global video production marketplace, born out of a short film festival in 2006, saw 200% year-on-year growth and won the prestigious Chairman’s award at The Drum Creative Awards, and shows no sign of slowing down. This business may be called The Smalls, but don’t let the name fool you. With Kate’s talent and ambition, this businesses is going LARGE in 2018.

4. Jenny Griffiths - Snap Tech

Snap Tech (formerly Snap Fashion), was founded by software engineer Jenny Griffiths in 2009 and is a cutting edge visual search company, letting users of its app harness the power of machine learning by pointing their phone at a garment and finding similar items from 15,000 brands across the web. No wonder that Snap Tech bagged ￡2m of Series A funding in 2015, the potential applications of the tech are far-reaching and Jenny is an entrepreneur I expect to be going far this year.

5. Fotini Markopoulou - Doppel

After a career in quantum physics at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Fotini created doppel - a wearable tech company that’s focused on wellness. Doppel’s first product works by creating a silent vibration on the inside of your wrist, which replicates a calm heart rate - allowing the wearer to stay calm under pressure and focus on the task ahead. Its benefits are proven and Fotini and the team have just come back from smashing it at CES. This is a tech company with emotional intelligence at its core - I have a good feeling it’s going places!

6. Amy Williams - Good Loop

In just October 2016, Amy Williams and her co-founder Daniel Winterstein founded Good-Loop, a video platform which allows viewers to give 50% of the ad revenue they generate to a charity of their choice. The startup is also one of the many shining stars to come out of the Collider madtech accelerator, and it hit the stratosphere last year when, during a pitching session at ad:tech London, it was selected by Nestlé's open innovation platform, Henri@Nestlé, to run a funded pilot programme for its KitKat Sustainability Project. We’re cheering on this adtech entrepreneur all the way in 2018!

7. Emily Forbes - SeenIt

SeenIt is one of the most interesting scaleups in today’s video ecosystem. Founded by Emily Forbes in 2014, this app-based platform gives brands the opportunity to collate and verify User Generated Content by having employees, fans and audiences sign up and submit video, which are then turned into powerful marketing materials, at a fraction of the cost and with a tonne of authenticity. The business closed another round of funding last year and looks set to go from strength to strength in 2018. SeenIt is onto a long term trend and IMHO we ain’t seen nothing yet!

8. Elena Corchero - Lost Values

Lost Values, founded in 2008 by designer and entrepreneur Elena Corchero, focuses on developing eco-friendly smart products that add unique benefits - as well as nurturing innovative young designers. From DIY electronics toys for young girls, to smart materials in jewellery that alert the wearer to dangerous UV levels (best birthday present I ever bought my mum!), Elena’s business and products are like no other and as the objects around us get smarter, this is one smart entrepreneur who’s poised for greatness.

9. Ellenor McIntosh - Twipes

Students and co-founders Ellenor McIntosh and Alborz Bozorgi’s turned more than a few heads with their eco-friendly wet wipes at the London Mayor’s Entrepreneurship Competition last year. The talented duo won the competition (and ￡20,000) after winning City University’s own competition, CitySparks, and moving in to the school’s incubator. They went on to flush away the competition at the University of London’s GradVentures competition. Twipes may still be in startup rather than scaleup stage but Elle is on a roll in 2018!

10. Adela Hussain - Style Lyrical

Style Lyrical was founded in April 2016 by Adela Hussain, a former management consultant from London, who left the city to work on the business plan and launched Style Lyrical from an office in Bali. The business ships you a selection of clothes, chosen for you based on a conversation with a stylist, which you keep for a week of ‘try before you buy’. Adela prescribed me frills in December and I haven’t looked back...

Honestly, I was spoilt for choice compiling this list - there are SO MANY phenomenal female founders breaking new ground and building the businesses that will shape our future, so please feel free to let me know in the comments who I’ve missed and which other female founders you think will be smashing it in 2018.