The history of technology is permeated by the work of dedicated and passionate professionals. Among them, countless women who impact the industry, shape technology and prove that gender and diversity are essential assets for innovation.
This article explores a number of aspects that highlight both the challenges faced and the notable achievements achieved by women in various sectors of the technology industry.
The presence of women in the world of technology is marked by unique challenges and opportunities. Only 15% of all technology startups around the world are founded by women, demonstrating a significant gap in female representation in technology entrepreneurship.
However, over the past 10 years, we have witnessed a staggering 900% growth in the number of unicorns with at least one female co-founder, signaling promising potential for female leadership in the sector. Despite this, the global Venture Capital market is still largely dominated by men, with startups founded exclusively by women representing less than 2% of the total raised in 2023.
Additionally, women continue to be underrepresented in the workforce at large technology companies, with just 33% holding leadership roles. However, there are inspiring examples, such as Facebook, which stands out as the big tech company with the largest number of women in leadership positions.
Meanwhile, of the 20 cities with the highest number of startups founded by women, 35% are located in the United States, with Chicago leading the ranking in female representation in technology entrepreneurship. In the Latin American context, São Paulo stands out as the only city in the region to be among the leaders, occupying 18th place. This data highlights the importance of promoting an inclusive and diverse culture in the world of technology, where all women have the opportunity to thrive and innovate.
Top Female Founders
Statistics show that female founders receive less investment than men, yet they often outperform them in business. We analyze data from Crunchbase to discover which women raise the most investment for their companies, revealing the top female founders around the world.
In the top 10 ranking, 50% are founders of Fintechs and 40% are from Asia. On the list, there is only one woman in Latin America, the Brazilian Cristina Junqueira, co-founder of Nubank.
With $22 billion, Lucy Peng, co-founder of Ant Group e Alibaba Group, tops the list. Peng taught economics for five years before co-founding Alibaba with 18 other people in 1999. Today, she is worth more than $1 billion.
Rebekah Neumann, which raised $19.5 billion with The We Company, Neumann studied business with an emphasis on Buddhism at Cornell and later co-founded the temp-focused company in 2010. After WeWork's IPO, she left the company.
In third place is Tan Hooi Ling, who founded Grab, a transportation app that competes with Uber in Asian markets, followed by Kate Keenan, founder of fintech Judo Bank, and Englishwoman Victoria Lennep, founder of fintech Lendable. Brazilian Cristina Junqueira occupies sixth place, followed by Frances Kang, from WeLab, Sophie Kim, from Market Kurly, Ilise Lombardo, from biotec Arvelle Therapeutics and Milda Mitkute, founder of Vinted, , Lithuania's first unicorn.
The World’s Most Powerful Women in Tech
Based on money, media, impact and spheres of influence, Forbes has published its annual ranking of The World's Most Powerful Women in 2023, which brings together the 100 most powerful women of the year.
In the technology segment, the publication ranks 10 women, 70% American and 30% Asian.
1. Ruth Porat
Considered the most powerful woman in Silicon Valley, she served as CFO of Google's holding company, Alphabet Inc. , from 2015 until 2023. In mid-2023, she was promoted to president and chief investment officer of the company;
2. Safra Catz
One of the highest-paid CEOs in the United States and CEO of Oracle since September 2014, she is known for leading the company's aggressive acquisition strategy, contributing to the closing of more than 130 deals;
3. Amy Hoo
The first woman to hold the position at the company, she has been CFO since 2013 and has witnessed Microsoft getting closer to Apple in the race to become the largest publicly traded company by market value;
4. Gwynne Shotwell
President and COO of SpaceX, he is responsible for managing the space exploration company's operations. He has built the Falcon family of vehicles manifest for more than 70 launches, representing more than $10 billion in business;
5. Susan Li
One of the youngest CFOs in the industry, she took on the role in 2022 and leads the company's finance and facilities team. Li guided Meta's finances — with revenues of $116.61 billion in 2022 — as the company recovered from a tumultuous period that included the first annual drop in revenues from the previous year;
6. Lisa Su
First female CEO in the semiconductor market, she used Artificial Intelligence in chip manufacturing, surpassed Intel Corporation and became a billionaire. Since she took over at AMD in 2014, the company's shares have soared nearly 30-fold;
7. Judy Faulkner
Founder and CEO of Epic, one of the largest private health technology companies in the world, is recognized as one of the self-made billionaires in the United States;
8. Wang Laichun
Chinese billionaire, president and co-founder of electronics manufacturer Luxshare-TECH, was listed as one of the youngest self-made billionaires in the world;
9. Roshni Nadar Malhotra
First woman to lead a listed IT company in India, the Indian billionaire philanthropist is CEO of HCLTech - $12 billion technology company;
10. Sandy Ran Xu
After serving as CFO of Chinese giant JD.COM for three years, she was appointed CEO in May 2023. She is the first woman to hold the position at the company.
Brazil’s Overview
Despite advances in recent years, in Brazil, only 20% of startups are founded by women and less than 5% are founded exclusively by women - an increase of just 0.3% in the last decade.
The inclusion of women in technology is crucial to ensuring diversity and representation in the sector, but less than 25% of technology positions in the country are held by women - an increase of 60% compared to the last 5 years.
Who is leading this movement representing women in this sector?
Based on awards, impact and national and global spheres of influence, we selected the 20 most influential women in technology in Brazil in recent years.
The objective is to highlight female protagonism in a list of women who are references in their fields. And more than leaders in their segments, they are examples that help transform their professional environments and society as a whole.
Ana Fontes - Elected by Forbes as one of the most powerful women in the country, she is internationally recognized for her platform Rede Mulher Empreendedora, which brings together more than 1 million women.
Andréa Migliori - With more than 20 years of experience in technology, leadership and innovation, she is the founder of Badaró Design & Tech and the award-winning WorkHub. She also acts as a mentor in startup training and acceleration programs.
Auana Mattar - Recognized and awarded as the most disruptive woman in technology by the WOMEN IN TECH ® Global Movement, the CIO of TIM Brasil Recognized and awarded as the most disruptive woman in technology by the WOMEN IN TECH ® Global Movement, the CIO of TIM Brasil actively participates in initiatives to recognize and encourage the participation of women in the STEM market, is a mentor at MCIO Brasil and Mulheres Positivas.
Camila Fernandez Achutti - A global reference in the fight for more women in technology, she is the founder of the award-winning Mastertech and of Mulheres na Computação, an initiative to include women in the tech scene. She was the first woman in Latin America to receive the Women of Vision award.
Camila Farani - One of the 500 most influential people in Latin America (Bloomberg Linea), and Entrepreneur of the Year 2022 (IstoÉ Dinheiro), is a founding partner of the startup accelerator G2 Capital. She was elected Women in Tech Latam Awards 2022, in the Best Ally category.
Cristina Junqueira - Elected as the most important fintech executive in the world, the co-founder of Nubank is the first woman among unicorn founders in Brazil, and is a key player in the bank's expansion and the company's debut on the NY stock exchange. In 2021, she became the second richest woman in the country, and is one of the few on the Brazilian list to join the team of self-made billionaires.
Cynthia Zanoni - Founder of the largest community of women in technology in Latin America, WoMakersCode, which has already impacted more than 1 million developers, is a Global Cloud Advocate and leader of the Gender Equity Committee at Microsoft.
Daniela Binatti - Co-founder and CTO of fintech Pismo, the only business that reached unicorn value in 2023 in Brazil. Elected Women in Technology – Tech/Service Provider by the Banking Tech Awards.
Fernanda Ribeiro - Co-founder and CEO of Conta Black, fintech focused on reducing bureaucracy in access to banking services for the black public. Elected by Forbes as one of the 10 Successful Women, she is also president of AfroBusiness Brasil,diversity leader at ABFintechs and ambassador for the Ibero-American Network of Women in Fintech.da ABFintechs e embaixadora da Rede Ibero-Americana de Mulheres em Fintech.
Georgia Sanches - Founding team of two crypto companies, General Manager of fintech Conduit and winner of the Women in Tech LATAM 2023 award in the Web3 category.
Gisele Lasserre - Founder and CEO of Tech Girls Brasil, a social franchise aimed at employing socially vulnerable women in a career in software programming by reusing obsolete and recovered computers. Winner of Women in Tech LATAM 2023 in the Best Ally category.
Ione de Almeida Coco - Known for breaking barriers in IT, she is president of the MCIO Brasil, goup which encourages and trains women to become IT leaders. She is co-author of the book Por Trás da TI and an activist and defender of gender equality.
Jhenyffer Coutinho - Award-winning entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO of Plure , HRTech specialist in connecting companies to more than 250 thousand diverse women. With the aim of bringing diversity and inclusion as a business strategy to more companies, it aims to employ half a million women by 2030.
Lindalia Sofia - First Brazilian selected by NASA as world innovation leader at Singularity University, CEO of Hacking.Rio and official ambassador in Brazil of the WOMEN IN TECH ® Global Movement. Listed as one of the women with the greatest impact in Latin America in 2022 (Bloomberg Linea) and as one of the 100 most innovative women in Brazil (Época Negócios) in 2023.
Lisiane Lemos - Elected one of the most influential people by Forbes Under 30, he has worked in the third sector, lived in Africa, was a leader at Microsoft and Google , was part of initiatives for diversity and inclusion, such as the advisory board of the UN Population Fund, and Today, she is extraordinary secretary for Digital Inclusion and Support for Equity Policies in the Governo do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul.
Maitê Lourenço - Founder of YA Ventures, fa fund focused on startups with black founders and peripheral women, and of BlackRocks Startups, startup with the objective of promoting access to the black population in highly innovative and technological environments. She is an Impact Leader for the UN Global Compact, an Advisory Advisor for Conservation International and a columnist for Forbes.
Manoela Ribas Mitchell - Co-founder and CEO of the award-winning Pipo Saúde, one of the main healthtechs in the country. In 2021, her startup received R$100M from an American fund, one of the largest amounts ever raised by a startup led by a woman in Brazil.
Nina Silva - With more than 20 national and international awards and nominations, she was elected the Most Disruptive Woman in the World by the Women ln Tech Global Awards. She is CEO of Movimento Black Money, a movement that works with innovation, entrepreneurship and financial education for the black population.
Simone Lettieri D - Elected as Global Leadership LATAM by Women in Tech and TOP 5 by Lifetime Achievement, which honors women who dedicate their careers to the technology industry, leaving a lasting legacy, she is CDO of Meta.
Tania Cosentino - Current president of Microsoft she is one of the most influential women in the business world. She is an active leader of the HeForShee Women’s Empowerment Principles, ONU Mulheres Brasil and of Pacto Global da ONU - Rede Brasil, was awarded by Women in Tech as Global Woman Leader; and she is among the 500 most influential people in Latin America.
To encourage the entry of women into the innovation and technology ecosystem, initiatives have emerged over the last few years to invest, train, empower and support women.
One of the main communities of women in technology in the world, it aims to bring together and boost women, promoting professional growth, and inspiring the increase of women in the technology sector. It currently has 8,000 global ambassadors, representing 172 countries.
Founded by, the accelerator for mothers has trained more than 50 thousand women since 2016 and wants to connect and empower those who want to enter the innovation and technology environment.
The initiatives go hand in hand, such as an investment fund focused on women's businesses and a venture builder. WE Impact, founded by Lícia S., invested more than R$3 million in female technological entrepreneurship, impacting more than 200 women behind the 70 investees that make up its current portfolio.
Created by Regina Migliori , Carol Gilberti e Priscila Spadinger, the venture builder seeks to support businesses led by women or that promote feminine values, counting on men as allies.
Group of angel investors founded by Flavia Mello, Erica Fridman Stul 🇮🇱 and Jaana Goeggel that encourages exchange and learning among women who seek to diversify their investment portfolio and understand more about the startup ecosystem.
First platform in Brazil created by Jéssica Silva e Luana Ozemela to encourage black women to become angel investors, serving as a bridge to connect them to the innovation ecosystem.
Founded by Francieli Balem, it offers access, guidance and support so that female entrepreneurs can accelerate the growth and achieve success of their startups or natively digital businesses.