the rise of female tech talent.

The pandemic has been particularly challenging for business leaders, especially female founders. According to a study by PitchBook, female founders secured only 2% of venture capital funding in 2021. While access to capital remains low, there are signs of change and a gradual rise of female leaders in the tech industry.

Female founders are beginning to make gains in the tech industry. The Disruptor 50 list, compiled by CNBC, includes eight businesses with a female CEO and nine companies with a female co-founder. This year’s list includes two female CEOs in the top five, and their company valuations are significant.

Melanie Perkins, the CEO of design platform Canva, ranked number 4, raised $560 million and had a valuation of $40 billion. Despite these positive results, access to capital remains relatively low for women. Just 2.2% of investor funding was allocated to female-led startups this year. While there is growing recognition for portfolio diversification, many ignore the investment opportunities available. Many industry leaders believe that the tech industry requires the insight and perspective of female founders to tackle some of the biggest industry challenges. This shift means considerably raising the existing 2.2% of investment allocated toward female-led startups.

There has never been a better time to focus on talent in the UK tech industry. Many technology leaders understand the historical challenges, such as the gender gap and the lack of women in the tech talent pipeline. According to the government-backed tech network, Tech Nation, approximately 3 million people, around 9% of the UK workforce, are employed in the UK tech industry. Of this 3 million strong, only 26% are women. More concerning, many women fail to be enticed by the tech industry due to gender biases and a lack of work-life balance. Factors like these are impacting the retention rate of women in technology and consequently, attracting and retaining top women in technology remains a top priority.

tackling the tech gender gap from the beginning.

From the beginning, the perception of technology as an industry has been subject to gender bias. A recent study by PwC suggests that only 3% of women view a career in tech as their first choice. Increasing awareness and investment in these initial stages of the talent pipeline must be a priority to encourage more women into the tech industry.

Retention of talent is critical to ensure women are part of the future of technology and to ensure there are role models for other women looking to enter the technology industry. Studies believe that increasing the number of women working in technology could generate an additional £2.6 billion annually for the UK economy. Investing in education and supporting women in technology will only deliver positive changes in the industry.

Research from Deloitte Global suggests we are experiencing a shift in the male-dominant tech industry. Studies show that about 1 in 4 tech leaders will be women in 2022. Results show that the gender gap is declining, albeit rather slowly. Based on results from the Deloitte report, the overall proportion of women in global tech increased by nearly 7% from 2019 to 2022, while the proportion in technical roles grew by 12%. The most significant increase, standing at 20%, happened in leadership roles.

Many large-scale tech businesses have made public commitments to improving the gender gap and increasing the number of women working in their technical and leadership teams. For example, Hewlett Packard has pledged to reach 50% gender equality in senior and director level roles by 2030 and multinational corporation, Intel, intends to double the number of women and underrepresented minorities in senior leadership roles by 2030.

It makes complete sense that technology businesses are shifting their leadership focus toward women. It sends a clear signal to prospective employees, transforms the company culture and will help tech businesses increase the retention of women in the technical workforce.

This industry shift has created several new tech startups created and led by women. Here are some examples of some of our favourite female-led startups accelerating the frontiers of innovation in technology.

4D Healthware (Founder: Star Cunningham) - A virtual health management platform that enables physicians to improve patients with chronic health conditions.

Affectiva (Cofounders: Rana el Kaliouby and Rosalind Picard) - An emotion measurement technology business with software that understands human emotions based on facial cues or physiological responses.

Biobot Analytics (Cofounders: Mariana Matus and Newsha Ghaeli) - Collects and measures wastewater to determine the health of communities. Their first product measures opioids and other drug metabolites in sewage to estimate consumption in cities to measure harm reduction.

Blendoor, (Founder: Stephanie Lampkin) - A blind recruiting application for job recruiters that hides the candidate’s name and photo to eliminate unconscious bias and facilitate diversity. The objective is to determine the most relevant information about a candidate being a “good fit,” independent of race, gender, (dis)ability, military history, or sexual orientation.

Bloomer Tech (Cofounders: Alicia Chong Rodriguez, Aceil Halaby, and Monica Abarca ) - The technology is seamlessly embedded into women’s bras to read metrics such as the electrocardiogram, and pulse rate, respiratory rate, heart rhythm and more. Important data related to cardiovascular disease is collected, analysed and made accessible to users, doctors and medical professionals for real-time personalised healthcare, management and early detection.

BlueCargo (Cofounders: Alexandra Griffon and Laura Theveniau) - The business focuses on generating efficiency in the global maritime supply chain through data collection to optimise terminals.

Cake (Founder: Suelin Chen) - The business specialises in providing an application to help people discover, store and share their end-of-life preferences.

Callisto (Founder: Jess Ladd) - A nonprofit organisation that detects repeat perpetrators of professional sexual coercion and sexual assault. ClickMedix (Founder: Ting Shih) - Supports healthcare providers and businesses in acquiring more patients through telemedicine by reducing wait times and increasing access for patients in underserved areas while also helping these healthcare providers save money.