20 of the businesses on this 12 months’s Sifted 100, a leaderboard of the UK and Eire’s fastest-growing startups by income figures, had been based by girls. It’s a stat value celebrating but in addition one which displays tech’s gender downside.
Feminine-founded startups in Europe raised a dismal 12% of all VC funding final 12 months (a 12% drop from 2023) and lots of the UK’s most important scaleups — like Revolut and Checkout.com — nonetheless have gender pay gaps larger than the nationwide common.
Listed below are the ladies who’ve launched and scaled a few of the UK and Eire’s fastest-growing firms.
Murvah Iqbal — Hived
Sector: B2B Saas (provide chain and logistics)2025 rank: 9Role: Co-founder and CEO
Serial entrepreneur Murval Iqbal launched totally electrical parcel supply community Hived in 2021 with Mathias Krieger. As CEO, Iqbal leads 67 staff, and has helped safe €36.1m in funding for the startup. Iqbal beforehand headed model advertising and marketing for meals chain Archie’s, after which launched Vanvas, a startup serving to vans turn into websites for ads.
Polina Priebe — Zelt
Sector: B2B SaaS (HR tech)2025 rating: 10Role: Cofounder and chief product officer
Polina Priebe cofounded HR tech platform Zelt together with her brother Chris Priebe in 2021. As CPO, Priebe oversees Zelt’s service providing which incorporates onboarding, holidays, payroll and bills administration. It has since acquired €9.3m in funding and employs 9 individuals. Earlier than Zelt, Priebe labored in product administration at client intelligence firm Gfk and social listening platform Talkworker.
Michelle He — Abound
Sector: Fintech (lending)2025 rank: 11Role: Cofounder and chief working officer
Michelle He’s a serial founder with greater than 14 years in finance and consultancy underneath her belt. She launched two fintechs in 2020: the mortgage intelligence platform Render and the digital lending platform Abound. She serves as Abound’s COO and most lately helped it safe £250m in debt funding from Deutsche Financial institution.
Lourdes Agapito — Synthesia
Sector: Deeptech (GenAI)2025 rating: 22Role: Cofounder
Lourdes Agapito cofounded AI-video communications platform Synthesia in 2017 with Victor Riparbelli, Steffen Tjerrild and Matthias Niessner. The startup has most lately been valued at $2.1bn and employs 198 individuals. Agapito has a background in academia, and continues to be a professor within the Division of Laptop Science at College Faculty London.
Amy Rushby — Carmoola
Sector: Fintech (lending)2025 rank: 23Role: Cofounder and director of product and operations
Amy Rushby cofounded automobile mortgage platform Carmoola in 2021 alongside Aidan Rushby, Jasper Dykes, Roman Sumnikov and Igor Gordiichuk. She’s director of product and operations on the startup, and previously led advertising and marketing there. Rushby is not any stranger to the world of entrepreneurship: she based a kids’s leisure firm in 2015, and was head of product at rental market platform Movebubble for greater than 5 years. Carmoola lately secured £100m in debt funding from Natwest.
Yingyan Hu — Holafly
Sector: Client (telecoms)2025 rank: 29Role: Cofounder
Yingyan Hu based e-sim supplier Holafly in 2018 with Pedro Máiquez, and has grown the startup to 520 staff. Earlier than founding Holafly, Hu labored in administration for adtech Mobusi after which on-line media firm Kiminia.
Mikela Druckman — Greyparrot.AI
Sector: Local weather tech (waste administration)2025 rank: 40Role: Cofounder and CEO
Mikela Druckman based waste intelligence platform Greyparrot in 2019 alongside Marco Paladini, Ambarish Mitra and Nikola Sivacki, and is CEO of the startup. After beginning her profession in consultancy and monetary companies, Druckman joined augmented actuality (AR) content material creation platform Blippar, the place she grew to become chief industrial officer. She additionally was a member of the World Financial Discussion board’s (WEF) International Future Council on AR and digital actuality. So far, Greyparrot.AI has raised greater than €32.2m in funding.
Electra Coutsoftides — Xworks AI
Sector: Local weather tech (waste administration)2025 rating: 41Role: Cofounder and CEO
Electra Coutsoftides cofounded Xworks AI — which is constructing a platform for buying and selling between waste administration professionals — with Alexander Corridor in 2020. Earlier than founding the corporate Coutsoftides labored in quite a lot of waste administration and recycling commodity buying and selling companies, and was director of recycling firm Procycle till 2023. So far, Xworks AI has secured €300k in funding.
Eliza Batten — The Cirkel
Sector: Client (style)2025 rating: 44Role: Cofounder
Eliza Batten cofounded secondhand girls’s style market The Cirkel with Austin Tasker in 2021. Batten was previously a social media influencer and actuality TV character, starring in UK present Made in Chelsea.
Dr Mridula Pore — Peppy Well being
Sector: Healthtech (wellbeing)2025 rating: 45Role: Cofounder and non-executive director
Dr Mridula Pore cofounded Peppy Well being, an worker advantages platform for digital healthcare, in 2018 with Max Laundry and Evan Harris. She introduced expertise in consultancy and monetary companies to the startup, and as co-CEO, helped launch the app’s gender-specific healthcare choices for women and men Since 2023, Pore has sat as a non-executive director and has been angel investing.
Shelley Copsey — Fyld
Sector: B2B SaaS (development tech)2025 rank: 51Role: Cofounder and CEO and director
Shelley Copsey based development website administration platform Fyld in 2020, alongside Karl Simons. She beforehand helped startups spin out of accountancy agency PwC after which Data61, the info arm of Australia’s nationwide science company CSIRO. At Fyld Copsey leads a crew of 35 staff; the corporate has raised €41.7m in funding so far.
Megha Chaturvedi — Journee
Sector: Client (journey)2025 rank: 54Role: Cofounder and chief product officer
Megha Chaturvedi based journey platform Journee with Ed Tribe and James Gillard, and is its CPO. After starting her profession as a enterprise analyst at Goldman Sachs, Chaturvedi met her cofounders whereas working at secondhand clothes market Depop, the place she led the startup’s development technique after which launched an perception crew. She holds an engineering diploma and an MBA. Journee has secured €4m in funding so far.
Shanshan Xu — MV.Well being
Sector: Client (sextech)2025 rating: 60Role: Cofounder and chief monetary officer
Shanshan Xu cofounded MV.Well being, which develops FDA-registered sexual well being gadgets, with Dr. Soum Rakshit, Stephanie Alys and Robert Weekly in 2014. She’s presently the startup’s CFO. MV.Well being shouldn’t be Xu’s first startup. She additionally based Mucho, a recipe-finding app, in 2013.
Cat Jones — Byway
Sector: Client (journey)2025 rank: 61Role: Founder and CEO
Cat Jones is founder and CEO of Byway, a journey platform which presents flight-free holidays and lately secured a £5m Sequence A from backers like Heartcore Capital, Eka Ventures and Hermesa. Jones started her profession in worldwide improvement, created and ran a 30-person division at video advert tech firm Unruly and was then a managing director at Founders Manufacturing unit, main investments in 14 startups a 12 months. She was additionally the entrepreneur-in-residence on the London-based Faculty of Oriental and African Research from 2022-2023.
Nina Briance — Cult Mia
Sector: Client (retail)2025 rank: 62Role: Founder and CEO
Having labored in finance for half a decade, Briance grew to become a advisor at designer clothes retailer Moda Operandi whereas pursuing an MBA in entrepreneurship and luxurious technique at London Enterprise Faculty (LBS). Throughout her time at LBS she based luxurious style market Cult Mia, in 2019, which gained the varsity’s startup award. The platform has since secured seed funding from buyers akin to Gasoline Ventures and H&M Group Ventures.
Caroline Seton — Forest
Sector: Client (mobility)2025 rank: 74Role: Cofounder and chief authorized officer
Caroline Seton based e-bike app Forest with Agustin Guilisasti and Michael Stewart in 2020. She was first the corporate’s head of development and technique, and is now its chief authorized officer. So far, Forest has raised €46.2m in funding.
Ava Vaughan — Juro
Sector: B2B SaaS (legaltech)2025 rank: 100Role: Co-founder and chief operations officer
Ava Vaughan based contract administration system Juro with Richard Mabey and is its chief operations officer. So far, it has raised €40.1m and employs 62 individuals.
Beneath are a few of the girls who based firms on the Sifted 100 however who’ve moved on to pastures new.
Stephanie Alys — MV.Well being
Sector: Client (sextech)2025 rating: 60
Stephanie Alys cofounded MV.Well being and was its “chief pleasure officer.” Since leaving the startup in 2019, Alys has turn into the director of entrepreneurship at local weather tech accelerator Carbon13. However she’s not fully left sextech behind: she’s an advisory board member to the Vagina Museum in London and consulted on healthtech initiatives for manufacturers, retailers and buyers on a contract foundation.
Sophie Adelman — Multiverse
Sector: B2B SaaS (Edtech)2025 rating: 81
Sophie Adelman joined Multiverse, a platform to assist younger individuals begin tech apprentices based by Euan Blair, as cofounder in 2017. She was president after which grew to become a board member and advisor, earlier than stepping again from the startup in 2021. It has since turn into the UK’s first edtech unicorn, whereas Adelman has launched and exited studying platform One Backyard, and brought on advisory roles for different organisations and founders.
Aleksandra Woźniak — Cleo
Sector: Fintech (digital banking)2025 rating: 85
Aleksandra Woźniak based monetary help platform Cleo in 2015 with Barney Hussey-Yeo. She was its chief expertise officer between 2015-2017 and oversaw its integration into Meta’s Fb Messenger. Earlier than and since Cleo, she’s labored as a software program developer — and is presently head of engineering at Form3, a expertise platform for monetary establishments to supply funds infrastructure as a service.
Stephanie Leung — Tiney
Sector: Client (youngsters and oldsters)2025 rating: 86
Stephanie Leung joined Tiney, a market matching licensed childminders with dad and mom based by Brett Wigdortz, Edd Learn and John Newbold, as cofounder and chief working officer in 2020. Leung has since labored as a enterprise companion at early-stage VC agency LocalGlobe and in 2022 based KareHero, a platform which helps staff add assist choices for grownup carers.
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