5 startups led by kickass women you can meet at TIA SG 2016

Unless you were hiding under a rock, you’d have realised that March 8, yesterday, was an occasion earmarked to commemorate the achievements of women. Many organizations, Tech in Asia included, took this chance to launch initiatives to champion for the acceleration of gender parity.

While the tech industry undoubtedly still has some ways to go, it’s heartening to see an increasing number of talented female entrepreneurs in Asia stepping up to pave the way for more women to lead. That will be evident at Tech in Asia Singapore’s Bootstrap Alley.

In this week’s roundup, we pay homage to five startups founded or co-founded by kickass ladies that will be exhibiting at our Singapore conference on April 12-13.

1. FastFast Delivery

Elim Chew might be best known for her local street fashion apparel chain 77th Street, but she’s forging a new path with her startup, FastFast. A courier service that delivers round the clock, users can feed in the pick-up, drop-off points, and details of the item to be delivered. Subsequently, they will receive an estimated trip distance and cost of delivery. Throughout the process, shoppers can track the package until it has reached its destination.

Named a Forbes Philanthropy Hero in 2010, Elim aspires for FastFast to create social impact as well. By engaging drivers that are out of work, the startup hopes to give them the opportunity to make additional income.

2. Fashory

Fashory curates contemporary outfits for women, and allows them to purchase items from within the app. The app’s users can learn about their own preferences through the discovery process, which will be used to offer personalized recommendations later on.

Helming this startup is a trio of female founders: Faith Teo, Emmy Teo, and Rena Koh. They kick started the venture when they came together to solve a problem they each face on a daily basis – the hassle of choosing what to wear each morning. Emmy, as the CEO of the company, oversees investor relations and business development, Rena manages the marketing front and partnerships, while Faith leads the technical team in the app development and user design experience.

3. Airship

Airship is a delivery service startup that promises to get anything users want delivered in under an hour. Leading this startup as co-founder and its chief technical officer is a woman who codes –  Huang Haiqin. She graduated with an electrical and electronics engineering degree from Imperial College, London, and is proficient developing for iOS, Android, web, front-end and back-end development.

The duo first started with OnePoint – a machine learning project, which the duo used social data to predict user credit risk. A trip to San Francisco and some experimentation in the on-demand space later, it pivoted to Airship. Through the use of machine learning, Haiqin and her co-founder Lin Peisen solves logistic problems, such as optimized routing for couriers to pick up and drop off merchandise in the shortest time possible.

4. Ombré

If you’ve ever tried to copy an outfit straight off a magazine feature only to be disappointed that you look nothing like that front cover model, you’ll realise that not all looks were created equal.

Ombré wants to change that by helping you determine whether beautiful clothes will still remain so when worn. With the use of algorithms, the mobile app suggests outfits based on your physical traits and personal style to create your own signature look.

Nurin Hasanah created Ombré together with Imran Sheik after having participated actively within Malaysia’s startup scene for the past four years – and while still pursuing her law degree. She later brought in Shaheera Shahab to the team as a third co-founder to help with the creation of algorithms to craft its fashion rules based on theories and research.

5. Mailbird

If you spend the bulk of your day replying to emails and weaving in and out of various apps to keep your schedule on track, Mailbird might just be what you need. A Windows email desktop app, Mailbird allows users to easily integrate their favourite productivity tools to create a seamless working process.

The brains behind the beautifully designed email client is Andrea Loubier. Andrea is an active advocate of women in tech, who frequently shares about her experience about being a female CEO in Southeast Asia’s tech startup scene.

To find out more about these startups and the formidable women behind them, head on down to Tech in Asia Singapore 2016 happening on April 12-13! All passes are now going at 10 percent off until March 13 when you use the code tiasg10, so don’t miss your final chance to buy them at a discount.

Are you a startup looking to get discovered? Here are your options to join us:

See the coverage on other exhibiting startups at Bootstrap Alley here:

• 5 local startups exhibiting at Tech in Asia Singapore 2016
• 6 startups returning to TIA SG 2016 to exhibit
• 9 international startups flying in to exhibit at TIA SG 2016