12 women entrepreneurs who smashed the glass ceiling in Southeast Asia

In business, men have traditionally ruled. Most of today’s biggest startups were founded and are run by men. Yet some women are changing the scene.

Tech in Asia brings you a list of at least 12 women who have broken through barriers and overcome obstacles to achieve success in Southeast Asia’s tech industry.

Nabilah Alsagoff, Doku

Alsagoff is the founder and current chief operating officer of Doku, an online payments firm in Indonesia.

She got the idea for her startup after working on a tourism website that was meant to help Bali recover from terrorist attacks in 2002. A Malaysian company was servicing payments for transactions on the website so Alsagoff formed a similar concept for Indonesia.

Doku counts big brands like AirAsia and Sinar Mas Land as its clients.

Veronika Linardi, Qerja

Linardi is behind Indonesian site Qerja, which lets jobseekers and employees share information about companies publicly – much like US platform Glassdoor. Users go to the site to find transparent information about a company’s pay scale and hiring practices.

In March, Qerja raised an eight-digit funding round from SB ISAT Fund, a joint venture of SoftBank and Indosat. It called the round “one of the highest series A valuations of any Southeast Asian startup.”

Linardi, which has led her own recruitment firm Linardi Associates since 2006, is ready to take Qerja to the next level.

Hooi Ling Tan, GrabTaxi (MyTeksi)

Asia is experiencing a ride booking boom. Uber is aggressively attacking Southeast Asia, while Easy Taxi is fighting hard to gain a strong foothold.