15 female founders in Southeast Asia who are smashing the glass ceiling

Studies have suggested that female-led businesses improve investors’ fund performance. They’ve also been found to outperform male-led companies by 63 percent in terms of investor returns.

Here’s a rosy picture: from 2009 to 2014, the number of US startups with at least one woman founder doubled from 9.5 percent to 18 percent, according to business information platform CrunchBase.

But if you take a closer look, you’ll spot some sobering details. From 2012 to 2017, for instance, the percentage of venture capital-backed companies with at least one female founder was stuck at around 17 percent.

Of the US$85 billion that VCs invested globally in 2017, all-women founding teams received US$1.9 billion – a mere three percent of the total amount.

Despite these hurdles, however, the case for female founders is strong. Studies have suggested that female-led businesses improve investors’ fund performance. They’ve also been found to outperform male-led companies by 63 percent in terms of investor returns.

15. Ai Ching Goh, co-founder and CEO, Piktochart – Malaysia

Goh decided to start her own company after failing to fit in cultures of the organizations she had worked for. One day in 2011, she wrote on a piece of paper: “No more Monday blues” – four words that led her to co-found a design studio with developer Andrea Zaggia.

The duo began creating designs for clients, but eventually realized that what they really wanted was to give more people the ability to create appealing visuals.

That same year, Goh and Zaggia founded Piktochart. Piktochart offers a web app that allows non-designers to produce professional-standard infographics.

It now has more than 3.8 million users who have collectively created over 9 million infographics using the platform’s themed templates.

Total funding amount: Undisclosed

Latest fundraise: US$150,000 seed round in October 2012

14. Andrea Loubier, co-founder and CEO, Mailbird – Indonesia

13. Nabilah Alsagoff, Founder and chief operating officer, Doku – Indonesia

12. Dana von der Heide, founder and chief commercial officer, Parcel Perform – Singapore

11. Nicki Ramsay, founder and CEO, CardUp – Singapore

10. Gillian Tee, co-founder and CEO, Homage – Singapore

9. Roshni Mahtani, founder and CEO, Tickled Media – Singapore

8. Vivy Yusof, co-founder, FashionValet – Malaysia

7.  Rachel Lim and Viola Tan, co-founders, Love Bonito – Singapore

6. Teresa Condicion, co-founder and chief data officer, Snapcart – Indonesia

5. Josephine Chow,  co-founder and head of expansion, ShopBack – Singapore

4. Rosaline Chow Koo, founder and CEO, CXA Group – Singapore

3. Pranoti Nagarkar-Israni, co-founder, Zimplistic – Singapore

2. Ankiti Bose, co-founder and CEO, Zilingo – Singapore

1.  Hooi Ling Tan, co-founder and chief operating officer, Grab – Malaysia