9 Women Entrepreneurs You Must Know

Once upon a time, men ruled the world of business unchallenged. But this is no longer a reality. Over the last 20 years, in the U.S. alone, the number of women entrepreneurs has risen by 114%. Every day, women start 849 new businesses in the U.S. These numbers represent just a glimpse of how fast the market is changing. 

Women are establishing their businesses as household names in a variety of industries like publishing, technology, fashion, broadcasting, and beauty. In this article, we’re covering 9 women entrepreneurs that will inspire you in your journey. All these women are particularly impressive, and they are listed in no particular order.

1. Jasmine Crowe

Jasmine Crowe has a long history of working in the social impact industry. In 2017, Crowe founded Goodr Co., a sustainable surplus food management platform that leverages technology to reduce food waste and combat hunger. In her famous TED talk, this founder and CEO explained how hunger is not a question of scarcity but logistics. 

Goodr’s blockchain-enabled platform provides an IRS-audit-friendly donation record to improve businesses’ bottom lines, reduce greenhouse emissions, and use food waste to reduce hunger. Find out more about Jasmice Crowe here. 

2. Hillary Yip

Hillary Yip was only 10 years old when she began her entrepreneurial journey. In 2015, she founded MinorMynas, a social language-learning app with the goal of creating a safe place for children to communicate, chat, and make friends across borders.

Over the last 4 years, Hillary has become the voice of a new global generation, inspiring youngsters to work on the world’s biggest problems.

3. Nora Khaldi

Holding a PhD in molecular evolution and bioinformatics as well as a master’s in mathematics, Nora Khaldi is the CSO and Founder of Nuritas. This entrepreneur is based in Dublin and has already funded 53.9 million Euros.

Nuritas’ core goal is to combine artificial intelligence and genomics to unlock natural bioactive peptides (health-benefiting components hidden within food). 

4. Olivia Cotes-James 

Originally from the UK, Olivia Cotes-James spent time in Hong Kong after moving to Shanghai. By living and experiencing different cultures, this entrepreneur realized that there was a huge gap in Asia’s menstrual care industry. 

In 2017, Olivia founded LUÜNA naturals, a female-led period care brand with a mission to enhance the lives of women and girls across Greater China. Her product was launched after a single year of research, and it aims to drive awareness of consequences that follow a reliance on traditional period care products. LUÜNA is still working to create healthier choices for women living in Asia. 

5. Melanie Perkins

Maybe you’ve never heard of this entrepreneur, but you’re probably aware her foremost product! Melanie Perkins is the CEO and co-founder of Canva, an online design and publishing tool that makes graphic design simple for everyone.

The Canva Journey started back in 2007 when Melanie was a university student. She found herself teaching colleagues how to use programs like InDesign and Photoshop, both of which are considered to have a high learning curve. Using this experience, Melanie created FusionBooks–her first startup–which became Australia’s largest yearbook publisher. But it was only in 2012 that Canva became fully realized and acquired $750,000 in its first year. Currently, Perkins is the youngest female CEO to be leading a tech startup valued at over a billion dollars.

6. Danielle Weisberg

Danielle Weisberg has invented a new form of news geared towards female Millenials. In 2012, she co-founded theSkimm: An American media company focused on subscription-only newsletters. 

Together with Carly Zakin, her business partner, she created The Daily Skimm, a newsletter with 7 million subscribers. Currently, that’s twice as many as the New York Times! Together, these two entrepreneurs are changing the face and format of news.

7. Nonny de la Peña

Nonny de la Peña is an investigative journalist who combined news and tech when she founded Emblematic, a leader in immersive media that uses VR to put the reader inside news stories.

Nonny’s own story is quite impressive. She graduated from Harvard before working for some of the biggest news companies like Newsweek and The New York Times. Nonny de la Peña is regarded as one of the most influential pioneers in virtual and augmented reality and was recently named WSJ Technology Innovator of the Year.

8. Lauren Washington 

In 2014, Lauren Washington co-founded KeepUp, an app that allows users to manage all of their social media profiles on one platform. This is a majorly helpful tool for influencers and businesses alike – but it was just the beginning of Washington’s inspiring journey.

Three years later, having noticed an absence of black, female entrepreneurs, she founded Black Women Talk Tech. By filling gaps in knowledge and resources, BWTT is helping women to build billion-dollar companies. Recently, Lauren started Fundr, an automated seed-funding platform between startups and angel investors.

9. Rapelang Rabana

Rapelang Rabana is Co-founder of Yeigo Communications, a major software company based in Cape Town. She has appeared in Forbes Africa’s 30 under 30, a list of the most successful African entrepreneurs and innovators under age 30. Rabana’s current major business is Rekindle Learning, an education technology company that believes in using the transformative powers of computers and mobile devices to overcome deficits in education.

Apart from her businesses, Rapelang Rabana is also a member of the Global Future Council on Entrepreneurship at the World Economic Forum and a Board Manager at Imagine Worldwide. 

Inspiring stories, right? These are just a few examples of how women entrepreneurs are changing the world. Keep up with EIA’s blog and find more articles to inspire your own entrepreneurial life.