International Women’s Day on 8 March arrives with a reality check when it comes to money and support. Women have founded 1 in 5 UK businesses, according to research referenced by money.co.uk. Women only founding teams receive less than 2% of total UK venture capital funding in the UK.
Joe Phelan, business savings expert at money.co.uk, referenced new data. He said: “According to the 2025 Gender Index Report, female-led companies increased turnover growth from 14.8% in 2023 to 24.6% in 2024 – now outpacing male-led firms.” He added: “Closing the funding gap isn’t just a question of fairness – it represents an estimated £250 billion opportunity for the UK economy.”
Founders describe the funding climate in direct terms. Michelle Niziol, founder of The Empowering Entrepreneur, said: “Access to funding remains a huge barrier. Too often, women are overlooked when it comes to investment or lending. We need more tailored financial products, greater representation of women in decision-making roles, and mentoring schemes that don’t just inspire, but actively open doors.”
Tanyka Davson, co founder of Cubbi, said: “Fewer than 6% of angel-funded businesses in the UK are female-led. We overcame this by staying focused on our data and the real-world impact we were seeing from our users. We leaned into the Birmingham startup ecosystem and mentorship programmes to bridge the gaps in our knowledge and stay resilient when things got tough.”
Is Tech Helping Or Harming Women?
Discussion about women in tech now reaches into AI. Maisie Holder, COO at World Summit AI, said: “The recent patterns and events we’ve seen taking place within tech, and specifically within AI, haven’t arrived by chance. AI models and technologies behave as they’re trained to behave. They reflect the biases and blind spots present in the environments in which they are developed.”
She continued: “Present throughout all the current criticisms of AI in relation to women is a common theme: exclusion. Despite progress compared to decades past, women remain underrepresented in the governance, development, and investment decision-making processes related to technology and AI. When diverse voices are missing from the room, products lacking fair representation result, which can reinforce harm, even inadvertently.”
Sarah Porter, founder of InspiredMinds!, drew a comparison with medicine. She said: “In the medical field, it wasn’t until 1993 that women were first included in early-phase clinical trials. As a result, accurate dosing and understanding treatment side effects have historically been a huge issue for women. AI development is on a similar precipice.” She added: “It isn’t a voluntary upgrade; it’s an opportunity to build technologies better to cater to and protect half the human population.”
What Does Real Support Look Like At Work?
For women working in tech companies, policy documents are not enough. Sarah Bush, VP of Product at Exclaimer, said: “Women do not stay at a company because it publishes the right policies; they stay because the organisation shows up for them. Whether it’s normalising flexibility around caring responsibilities, investing in professional development or creating opportunities for visibility, stretch, and leadership.”
She added: “When companies recognise employees as whole people and give intentional support, they gain loyalty, trust, and engagement in return. That is what Give to Gain looks like in practice: not complicated, just human.”
Ülane Vilumets, Head of Business Development at e-Residency, said her organisation’s research found that 89% of women entrepreneurs are considering major strategic moves, from targeting new customer segments to expanding their physical presence in the UK. She said: “The ambition is already there, it’s the surrounding systems that need to catch up.”
“For many women entrepreneurs, particularly mothers, time is the scarcest resource. Smart use of technology can give some of that time back: automating admin, enabling work from anywhere, and opening access to global customers beyond local networks.”
Tech, Women Founders And Startups Supporting Women’s Needs
Now, we understand how women can be supported generally, but these startups and technologies specifically by women, for women, directly tackle issues we face:
Mochi Zen
Mochi Zen is a weight loss app built by RTT-certified hypnotherapist and founder Paola Mendez, designed specifically for women who have tried every diet and are still stuck.
The problem most weight loss apps ignore: women don’t struggle to track their food. They struggle to stop eating when stress, anxiety, or overwhelm takes over. That’s a subconscious pattern, and no calorie counter has ever fixed it.
Mochi Zen is the first app to combine RTT (Rapid Transformational Therapy) hypnotherapy audio sessions, based on the methodology developed by world-renowned therapist Marisa Peer, with AI-powered nutrition tracking, including an photo meal scanner, personalised macros calculator, USDA food database, weight tracker, and daily journal.
The hypnotherapy sessions rewire the emotional eating patterns driving the behavior at the root. The nutrition tools track what follows. Together, they address why you eat and what you eat — in one place, for the first time.
Research published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (Kirsch et al., 1995) found patients using hypnotherapy alongside behavioral therapy lost more than twice the weight of the control group, with results sustained at two-year follow-up.
Phobio
Phobio is a technology company helping businesses and consumers unlock value from the devices they no longer use. Led by CEO Missy Taylor, the company has built a platform that makes it easy to trade in or donate used technology—from smartphones and laptops to tablets—extending the life of electronics while creating financial value for organisations and communities.
One of the company’s most recent initiatives brings that technology into the growing world of women’s professional sports.
Phobio recently partnered with the Atlanta Vibe, Georgia’s professional women’s volleyball team, to launch the “Pass It On” campaign, a program that allows fans to donate unused technology online in just a few steps. Devices are shipped to Phobio, evaluated, and processed through the company’s platform, with proceeds supporting the Atlanta Vibe and North Gwinnett Schools Foundation.
For Taylor, supporting women’s opportunities in technology and sports is an important part of the company’s mission.
“We are very excited to support women’s sports and our local schools,” shared Missy Taylor, CEO of Phobio. “This initiative is a meaningful and tangible way for Phobio to combine our passion for women’s opportunities as well as our support of the local educational community.”
By combining circular technology with community partnerships, Phobio is demonstrating how innovation can open new pathways for impact.
Visory Health
Visory Health is a women-led, patient-first health tech prescription platform that is transforming the way Veterans, families and caregivers access affordable healthcare through its prescription discount card. The app helps Americans save up to 80% off on medication. The digital discount card is completely free to use, does not require an account sign-up or insurance, and can be used for everyone in the family.
Women spend about $15 billion more per year on healthcare expenses than their male counterparts. Naturally, this is because women are predisposed to needing more healthcare products to treat things such as menstruation, menopause, contraceptives, hormone therapy, etc. Visory Health has helped people save more than $38 million on women’s healthcare prescriptions.
Betsy Cooper, Founding Director of the Aspen Policy Academy, Aspen Institute
Betsy has spent her career at the intersection of law, national security, and emerging tech. She previously served as the founding Executive Director of the UC Berkeley Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity and held senior policy roles at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Today, she is focused on training the next generation of leaders to bridge the gap between advocacy and action in tech policy through the Aspen Policy Academy.
In a field where women make up just 23% of the global cybersecurity workforce, Betsy is actively working to change the narrative. From addressing the pipeline problem in computer science to championing mentorship and systemic reform, her work centers on ensuring more women see themselves not just participating in tech but leading it.
Vylit
Vylit is an 18+ creator-first social platform co-founded by two women addressing a gap that traditional platforms won’t touch: where creators can express themselves authentically, monetise their work, and maintain full control without censorship or stigma.
Co-founded by Amrapali (Ami) Gan, former CEO of OnlyFans, and Kailey Magder, a serial entrepreneur, Vylit was built to solve problems women creators face daily: shadowbanning of body-positive content, forced reliance on multiple platforms to monetise, and lack of discovery tools for creators without massive followings.
Built as “the HBO of social media,” Vylit allows topless content while prohibiting explicit material, creating space for sensuality and self-expression that mainstream platforms censor. The platform combines social discovery with built-in monetisation, interest-based matching through its Vybe Match engine, and in-house AI tools (image generation and personalised chat) designed with transparency and consent as foundational principles. Operating on an 80/20 revenue split favouring creators, Vylit gives creators control over their content, audience, and earnings — all in one platform.
FLAIR
FLAIR is a leadership performance platform designed to support senior female leaders during some of the most demanding stages of their careers.
Despite decades of progress in gender equality, traditional leadership development still overlooks an important factor: the physiological shifts that influence energy, focus, resilience and stress capacity. These changes often occur during key career inflection points, such as returning from maternity leave or navigating midlife transitions, and can quietly affect confidence, clarity and career momentum at the very moment women are stepping into more senior roles.
FLAIR brings together health science, behavioural insight and intelligent technology to help women better understand how their changing physiology interacts with the pressures of leadership. By integrating wearable data, personal inputs and AI-driven analysis, the platform delivers personalised insight and practical guidance to help women manage demanding workloads, protect their energy and continue progressing in their careers.
Rather than asking women to simply push harder, FLAIR helps them work more intelligently with their own patterns of energy, recovery and performance.
Founded by women’s health and performance specialist Liz Sergeant, FLAIR is building the next generation of leadership intelligence – one that recognises the dynamic relationship between human physiology and professional impact.
Women behind FLAIR
FLAIR was founded by Elizabeth Sergeant and Lucy Turner, combining more than 15 years of experience across women’s health, performance and leadership development.
Elizabeth Sergeant is a Registered Nutritionist and Functional Medicine Practitioner specialising in hormonal health, perimenopause and women’s performance. She is the founder of Well Nourished (wellnourishedclub.com) and co-founder and CEO of FLAIR (flairleader.com).
Lucy Turner is a serial entrepreneur and leadership development specialist whose own leadership journey sparked a commitment to ensuring women have the insight, support and leadership development they need to sustain performance and progress in senior roles.
FLAIR recently graduated from the Founder Institute London accelerator and was selected as one of the top startups to pitch at the programme’s final investor event, where the company won the cohort pitch competition.
Katerina Bondik — CEO and Founding Team Member, Ladies Who Tech
My work sits at the intersection of technology, innovation, and human decision-making.
I have spent much of my career working with startups and fast-growing companies on innovation, product development, and business transformation — helping organisations explore emerging technologies and turn new ideas into products and new ventures.
As a consultant and leadership coach, I work with founders and leadership teams navigating growth, uncertainty, and complex strategic decisions in fast-changing technological environments.
A key focus of my work is understanding how insights from neuroscience and cognitive science can deepen our understanding of decision-making, leadership, and human behaviour.
In the technology industry, women often face additional layers of pressure and uncertainty — from access to networks and capital to visibility in the ecosystem. This was one of the reasons we started Ladies Who Tech, creating a platform where founders, executives, and innovators shaping the industry can connect, exchange knowledge, and gain greater visibility.
The Trinity AI XR Hub, Trinity Business School
The Trinity AI XR Hub at Trinity Business School is a university-based innovation lab using AI-powered virtual reality (VR) to address structural challenges facing women in the workplace.
For International Women’s Day 2026, Assistant Professor Laura Berry is leading Women, Work & High-Stakes Moments, an initiative designed to tackle confidence gaps and career progression barriers through immersive rehearsal. While not a startup, the Hub operates at the forefront of applied tech innovation, developing VR simulations that replicate real-world professional environments.
The initiative invites women to submit a high-stakes workplace scenario they wish they could practise such as negotiating salary, asking for promotion, leading a boardroom presentation, or delivering difficult feedback. One real submission will be selected and custom-built inside the Hub’s AI-enabled VR environment. Using a headset-based immersive simulation, the participant will step into a realistic, interactive scenario where they can practise, receive feedback, and try again in a safe, controlled setting.
By combining behavioural science with advanced VR technology, the project reframes confidence as something built through preparation. It demonstrates how immersive tech can be used not just for training, but to meaningfully support women’s leadership development and workplace progression.
More from Startups
Sapia.ai
Sapia.ai is a recruitment technology company working to make hiring more fair, human and accessible through AI-led career conversations. Co-founded by CEO Barb Hyman, Sapia.ai focuses on addressing structural barriers in hiring that can disproportionately affect women and other underrepresented groups.
Traditional recruitment processes often rely heavily on CV screening and unstructured interviews, both of which can introduce bias and disadvantage candidates who may have taken career breaks, changed direction, or followed non-linear career paths – experiences that many women encounter during their careers.
Sapia’s technology replaces the traditional first interview with a structured, text-based AI conversation that evaluates candidates on how they think and communicate, rather than where they have worked or how their CV is formatted. The approach is designed to create a more consistent and transparent hiring experience for every candidate.
Insights from Sapia’s career conversation research, based on more than 1,000 conversations, suggest many people are actively reassessing their career direction, with 63% using the conversation to explore a change in direction and 43% coming from mid-career or later stages. This highlights how career mobility and reinvention are increasingly important, particularly for professionals navigating changing industries and life stages.
By focusing on fairness, transparency and structured evaluation, Sapia aims to help organisations humanise hiring while giving candidates clearer, more equitable opportunities to progress.
Evergreen Medical & Wellness Clinic (with Dr Simon Smail)
The aim is to create an integrated model of care that brings together private GP services, diagnostics, preventative medicine, menopause care and advanced aesthetics, under one roof, and designed to complement, not replace, NHS care by offering an additional option for patients who want longer appointments, rapid access or tailored preventative care.
Dr Weir co-leads the business; their work is rooted in clinical excellence, continuity of care and an ethical approach to medicine.
Among the services are holistic menopause assessment and care, comprehensive contraception services (coil and implant fitting/removal), minor surgical procedures, and a doctor- and dietitian-led weight management programme, as well as flexible consultations, comprehensive health assessments, early disease detection, cardiovascular and metabolic risk assessment.
Co-founder Dr Rachel Weir, who has built a strong reputation in aesthetic medicine, said:
“Evergreen has been a decade in the making. We saw an opportunity to offer a more joined-up experience, from menopause and mental health to everyday primary care, that sits alongside the excellent work already being done in NHS general practice. For some people, having the option of longer appointments or more flexible access at certain points in their lives can make a real difference.”
Morado
Founded by Colombian entrepreneur Angela Acosta, Morado is a fintech platform empowering women entrepreneurs in Latin America’s beauty industry – where women lead 84% of businesses yet have historically been underserved by financial institutions. The platform combines a digital marketplace and B2B services, enabling salon owners and beauty entrepreneurs to purchase supplies, access credit, and manage their businesses in one place. Embedded fintech services allow users to finance inventory with flexible payment terms, removing upfront costs that often limit growth.
Morado supports more than 30,000 beauty businesses across Colombia, with over 72% receiving their first-ever credit through the platform. As half of these businesses lack bank accounts, Morado also facilitates direct transactions between entrepreneurs, brands, and suppliers.
Beyond financial access, Morado helps women build long-term economic stability, enabling them to support their families, expand their businesses, and gain greater financial independence.
Angela Acosta was included in the Top 10 list by the Aurora Tech Award, a global competition, supported by inDrive, that recognises and funds women founders of socially impactful IT startups. Morado is also backed by leading investors including Andreessen Horowitz and Tiger Global.
Pilou
Pilou is a fintech platform co-founded by Patricia Florencia, working to close the gender wealth gap in Latin America by helping women access financial education and investment opportunities. Across Latin America, fewer than 1% of women have an investment account due to barriers such as limited financial education.
Pilou is addressing this issue through a digital platform designed for women who want to begin investing but may lack access to financial knowledge, tools or support. The platform provides accessible financial education and simplified investment tools that help users better understand financial markets and build confidence in managing their money.
The company’s work has gained international recognition: in 2024 Pilou was named “Female Economy Fintech of the Year” at the Alliance Hack, an initiative by the Financial Alliance for Women highlighting fintech solutions advancing women’s financial inclusion. Its co-founder Patricia Florencia was also included in the Top 10 shortlist by the Aurora Tech Award, a global competition, supported by inDrive, that spotlights and funds women founders of socially impactful IT startups.
Balance
Founded by renowned menopause and hormone health expert Dr Louise Newson, Balance app is an innovative hormone health app that allows its users to track symptoms and periods, access personalised expert content, download a Health Report© to share with professionals and share their own stories to better understand their hormones and menopause. Downloaded by over a million women, Balance app is the first menopause support app certified by the leading digital health organisation, ORCHA ( who review and approve health apps for the NHS) and multiple national health bodies around the world. It has also been awarded both App of the day and Apple’s Editor’s Choice Award, with Apple saying: “Balance is an incredible support tool for anyone experiencing perimenopause and menopause
7 in 10 users say the app improved their mental health, with over half saying Balance has also improved their physical health. Balance has since expanded to encorperate, Balance+a premium subscription version of the app,which brings together the best specialists and doctors in the menopause arena, all coming together to give unparalleled access to their content, helping women optimise your mental and physical health.
Balance is avaliable on both Apple’s App Store and Google Play.
Jude
Jude is the UK’s specialist in bladder health and pelvic floor science on a mission to make every woman unstoppable with clinically-proven supplements.
Founded in 2021 by Peony Li, who appeared on BBC’s Dragons’ Den and turned down investment offers, Jude began as a Facebook community and has grown into the UK’s best-selling bladder health and pelvic floor supplement brand, selling 1 million supplement sachets to help women build lifelong strength from within.
At the heart of the brand is a commitment to advancing women’s health science. Jude’s clinically proven supplements are expertly formulated with powerful botanicals to support bladder control and pelvic strength. For every woman Jude supports, £10 is reinvested into women’s health R&D.
Jude has built the UK’s largest real-world bladder health evidence programme, with data from over 21,000 women, in collaboration with the Chairman of the British Urogynaecological Society and one of the most cited professors in incontinence and pelvic health, alongside academic partnerships.
14 million people in the UK and over 400 million worldwide are affected by bladder weakness; many still reluctant to talk about it. Jude brings confidence, clarity and credible support to everyday pelvic health, so women can live more freely.
Natural Cycles
Built on research and rooted in science, Natural Cycles empowers women with the knowledge to take charge of their health, while making non-hormonal contraception and fertility tracking more accessible in everyday life.
Founded by former CERN scientist Dr Elina Berglund Scherwitzl, part of the Nobel Prize-winning team behind Higgs boson discovery, Natural Cycles created the world’s first and only FDA-cleared and CE-marked contraceptive app. It has since grown into a single subscription supporting women across different life stages, with five modes: NC° Birth Control, NC° Plan Pregnancy, NC° Follow Pregnancy, NC° Postpartum and NC° Perimenopause.
This year, Natural Cycles extended its innovation with the launch of the NC° Band. This affordable, lightweight band captures temperature trends, heart rate and movement overnight, syncing with the app each morning to power the NC° algorithm, without manual temperature checks or all-day device wear. By bringing together clinical science, regulatory rigour and thoughtful product design across software and hardware, changing how women engage with their reproductive health.
Beyond this, Natural Cycles contributes significant research to women’s health in areas like perimenopause, GLP-1 drugs and effects on the menstrual cycle, and the efficacy of period trackers versus digital birth control for preventing pregnancy.
Women4Technology
Women4Technology, founded in 2008 by Ann Fisher, is a UK-wide leadership forum for female founders, executives, investors and supporters. Its mission is to connect and empower women across the technology sector through strategic networking, thought leadership and tailored development opportunities, while addressing persistent inequality within the tech ecosystem. Gender imbalance remains a significant challenge: in the UK, less than 2% of venture capital funding goes to all-female founder teams, and women remain underrepresented in high-growth sectors and senior leadership roles.
Women4Technology addresses these challenges through a holistic approach focused on fair access to capital, ecosystem building and inclusive innovation leadership. The forum connects female founders with investors through curated UK-wide events, delivers mentoring and coaching programmes, and provides targeted training in partnership with St John’s Innovation Centre (SJIC) Training to support personal and business growth. By facilitating mentoring relationships that accelerate development and business growth, Women4Technology aims to increase venture capital investment in female-led businesses and expand the number of women represented around the boardroom table.
Women4Technology has hosted notable speakers including Baroness Poppy Gustafsson, Baroness Martha Lane Fox and Martina King. In 2025, Women4Technology relaunched in Cambridge and London under its new home, SJIC, where Ann serves as NED.
Hotpod Yoga
While many fitness franchises are battling retention challenges and market saturation, Hotpod Yoga has quietly built a 62-site UK network that is 90% female-owned and delivering strong year-on-year studio growth.
At the heart of the business is an innovative model that blends proprietary inflatable pod architecture with engineered heat, immersive lighting and sound technology to create a consistent, transportive yoga experience. This distinctive product, combined with a centralised digital booking system and robust operational infrastructure, allows studio owners to focus on community-building rather than complex back-end management.
The result is a franchise network that has organically become predominantly female-led. Today, 90% of studios are owned by women (individually or in partnership), 100% of department heads are female – including the COO – and 80% of HQ staff are women. Designed with accessible entry points and strong peer support, the model has attracted first-time founders, career switchers, under-30 entrepreneurs and women returning to work. Individual franchisees report 30–86% year-on-year customer growth.
Ahead of International Women’s Day, Hotpod Yoga is spotlighting the women behind its success – from a 24-year-old studio owner to sisters rebuilding after heart failure, a friendship-turned-business partnership, and a woman reinventing life at 50 – demonstrating what empowerment looks like in practice.
