Women entrepreneurs make their mark in London's startup scene.
This week, we feature the women entrepreneurs that put London on the technology innovation map. East London (or "Silicon Roundabout") has established a reputation for itself, touting recently that the number of startups has jumped from 15 to 300+ in just three years.
Women 2.0 launches monthly networking event Founder Friday London on October 26, 2012 at the Google campus in London amidst the buzz of startup activity. Or maybe you've heard some of the emerging startups incubated by BBC Labs?
Here are 10 female founders to watch working on London-based startups:
Previously a venture capitalist at Accel Partners in London focusing on software and Internet investments, Avid Larizadeh co-founded Boticca, a London-based global destination for jewelry and fashion accessories. Boticca has raised $2.5M investment led by ISAI.
To deliver education via mobile platforms, serial entrepreneur Gerlinde Gniewosz co-founded KO-SU, an interactive mobile learning platform that enables teaching and learning. Check out the KO-SU iOS app. Follow her on Twitter at @zuztertu.
As a mom who loves to cook and eat well, Hannah Wong co-founded the UK's most popular meal planning website The Resourceful Cook and is now working to launch Foodity, an e-commerce toolkit for recipe publisher. Follow her on Twitter at @HannahW1g.
As a former fashion designer, Julia Fowler was frustrated with the industry’s lack of factual data and launched EDITD to combine the mass of industry data available online and to address the holes in traditional forecasting cycles. Follow her on Twitter at @jul_ia.
Serial entrepreneur Melissa Clark-Reynolds founded MiniMonos in 2011, a virtual world for children focused on growing green kids. She is an Al Gore Climate Ambassador and Director at Creative HQ, Wellington's business incubator. Follow her on Twitter at @maximonos.
A frequent concert-goer, Michelle You co-founded Songkick to make it easier for fans to go to concerts and is now the second-largest live music website behind LiveNation. Songkick has raised $6.5M in venture funding. Follow her on Twitter at @wreckingball37.
Front-end developer Natalie Downe co-founded social conference directory Lanyrd with her back-end developer husband. Lanyrd raised $1.4 million seed funding in September 2011. The round was led by Index Ventures. Follow her on Twitter at @Natbat.
Former fashion journalist Natalie Massenet founded luxury fashion online retailer Net-A-Porter in 2000. In April 2010, she sold her share of Net-a-Porter to Swiss luxury goods group Richemont for an estimated £50m. Net-A-Porter is VC-backed by Index Ventures.
"Accidental entrepreneur" and serial academic Sarah Wood co-founded Unruly Media in 2006 and raised a $25 million in a new round of funding in early 2012, a record for a social video company with offices around the world. Follow her on Twitter at @sarahfwood.
As a computer science major who worked in finance, Wendy Tan White started UK-based website and online shop builder Moonfruit with her husband in 2000. Moonfruit was acquired by Yell for $37 million in May 2012. Follow her on Twitter at @wendytanwhite.
Don’t miss star-studded keynotes on November 14 in New York by the female founders of Cisco, Match.com, Oxygen Network, Urban Decay and TRUSTe at PITCH NYC. This one-day event features women entrepreneurs behind the hottest startups - Adafruit Industries, DailyWorth, Everpurse, Roominate, Songkick, Meebo and more.
Learn best practices and stories of starting up. Participate in lunchtime mentoring and meet over 800 men and women in tech and entrepreneurship. Watch the 10 startup competition finalists pitch live to judges for prizes. For more on the conference, click here.
