In the vibrant and competitive startup ecosystem of Singapore, a new wave of female entrepreneurs is making its mark.
These dynamic women are not only co-founding innovative ventures but are also redefining what it means to be a leader in the tech-driven world of business.
From groundbreaking tech platforms to disruptive services, their startups are pushing boundaries and setting new standards for success.
This feature highlights the inspiring stories of Singapore-based startups co-founded by women, showcasing the diversity, creativity, and resilience that these entrepreneurs bring to the table.
Grab
A super-app platform to book various services, including transportation, deliveries, mobility, and financial services.
Founding year: 2012
Female co-founder: Tan Hooi Ling
Total investment raised: US$10.38 billion
Investors: Emtek, Signite Partners, Hana Financial Group, GGV Capital, K3 Ventures, Flourish, Arbor Ventures, STIC Investments, Krungsri, MUFG Innovation Partners, TIS, Kymco Capital, Experian, Invesco, others.
Advance Intelligence Group
A startup providing big data- and AI-based digital transformation, fraud prevention, and process automation solutions for enterprise clients in banking, fintech, retail, and e-commerce. It is the parent company of Atome.
Also Read: Advance Intelligence Group raises US$80M to further develop AI innovations
Founding year: 2016
Female co-founder: Tongtong Li
Total investment raised: US$700 million
Investors: Warburg Pincus, Northstar Group, EDBI, Vision Plus Capital, Gaorong Capital, Northstar Group Services, SoftBank Vision Fund, K3 Ventures.
PatSnap
A startup offering patent analytics and management software. It provides users with patent search and analysis to manage and advance IP positions. The platform monitors the patent risk and thereby protects the IP assets in real-time. Its product offerings include market and competitor data discovery solutions, data visualisation, reports, and managing datasets that enable users to add patent and legal data.
Founding year: 2007
Female co-founder: Guan Dian
Total investment raised: US$352 million
Investors: Tencent, SoftBank Vision Fund, CITIC, Shunwei Capital, Vertex Ventures, HongShan, Qualgro, Summit Partners, Vertex Growth, Global Brain, NUS Enterprise, JIC Investment.
Zilingo
An online B2B marketplace platform offering multi-category fashion products. The product catalogue includes loungewear, kidswear, shirts, winter wear, and sleepwear bed linen.
Founding year: 2015
Female co-founder: Ankiti Bose
Total investment raised: US$304 million
Investors: Sequoia Capital, Temasek, Burda Principal Investments, Sofina, EDBI, Beenext, Venturra Capital, Â SIG, Wavemaker Partners, Beenos, Amadeus Capital, Draper Associates,
Draper Venture Network, Koru Partners, DG Ventures, Beeble Brox, Angel Capital Management, Dahlia Investments & Consulting.
YouTrip
An NFC-enabled travel card and wallet provider for travellers. The wallet can be recharged via credit/debit cards and used for online/offline purchases, bill payments, and cash withdrawals. The wallet can be used for managing transactions of the card, in-store payments, and online payments.
Also Read: The 4 steps that YouTrip has taken to ensure financial resilience in a time of crisis
Founding year: 2018
Female co-founder: Caecilia Chu
Total investment raised: US$105.5 million
Investors: Lightspeed Venture Partners and Insignia Ventures Partners.
Silent Eight
An AI-based fraud management startups. The platform offers a platform that enables users to scan data sources in variable formats, including local and remote online news articles. It also provides solutions for automated alert adjudication, name screening, transaction screening, and transaction monitoring.
Founding year: 2013
Female co-founder: Julia Markiewicz
Total investment raised: US$61 million
Investors: TYH Ventures, HSBC, OTB Â Wavemaker Partners, SC Ventures, Aglaia, Crystal Horse Investments, Joyful Frog Digital Innovation, Singapore Angel Network, Fanjul Capital, Riverwalk Holdings, Fintonia Group, SpinUp Partners.
cxagroup
Connexions Asia (CXA) provides an AI-based benefits marketplace for employer insurance. It offers a platform for health insurance, HR management, employee benefits, and health & wellness plans. CXA also provides an AI-based app for people to connect them with health & wellness products and services.
Founding year: 2013
Female co-founder: Rosaline Chow Koo
Total investment raised: US$580 million
Investors: Humanica, HSBC, Heritas Capital Management, MDI Ventures, Sumitomo, Openspace Ventures, Singtel Innov8, Singapore Economic Development Board, HSBC, B Capital, EDBI, BioVeda Capital, RGAX, FengHe Asia, Philips, FengHe Group, Bansea, Propell Group, WoodOwl, Redmoon Advisors, Insurtech Hub.
Wiz.AI
The startup provides AI-powered voice and speech recognition solutions for multiple industries. Its talkbot platform allows users to record voice conversations with text translations and interact with real humans. It uses a neural network technology that allows customer classification, identification of customers, and segments to prioritise follow-ups.
Founding year: 2019
Female co-founder: Jennifer Zhang
Total investment raised: US$58 million
Investors: Tiger Global Management, Yunqi Partners, Gaorong Capital, GL Ventures, K3 Ventures, Singtel Innov8, GGV Capital, Wavemaker Partners, Insignia Ventures Partners,
Hillhouse, Singtel, Graphene Ventures, Gaorong Partners Fund, K3 Aquarius Fund, ZWC,
Weiguang Ventures, Em monster, ZWC Ventures, GLOBAL ACCELERATION ACADEMY,
Plug and Play APAC.
Paktor
Paktor is a provider of a dating platform based on mutual likes. The platform enables users to register and swipe left/right to like/pass registered members’ profiles. It matches profiles based on mutual likes. Users can chat and connect with the profiles via the app.
Founding year: 2013
Female co-founder: Charlene Koh
Total investment raised: US$575 million
Investors: K2 Global, Media Nusantara Citra, Vertex Ventures, YJ Capital, Golden Equator Capital, Sebrina, Majuven, Convergence Ventures, Turn Capital, K2 Global
TurtleTree
A producer of cell-based sustainable food and dairy product alternatives. The company uses cell-based technology to extract cell samples from cattle that are further grown in a proliferate growth medium into muscle fibre and dairy ingredients and are used for the production of cultivated meat and dairy products.
Founding year: 2019
Female co-founder: Fengru L
Total investment raised: US$42.3 million
Investors: Verso Capital, Artesian, SHOSHIN8, Green Monday, KBW Ventures, Verso Holdings,
Eat & Beyond, EWC, CPT Capital, New Luna Ventures, Lever VC, K2 Global, Unreasonable, Good Startup, Smile, Chaos Ventures, XA Network, Siddhi Capital, Plug and Play APAC, Wavemaker Impact, Highfield Capital.
Browzwear
A startups working in interactive 3D product design and customisation software solutions for the fashion industry. The company provides 3D software for apparel design and development through size ranges, graphics, fabrics, trims, colourways, styling, & photorealistic 3D rendering, visualises fabric folds in real-time and enables product creation and design through digital samples.
Founding year: 2012
Female co-founder: Lena Lim
Total investment raised: US$35 million
Investor: Radian Capital.
Shiok Meats
A manufacturer and supplier of lab-cultured meat products. It offers lab-cultured and cell-based meat and seafood. The company claims that its meats are animal-friendly, health-friendly, and environment-friendly.
Also Read: Shiok Meats CEO Sandhya Sriram to step down after merger with Umami Bioworks
Founding year: 2018
Female co-founder: Sandhya Sriram
Total investment raised: US$30.7 million
Investors: Woowa Bros, CJ CheilJedang, Vinh Hoan, Toyo Seikan Kaisha, Twynam, Monde Nissin, Big Idea Ventures, Boom Capital Ventures, Beyond Impact Advisors, Aqua Spark, METI,
Realtech Fund, VegInvest, Makana Ventures, AiiM Partners, Irongrey, Ilshin, Yellowdog, SEEDS Capital, Agronomics, Impact Venture Capital, Mindshift Capital, Y Combinator, BOOM CAPITAL GROUP, Aera VC, Entrepreneur First, Future Food Asia, CPT Capital, Success Accelerator, Innovate 360.
DocDoc
DocDoc is an online platform that uses AI to connect users to doctors. The platform uses HOPE, an AI-powered doctor discovery engine, to find doctors based on users’ medical needs. The platform lists information about clinics and doctors, along with their locations, clinical interests, subspecialties, procedures available, and so on, to enable users to compare and book appointments.
Founding year: 2012
Female co-founder: Grace Park
Total investment raised: US$29.6 million
Investors: Â Sumitomo Corporation, Adamas Finance Asia, Cyberport, SparkLabs Global Ventures, Vectr Ventures, Hong Leong Financial Group, KCP Capital,
Jungle Ventures, 500 Global, Hong Leong, Apis Partners, RVP Group, Gaingels, Bells Ventures,
Plug and Play APAC.
Parcel Perform
A cloud-based software startup for e-commerce store operators to compare and book carriers for sending packages. Businesses can compare prices from multiple carriers and view KPIs such as geography coverage, transit times, etc. It also provides a solution for the courier service provider to manage their deliveries, track customer queries, and creating own dashboards to track performance.
Founding year: 2016
Female co-founder: Dana von der Heide
Total investment raised: US$21 million
Investors: Cambridge Capital, Wavemaker Partners, Investible, SBVA, Investigate, 500 Global, Bansea, Silicon Straits Saigon, Acequia Capital, RTL Group Investments, MobilityFund,
Endeavour Ventures, Investigate, ReadyVentures, True Growth Capital, Artiel Ventures
Raena
An app-based reselling and dropshipping marketplace for beauty businesses, it allows users to discover and buy products to sell multi-category beauty products across various brands and earn profits.
Founding year: 2019
Female co-founder: Sreejita Deb
Total investment raised: US$20.8 million
Investors: AC Ventures, Alpha Wave Global, Alfamart, Alto Partners, Alpha JWC Ventures,
Beenext, Beenos, STRIVE, Orient Growth Ventures
Tookitaki
A startup providing of anti-money laundering solutions. The platform features include AML transaction monitoring, customer risk scoring, customer screening, regulatory compliance, case management, and customer due diligence. It also offers financial crime detection and prevention solutions for banks and fintech companies.
Founding year: 2012
Female co-founder: Jeeta Bandopadhyay
Total investment raised: US$20.4 million
Investors: Illuminate Financial, Nomura, Viola Group, Jungle Ventures, SIG Venture Capital, SEEDS Capital, Enterprise Singapore, Supply Chain Angels, T-Hub, RevTech Labs, The FinLab,
Rebright Partners, Blume Ventures, India Internet Fund, IIMA Ventures, Srijan Capital, Tempus Capital, Microsoft Accelerator, Queen City FinTech, Innoven Capital, Aditya Birla Bizlabs, Faktory Ventures, Nomura Capital Partners, CFV Ventures, voyager.nomura.co.in, Somdutta Singh, peercheque
Morph
A consumer-centric blockchain platform. It offers developers solutions for blockchain explorer, bridge, node management, faucets, and more. It also offers blockchain sequence, rollups, and blockchain layer-2 solutions.
Founding year: 2023
Female co-founder: Cecilia Hsueh
Total investment raised: U$20.3 million
Investors: DRAGONFLY, Pantera Capital, Foresight Ventures, Spartan Group, Symbolic Capital, Publicworks, MH Ventures, Every Realm, Bitget.
Klub
An online marketplace for revenue-based financing, Klub offers business financing options based on data-driven analytics, financial innovation, and community engagement. It also provides financing in return for a fixed percentage of revenue generated. It also offers private market investors to invest in consumer-focused industries including cafes, bars, lifestyle, and more.
Founding year: 2019
Female co-founder: Harshita Sanganeria
Total investment raised: US$12 million
Investors: Northern Arc Capital, Trifecta Capital, Surge, Alter, GMO Venture Partners, 100Unicorns, EMVC, Tracxn Labs, Venture Catalysts, Better Capital, Earlsfield Capital, Astir Ventures, Techmind, Gurukul Venture Partners, Groundupp Ventures, FairAngels, Aperio Partners, FBC, CapFort Ventures.
Nalagenetics
The startup develops genetic test kits for precision medicine and offers a range of genetic tests and assays. The genetic tests are used to analyse drug reactions along with information from information management systems. Nalagenetics has also developed a clinical decision support system that uses the data and provides clinical recommendations. The information enables doctors to provide prescriptions or treatments. The company also offers patients an app for information on medication side effects.
Founding year: 2016
Female co-founder: Levana Sani
Total investment raised: US$13.6 million
Investors: Â Intudo Ventures, Vulcan, dxdhub.sg, A*STAR, Integra Partners, Diagnos Laboratorium Utama, East Ventures, Founders Fund, Vulcan Capital, Brama One Ventures, Plug and Play APAC.
NSG BioLabs
A provider of level-2 biosafety co-working laboratory and office space. It offers various services and facilities, including a laboratory facility for molecular, cellular, and microbiological research, HEPA-filtered HVAC systems, and room for tissue culture and microbial work.
Also Read: How NSG BioLabs aims to nurture biotech innovation in Singapore and beyond
Founding year: 2019
Female co-founder: Daphne Teo
Total investment raised: US$14.5 million
Investors: Clavystbio, Celadon Partners, NSG Ventures.
Zimplistic
A manufacturer of automatic roti makers. It uses patented AI technology to measure and mix the correct ratio of flour and water in real-time. Its product can also be used for making paranthas, pooris, wraps, quesadillas, and other food items.
Founding year: 2008
Female co-founder: Pranoti Nagarkar
Total investment raised: US$16 million
Investors: Openspace Ventures, Robert Bosch Venture Capital.
Vaniday
An online platform offering salon booking services. It provides beauty, wellness, and fitness services and products. The platform allows users to browse salons and spas in the local area and book appointments for various services such as hair removal, massage, spa, and makeup. It also provides beauty products such as cosmetics, eye care, hair care, nail care products, and more.
Founding year: 2015
Female co-founder: Ruth Teo
Total investment raised: US$16.6 million
Investors: Rocket Internet, The Asia Pacific Internet Group, Vorwerk Ventures, HV Capital.
LionsBot International
The startup develops cleaning robots for commercial applications. Its characteristics include the ability to convey its emotions through its eyes and voice. Some of the other features include obstacle avoidance, auto-docking capabilities, AI-enabled batteries, and multiple cleaning modes. It comes with soft bumpers, an emergency stop button, and clear lights and sounds to avoid collisions with people.
Founding year: 2018
Female co-founder: Michelle Seow
Total investment raised: US$17 million
Investors: TransLink Capital, Supersteam.
Miya Health
A digital medical cost management solution for payors and employers. It offers a navigation service for patients that helps manage chronic illness and a platform that assists payers and corporates in reducing medical and administrative costs.
Founding year: 2018
Female co-founder: Shirley Ah-Hee
Total investment raised: US$17 million
Investors: Fondation Botnar, ST Engineering, Elev8, HealthXCapital, Central Capital Ventura,
SEEDS Capital.
Geniebook
An AI and app-based platform offering adaptive learning solutions for students. The platform can identify a child’s weaknesses and generate targeted questions. It enables users to improve their learning speed by practising questions at their own pace. Additionally, it provides worksheets, live and recorded classes, and more. Its app is available for Android and iOS devices.
Also Read: From brick-and-mortar to AI-powered learning: The journey of Geniebook
Founding year: 2015
Female co-founder: Alicia Cheong
Total investment raised: US$18 million
Investors: Titan Capital, East Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Apricot Capital
Us2.ai
An AI-powered tool for the detection of heart risk. The company’s flagship product, Echo Copilot, provides fully automated, real-time echo reports and disease detection, supporting healthcare professionals in interpreting echocardiograms.
Founding year: 2017
Female co-founder: Dr Carolyn Lam
Total investment raised: US$19 million
Investors: IHH Healthcare Berhad, HEAL Partners, Peak XV Partners, Pappas Capital, EDBI,
Partech Partners, Sequoia Capital, SGInnovate, StartUp Health, Startup SG, A*STAR, Fabrice Grinda, EPRV, Startup Creasphere, XNode.
—
Data credit: Tracxn
Image Credit: 123RF
The post 🇸🇬 Empowering change: Singapore’s female-led startup success stories appeared first on e27.