The Rise of Women in FinTech
As previously we celebrated the achievements of Adrianna Tan, founder of Wobe, we realized that there is an emerging theme: the need to highlight and elevate gender diversity in the FinTech sector.
On June 2015, Innotribe published the research paper: "The Power Women in FinTech Index, bridging the Gender Gap". In this paper Innotribe stated that although FinTech is already considered to be a disruptive force to the banking status quo and has become an “equalising” medium with the potential to introduce financial services to an estimated 2.5 billion people across the globe without access to basic banking accounts, unfortunately, to date, FinTech’s disruptive impact appears to be limited to technology and business models and has not yet impacted the issue of gender diversity. So the paper presents over 400 Power Women in FinTech.
Despite the gender imbalance that needs to be addressed immediately, the paper's real focus is not this gloomy reality. Its real focus is on the women who are already beating the odds, who are building the careers of their dreams despite the challenges, and thus are role models. So these 'wonder women' are already there, but we just need to recognize them faster to deal with the current imbalance.
Innotribe's paper also mentioned that according to a research, organizations founded by women or that take leadership roles by empowering women in FinTech are more innovative and return better financial results. We must also remember that women account for over half of the global population, and they have key roles in managing household income and in retail spending.
The next step for Innotribe is to present this issue in the 2015 Innotribe@Sibos programme in Singapore, scheduled to be held on 12-15 October 2015.
A month later after Innotribe's paper, on July 2015, Dusan Stojanovic, founder of True Global Ventures, stated that throughout his 10 years of working in own-founded ventures and early-stage investments, he had not encountered enough entrepreneurial endeavors directed by women. So, realizing the same problem as Innotribe above, Stojanovic came up with a competition to select top female entrepreneurs. Stojanovic believes the role of women has been “relatively invisible and scarce in the entrepreneurial scene”. So he sought out entrepreneur entities led by women.
From a very competitive list of 157 applicants, four names emerged victorious:
1st Place: Elsa Dsilva from Mumbai, India with Safecity.
2nd Place: Adrianna Tan from Singapore, with Wobe.
3rd Place: Patricia Compas-Markman from San Francisco with DayOne Response.
4th Place goes to Kristina Lagerstedt from Gothenburg, Sweden with 1928 Diagnostics.
For sure Stojanovic's efforts will not stop here; as in a recent interview Stojanovic states, “I want to see more women in leadership positions. Diversity creates stronger companies. Therefore, I am now on the lookout for female entrepreneurs in social entrepreneurship to support financially“.
We definitely agree with Stojanovic that women as future entrepreneurs would be a good bet. So, Ladies, are you ready to strive for more?