As with the wider tech industry, there are much fewer women than men in AI: a recent study carried out by French organisation JFD (Join Forces and Dare), which is dedicated to supporting female entrepreneurs, found that only a quarter of the AI workforce in Europe is made up of women.
But female founders like French unicorn Pigment’s Eléonore Crespo and Polish-French startup Pathway’s Zuzanna Stamirowska have already become role models in the space, and many more women in AI are emerging as potential industry leaders.
Sifted pulled from our own reporting as well as from feedback from industry experts to find out who should be on your radar.
Charlotte Rothert and Mona Feder — Doinstruct
HQ: Osnabrück, Germany
Charlotte Rothert and Mona Feder, both repeat founders, teamed up in 2021 with Daniel Marinkovic and Thorsten Groß to launch Doinstruct, an AI-powered training platform for frontline workers in sectors like construction and manufacturing. Earlier this month the startup announced a $15m Series A led by German investor HV Capital.
Danai Antoniou — Gradient Labs
HQ: London, UK
After four years working at UK neobank Monzo as a machine learning engineer, Danai Antoniou launched Gradient Labs in 2023 with two other Monzo alumni, Dimitri Masin and Neal Lathia. The startup is building AI agents for customer service and last year raised a $3.6m seed round led by London-based VC LocalGlobe.
Emma Burrows — Portia AI
HQ: London, UK
Emma Burrows worked nearly eight years as technical lead at Google in London and four years as chief technology officer (CTO) at payments giant Stripe, before creating Portia AI in 2024 with cofounder Mounir Mouawad. Portia AI is an open-source development kit to build LLMs that can carry out tool calling — when the model interacts with external tools or services to perform specific tasks.
Felicia von Reden — Ovom Care
HQ: Berlin, Germany
Launched in 2023, Ovom Care uses a combination of generative AI and computer vision to develop more personalised fertility treatment pathways. Last year, it raised a $5.2m seed round led by Alpha Intelligence Capital, with plans to open its first physical clinic in Portugal.
Flore Cousin — The Marshmallow Project
HQ: Paris, France
Flore Cousin is the cofounder and chief operating officer (COO) of The Marshmallow Project, a secretive AI-for-edtech startup launched at the end of 2024 by Cédric O, France’s former digital minister and the advisory cofounder of buzzy AI company Mistral. Cousin previously spent nearly three years at French fintech Alma.
Léa Peersman — Lign
HQ: Paris, France
HR-tech Lign provides an AI agent that it says helps people find jobs that are better tailored to their goals and experiences, and businesses find employees that better match their open positions. It was launched in 2024 by Léa Peersman, an alum of the MIT Sloan School of Management, and US-based engineer Pramod Thangali.
Malin Schmidt — Kodiak Hub
HQ: Stockholm, Sweden
Kodiak Hub is a supplier relationship management (SRM) that leverages Big Data and AI to bring better insights to businesses about their supply chains, from capturing supplier data, evaluating performance and managing contracts to identifying supply chain risks. It was founded in 2016 by Malin Schmidt, who previously led operations at risk management and insurance multinational DNV for 15 years.
Paulina Grnarova — DeepJudge
HQ: Zurich, Switzerland
After nearly three years as a researcher at Google and five years teaching at Swiss university ETH Zurich, Paulina Grnarova cofounded DeepJudge in 2021 with Yannic Kilcher and Kevin Roth. The startup provides AI-powered tools for lawyers, which it says help them find and retrieve information more efficiently. Last year it raised a $10.7m seed round led by US investor Coatue.
Rachel Finegold — Stealth startup
Based in London, Rachel Finegold spent six years as healthcare lead for US Big Data giant Palantir Technologies. Her LinkedIn profile states that she cofounded a startup in 2024, which is described as a “healthcare AI company currently in stealth”.
Rata Jacquemart — Differs
HQ: Paris, France
Rata Jacquemart, who previously led the AI consulting team at Dataiku, cofounded Differs in 2023 with Damien Jacquemart, also a Dataiku alum. The startup says that it leverages AI to optimise retailers’ pricing strategy, with the objective of maximising profits while clearing stock.
Sarah Najmark and Luisa Bouneder — Osium AI
HQ: Paris, France
Former Google X machine learning engineer Sarah Najmark cofounded Osium AI with Luisa Bouneder in 2023; the startup leverages AI to create high-performance materials that are more sustainable for customers in industrial sectors. The company was part of the summer 2023 Y Combinator cohort.
Tamar Gomez and Wiem Gharbi — Ankar AI
HQ: London, UK
After over three years at Palantir Technologies, Tamar Gomez worked as a product manager at defence startup Helsing; in 2024 she teamed up with fellow Palantir alum Wiem Gharbi to launch Ankar AI, an AI-powered tool for patent creation and protection, which supports IP teams with searching and filing patents, as well as infringement detection.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/15-female-founders-ai/
