The Netherlands has a lively startup ecosystem where many women-led startups flourish, standing out in a globally male-dominated scene. This success was possible since the country encourages female entrepreneurship through government-supported programs.
The Dutch Chamber of Commerce reported a substantial increase of 62 per cent growth of female entrepreneurs in the Netherlands from 2013 to 2022. Now, the Netherlands has more than 700,000 companies under female leadership.
The Dutch government has set a goal to have 50 per cent of female IT professionals leading startups and scale-ups by 2030. To inspire the next generation of female entrepreneurs to achieve this goal, here is a list of top companies that thrive under women’s leadership.
Autheos
Founder(s): Christina Calje and Pyke van Dieren
Christina Calje co-founded Autheos in 2016, successfully becoming Benelux’s top video distribution and optimisation tool. The platform uses AI technology to offer personalised video experiences for clients’ online customers.
Calje has vast experience as an executive and advisory board in finance, e-commerce companies, and AI startups across New York, London, and Amsterdam. Her success earned the title of ‘powerhouse entrepreneur to watch’ from Silicon Canals.
SwipeGuide
Founder(s): Willemijn Schneyder and Daan Assen
Willemijin Schneyder co-founded SwipeGuide with Daan Assen in 2015 and focuses on providing a user-friendly platform that eliminates the need for extensive manuals in the workplace.
The platform leverages technology to offer visual and interactive guides, making it easier for workers to access and follow instructions, particularly in industries that traditionally rely on paper-based or lengthy digital manuals.
Schneyder gained various wins and nominations with SwipeGuide, including the SHE LEADS outstanding female entrepreneurs in 2022 and 2nd prize of SheLovesTech in 2020.
LessonLeap
Founder(s): Deepti Sahi and Anusha Mahalingam
Deepti Sahi and Anusha Mahaligan founded the ed-tech startup LessonLeap in 2020. The two women decided to start the company as Mahaligan saw her two daughters face difficulties in their academic life during the COVID-19 pandemic.
LessonLeap operates with a team split between the Netherlands and Mumbai and aims to train students from kindergarten to sixth grade. The training includes public speaking, language command skills, and writing taught by more than 20 teachers.
Preply, a leading language learning platform, has now acquired the platform and offers group learning for kids in over 50 languages.
Open Food Chain
Founder(s): Marieke de Ruyter de Wildt
Marieke de Ruyter de Wildt is one of the female founders in agritech that built Open Food Chain in 2019. She became interested in agritech from her travels in Africa when she was 17 and then studied computer science at Wageningen University.
Before founding Open Food Chain, she set up The New Fork, an agritech supply chain, in 2017. The New Fork’s success led her to start an Open Food Chain that addressed consumer trust issues and business losses due to food fraud and safety concerns.
Open Food Chain aims to enhance transparency and prevent food fraud. The technology benefits customers by providing information and trust, while businesses gain improved traceability, reduced fraud risks, and simplified certification.
WeAreBrain
Founder(s): Elvire Jaspers and Mario Grunitz
Elvire Jaspers is the CEO and co-founder of WeAreBrain, an award-winning AI solution provider. Founded in 2014, the company includes more than 70 creators and entrepreneurs.
WeAreBrain creates AI-powered tools and intelligent automation solutions, empowering business and technology companies to run and scale their daily operations efficiently. It aims to reduce operational costs, increase profitability, and enhance customer experience.
The company has been voted in The Emerce Top 100 in 2018 and 2021 as one of the best tech companies in Netherlands. Meanwhile, Jaspers was featured twice in The Next Women 100 list of top female entrepreneurs.
Ligo
Founder(s): Wendy Bogers
Wendy Bogers, a lawyer turned entrepreneur, founded the legal tech platform Ligo in 2015. The company aims to solve the time-consuming and complex legal matters by providing an easy access all-in-one platform.
Ligo offers notarial services, legal documents, free phone consultations with lawyers, and legal workflows. Over the past years, Ligo has provided legal assistance to more than 100,000 clients.
The company gained recognition with various awards and prizes, such as the Dutch Legal Tech Startup Awards. Meanwhile, the female founder and CEO earned the 39th spot on the Forbes 100 Women Founders to Watch in Europe list.
The Code To Change
Founder(s): Iffat Rose Gill
Iffat Rose Gill is an NGO leader and entrepreneur who established The Code To Change in 2015. Gill founded the organisation based on her own challenges in finding economic opportunities as a woman of colour, driving her to contribute for women’s empowerment.
She has been actively involved in shaping the policy discourse of women’s digital inclusion, delivering speeches at significant events such as the UN’s World Summit on the Information Society-WSIS Forum.
The Code To Change aims to empower women through technology and digital skills and bridge the gender gap in the tech industry. It provides training, mentorship and support for marginalised women interested in pursuing careers in technology.
WizeNoze
Founder(s): Diane Janknegt
Diane Janknegt is a former Microsoft Netherlands executive who founded the AI scale-up WizeNoze in 2013. The Amsterdam-based edtech offers a new way of delivering educational content to close the ‘readability gap’.
WizeNoze provides students with an ‘internet for education’ by utilising AI technology to align relevant information from the internet with various curricula for students of all age groups.
Janknegt was featured on the ‘100 Women Founders in Europe To Follow in 2019′ by Forbes and earned the title of ‘Bad-Ass Female Entrepreneur 2018’ by Silicone Canals.
Read the orginal article: https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/women-8-dutch-startup-and-scaleups/
