Innov8tiv’s Top 50 Visionary Women in Tech To Watch in 2017
According to research done by Deloitte Global, as per the end of 2016, less than 25% of IT jobs in the developed countries will be held by women. Another research done in the US revealed that women with careers within the IT field are more likely to quit their job within their first year of work compared to their male counterpart.
At innov8tiv, we strive to showcase a list of 50 women who have made big moves the previous year and set the stage for even greater accomplishment the preceding year. This list was created by Felix Omondi and Anie Akpe. For the year 2017, below is a list of women in tech innov8tiv.
1. Kiara Nirghin – Kara Nirghin an 11th grader won the Google Science Fair 2016 from her Super Absorbent Polymer (SAP) project that aims at mitigating the adverse effects of climate change on farmers in her country and the world at large. SAP is a concoction made out of orange peels and avocado skins that is capable of absorbing and retaining water up to hundred times their weight. When SAP is mixed with the soil, it makes the soil retain much of the rain water, which means crops doesn’t wither away from the dry hot Sun scorching the land.
2, Lorna Rutto – Founder of EcoPost a company providing sustainable solution to the plastic waste management problem by taking used plastics and recycling them into posts that can be used for fencing. While EcoPost provides an eco-friendly means of disposing plastic wastes, they are at the same time saving the forest from deforestation for wood to make the posts.
3. Rachel Sibande – The Founder of mHub, an incubation center for Malawi’s women in tech geared at nurturing skills in tech then matching graduates to established tech companies around the country. Sibande has a Computer Science background, and is well versed on; coding, information systems management, and cryptography. Sibande and team provided tech support during the Malawi 2014 general election that employed aspects of ICT in the relay and tallying of poll results.
4. Susie Armenta – She is the CEO of AppGenius, an app that uses your smartphone history, your interest, hobbies, and likes to recommend to you other apps that could better serve your interest better. This app first uses machine learning algorithm to learn about your interest, hobbies, and how you like spending your time to preempt the types of apps you might need for these various functions.
5. The 14 South African Girls that built Africa’s first Private Satellite: A team of 14 girls from South Africa under the stewardship of the South Africa’s Meta Economic Development Organization (MEDO) in partnership with the Morehead State University, developed a satellite that is set to launch in space May 2017. If the launch goes through successfully, these 14 girls will have launched the first private satellite in Africa. More on this, click here.
6. Nikki Johnson-Huston: Houston Founded DONAFY, a mobile app that assists philanthropists squeezed of time to find worthy charitable causes in their locality to which they can give their donation. The app locates nearby non-profit charitable organization to which one can donate to.
7. Ama Marfo: co-Founder of Airfordable. An online platform that allows travelers to book flights at a fraction of the total fare and pay the remaining amount in installments before their day of departure arrives.
8. Jocelyn Leavitt : CEO and Co-Founder of Hopscotch. If you’re a creative or learning to code, this app is for you. Hopscotch is an iOS app that lets you design, code, and share your own art and games.
9. Monique Mills, MBA: Founder of TPM Focus a Technology, Project Management, and Business Consulting company and also CEO/Founder of ThePartyMatch a platform that is Taking the frustration out of booking an event venue.
10. McKenzie M Slaughter: Founder and CEO of Prohaus Group a women-led, next generation financial brand fostering alternative investment innovations through a private global ecosystem and venture funds supporting innovation impact entrepreneurs, investors, and advisors. Since inception, the company has helped over 500+ financial institutions and early stage companies with venture capital and private equity services.
11. Nadya Ichinomiya: Co-Founder of Women in Technology Hollywood and Co-chair of Women in Technology (WiT) Sonypictures. Ichinomiya is also a Web/Mobile IT Director.
12. Liliana Aide Monge: Co-Founder of Sabio a Software Engineering program in Southern California & Seattle, specifically designed for exceptionally motivated individuals looking to excel in the tech industry.
13. Viola Llewellyn: Llewellyn is the Co-Founder & President of Ovamba Solutions, She also an advocate for diversity & equality, Championing women issues and all things African.
14. Elizabeth Eastaugh: London based Director of Technology at Expedia for Global Checkout and Offer Services managing diverse teams across America, The UK, India and Hungary.
15. Naomi Assaraf: CMO, co-founder of cloudHQ. A framework for free Gmail productivity tools to make your career more successful.
16. Zuhairah Washington: A General Manager at Uber’s D.C. Metro Business, a jurisdiction that also includes Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Norther Virginia. In her capacity, Washington has spearheaded Uber’s moves to getting the industries regulations being passed in all the three jurisdictions.
17. Omosola Odetunde: Odetunde is a software engineer at Shopify. She serves on the risk and fraud team to ensure that neither merchants nor customers become victims of fraud. Odetunde also brings a wealth of experience in hiring, inclusivity, and on-boarding.
18. Jasmine Lawrence: Lawrence is a Program Manager at Xbox One console-engineering team, the maker of the gaming console. She’s credited with creating cross-platform user experience and other apps such as the virtual keyboard and settings on the gaming console. She is also the founder of Eden BodyWorks, a natural hair-care brand currently on the shelves of popular retailers like Wal-Mart, Target, and Sally’s Beauty Supply.
19. TeLisa Daughtry: TeLisa is a social entrepreneur, developer, multi-disciplined creative, and S.T.E.A.M. advocate. She is the Founder & CEO of FlyTechnista.org & STEEAMnista.org.
20. Madison Maxey: Madison is one of the creative brains at The Crated, a design and engineering studio, a wearable tech company. Maxey creates wearable tech and writes codes for computational design.
21. Lilian Makoi: Founder of Jamii a mobile health insurance product targeting low-income population in Africa. Makoi unpacked the administration cost insurers complained were keeping them away from serving any person with less than $300 per policy. By killing off some man hours and reducing the cost of the paper works, Jamii can provide health insurance to the poor at a fraction of the industries average. Jamii provides health insurance at 95% less of the cost of the insurance industry average.
22. Emillie Elice-Label: Founder of Frontdoor, an artificial intelligence driven recommendation app that saves people looking for real estate properties from the hustle of going through dozens of unproductive emails and phone calls. It works like Siri on your phone but dedicated to addressing your real estate hunting inquiries.
23. Lilian Uwintwali: Founder of M-Ahwill Ltd. a mobile-based platform that provides farmers with high impact and relevant agricultural information geared towards improving their yield and making their produce fetch the highest prices in the market.
24. Jenifer Daniels, APR: Founder/CEO of culturally intelligent stock photo marketplace Colorstock. Colorstock is the first curated stock photo marketplace featuring people of color. All people of color.
25. Aisha Bowe: Co-Founder and CEO at STEMBoard, a technology solutions company, closing the achievement gap.
Photo Credit: iStock, Getty Images
26. Tausha Robertson: co-Founder Primpii, a review site that focuses on Saloons. Think of it as Yelp, but one where only saloons for doing your hair get listed and reviewed. Robertson came up with the idea of building Primpii after observing the weaknesses major review site such as Yelp.
27. Elizabeth Dearborn Hughes: CEO/Founder Akilah Institute, women’s college in Rwanda and MindSky, Africa’s talent marketplace. Kigali/Nairobi AkilahInstitute MindSky Talent.
28. Tanya Menendez: Menendez is the co-founder of Makers Row a platform bringing together entrepreneurs that make things. Helping small manufacturers get the software, production materials and community they nee to keep operations going. Menendez came up with the idea after seeing just how much the widespread and increasing adoption of technology was hurting rural folks’ jobs in Oaxaca.
29. Tanya M. Salcido: co-Founder of LatinaGeeks, an online community that aims to empower and inspire Latin women by spreading knowledge of entrepreneurship, social media and technology.
30. Sarah Wood: Sarah Wood is the CEO and co-Founder of Video ad tech company unrulyco. A platform that Delivers the most awesome social video campaigns on the planet.
31. Alaima Percival: Percival was the first CEO of Women Who Code; a non-profit helping women build a career in tech. She spearheaded the incorporation of the nonprofit organization that now has over 80,000 members from all around the world.
32. Carolyn Rodz: She was disturbed by the underrepresentation of women in the burgeoning numbers of startup accelerators and incubators, so much so that she decided to take matters into her own hands and do something about it. That is when she founded The Circular Board, the first and largest digital accelerator for female techie startup ventures.
33. Susannah Vila: CEO/co-founder Flip lets people live flexibly without breaking the bank. Sublet, get out of your lease easily or find a flexible place to stay. Vila cofounder of engnroom an online platform that supports social change initiatives to use tech and data strategically and effectively.
34. Meredith Perry: Founder and CEO uBeam. uBeam transmits power over the air to charge electronics gadgets wirelessly. It’s like Wi-Fi but instead of connecting you to the internet, it recharges your device.
35. Neelam Brar: co-Founder and CEO, District CoWork and Founder of Empress Capital. Express Capital, is a VC company that understands women drive the world economy.
36. Amma Gyampo: Gyampo advices Agricultural and Technology entrepreneurs across Ghana and Nigeria on matters financing, professional skills, strategy, partnerships, technology, and innovations. Her clients include the Diaspora looking for technical support while they’re doing their businesses in Africa.
37. Linda Ansong: Ansong is a co-founder and Executive Director of STEMbees Organization, a non-profit organization aiming at empowering youths in Africa through STEM. She is also the co-founder of Vestracker, a software as a service company catering to the needs of the freight industry. It helps freight forwarders and clearing agents aggregate freight information and quickly share with all stakeholders, making work easy and efficient.
38. Monique Woodard: Founder and Executive Director of Black Founders also Monique is a venture partner with 500 startups. Woodard and fellow Black Founders co-founders created a network of their own that included diversity and inclusion within the tech space.
39. Lindiwe Matlali: Founder and CEO of Africa Teen Geeks, a non-profit organization that wants to increase IT and computer literacy levels across Africa. They introduce computers to kids in school at a younger age. Africa Teen Geeks has introduced science to 100 schools and launched the Computer Science Week in South Africa.
40. Simi Olusola: CEO of Aspilos Foundation and the Founder of AboCoders. AboCoders is an initiative by Aspilos Foundation and is geared to providing women and girls in Northern Nigeria with sustainable livelihoods through software development as a means of empowerment. Aspilos Foundation is committed to the development of education, health, and sustainable livelihoods as it concerns women, children, and youth in Nigeria.
41. Nnelle Nkholise: A Social Entrepreneur and Founder of the Likoebe Group an organization geared towards creating innovations that contribute immensely towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals in Africa. At the recent World Economic Forum held in Rwanda this year, Nkolise was recognized as Africa’s top female innovator. She is also one of the winners of the 2015 SAB Foundation Social Innovation Awards.
42. Oluwatoyin Yetunde Sanni: Sanni is a Software Developer at Andela and one of the founding partners of TechInPink (based in Nigeria and Kenya), a program geared towards mentoring and supporting young women in tech by mainly equipping them with software development skills.
43. Bridget Boakye: Co-Founder and Executive Director of YNG Interns Africa and ChaleKasa. YNG (pronounced Young) Interns Africa is an initiative to connect young African to opportunities within the continent and worldwide.
44. Loretta Cheeks: Founder of Strong TIES, a program geared towards engaging elementary, middle, and high school kids in the field of STEM. The program partners with leading STEM organization to broaden K-12 school’s students with skills and experience in STEM.
45. Minita Choudhary: Founder and CEO of auraSafe. A gadget that allows you to call for help discreetly without attracting unnecessary attention.
46. Mathilde Collin: CEO and co-Founder of Front. Front isn’t just for email. It brings all of your external messages — emails to support@ or sales@, plus Twitter, Facebook Messenger, chat, and SMS — into one unified inbox.
47. Crystal Rose: Founder of LAStartup Week and Sensay. Sensay matches people who need advice to someone who can help, via text or chat. I’m a bot made for awesome humans.
48. Kara Nortman: Partner UpfrontVC and co-Founder of Seedling. Seedling creates uniquely innovative products that encourage families to build, imagine, and play together.
49. Ruzwana Bashir: Founder and CEO of Peek. This platform makes the world’s tours and activities easily bookable within their marketplace.
50. Jemila Abdulai: Founder of Circumspecte an online platform dedicated to meaningful insights, interaction, and creative action related to Africa and Africans. Abdulai is at the heart of Circumspecte as the Director and Founding Editor.
