In a world where women make up almost half of the world’s population – although they have historically been less present in major industries – Those on the Cloud 100 list dominate a heavily male-dominated space: enterprise technology,

Eight out of 100 on this year’s list are female-led startups, up from six last year, which focuses on edtech (educational technology), e-commerce, SaaS (software as a service), and more. However, this is still a lower percentage than the total number of female founders among all unicorns, which is 12% according to Crunchbase data. A 2021 analysis of Pitchbook data pegged the number of enterprise tech companies with at least one female founder at just 2%.

For Mathilde Colin, CEO of Front, one of the newcomers to the Cloud 100 2022 list, ranked number 100, the lack of women in space is staggering., Colin tells Forbes that when Front recently announced a $6.5 million fundraiser, his team turned to Crunchbase to find other SaaS companies founded and run by women worth $1 billion. or more. was over. He only got 10 more out of 13,160, says Colin.

“I was impressed. I always knew it was bad enough,” he says. “I never played the gender card because my fight is not to differentiate between men and women. I think it’s worth noting, because it might inspire other peopleCollin has emphasized gender equality at the Front, and women now make up more than 50% of the Front’s executives and 80% of its management team.

The highest ranked female-led business on this year’s list is Canvawhich is at number three. CEO Melanie Perkins launched Canva in 2013 with Cameron Adams and her husband Cliff Obrecht. The company started as a small annual design company and has since grown into a $40 billion powerhouse. Online graphic design tools have helped school organizations, social media managers, students, and businesses to create engaging images. “Our company mission is to empower the world we design. And we really mean everyone,” Perkins told Forbes in 2019.

is number 32 Guild Education, an education platform committed to helping the nation’s largest employers design benefits programs This allows employees to enter the university for free. The woman who created the $553 million machine is Colorado native Rachel Carlson. Carlson has a long history with Forbes as a member of the Hall of Fame Forbes 30 Under 30 and alumni of the 2017 list 30 under 30, She is also included in the list of the richest self-made women in America. After a difficult work experience, during which he said no one told him how equity and pay worked, Carlson decided to do things differently when he founded Guild Education in 2015. thought I could do something different in myself. Teach the company and everyone the value of equity,” he told Forbes in 2021. “Now every employee has a position of $15,000 or more.

“I got this real feeling, like I have to do things right.”

Karen Peacock, CEO of Intercom.

Not far behind, is at number 34 LaunchDarkly, co-founded by Edith Harbaugh in 2014Harbaugh has established himself as a leader in his industry, previously serving as a judge for The List. Forbes 30 Under 30 Business Technology through 2022. The company is valued at $3 billion, which the co-founder and CEO attributed to LaunchDarkly’s ability to meet the needs of its customers and employees. “The way we got there delighted our customers, made our customers a huge fan of what we were doing, and took care of the team as well,” Harbaugh told Forbes earlier this year. . With 532 employees and big-name clients like IBM and Grubhub, the software feature management company has proven it can grow year after year.

Karen Peacock was passionate about technology from an early age, taking a STEM tutoring job as a high school student. She is now CEO of one of America’s largest technology companies. Intercom, ranked 35th on this year’s list, is a $1.2 billion communications platform With leading clients like Meta, Contentful and Microsoft. At the 2019 SXSW panel, she spoke about being the only woman in male-dominated venues. “I was in a lot of circles, especially back then, I was the only woman. I got this real feeling, like I had to do the right thing,” Mayur explains. amputate penis.” Peacock is proud to support women in tech and make room for more women.

Bernadette Nixon is CEO of Cloud100 newcomer Algolia, the API discovery and search platform is at number 40 in this year’s list. In addition to being led by women, more than 50% of its employees identify as women, according to a company-wide survey, which is unheard of in the tech industry. Nixon says Algolia was built with the user in mind and expects 12,500 of its customers to use the platform for inspiration. “It drives app and website research, but it also inspires people on their journey of discovery,” he says.

Israeli-born Inat Guez has over 20 years of global workforce management experience, which she brought to bear when she founded Papaya Global in 2016., The company is one of Israel’s fastest growing startups with a $3.7 billion valuation and an annual revenue growth rate of 300%. The company jumped 24 places from last year’s list to reach the 74th position. As CEO, Eynat sees diversity as a core company value, with half of its 200 employees identifying as women.

Co-founder and CEO, Laura Behren Wu founded Shippo as a store with a classmate in 2014 on lineBut the two switched to shipping when they noticed their peers at other online stores were having trouble getting their products to customers. “It was such an obvious problem when we first started running our business online. When it comes to shipping, it’s still quite hard to understand,” Behrens Wu says. This year, the shipping platform of billion-dollar e-commerce jumped nine places from 2021 to rank 85. Born in Germany, Behren Wu attended the University of Switzerland He came to the United States for an internship in 2013 and lives since at Shippo’s headquarters in San Francisco.

Although this year’s list includes more women-led businesses than in previous years, There are still hurdles within the startup space that need to be addressed, particularly the funding gap., According to Pitchbook, companies founded solely by women raised just 2% of all venture capital-backed funding between 2020 and 2021, while companies with at least one female founder received 15.6% of funding . Women make up just 2.4% of startup founders, and there are even fewer women in the venture capital industry, with women making up just 12% of venture capital firm executives.

Another issue facing women running startups is the pay gap.According to Cruise Consulting, in 2022, the average salary of a CEO of a company start It’s $150,000. Male CEOs are on average about $3,000 more than him, while female CEOs are on average $17,000 less. Fewer dollars in endorsements means female CEOs are more likely to win a lower salary.

However, there is reason to be hopeful: Pitchbook found that venture capital funding for female-led startups grew 83% between 2020 and 2021. “The B2B space seems to be really male-dominated. said Behren Wu.I’m thrilled to be on this list because it’s great to show other future female founders that the B2B space is a great place to start a business.,

Alex Konrad and Michaela Huck contributed reporting.