The rise of the She Economy is trendy globally.
Reportedly, women drove 70-80% of all consumer purchasing globally in 2015, through a combination of their buying power and influence. In China, 62% of Chinese household consumption was dominated by women, and the overall market size of female consumption in 2015 reached USD 2.6 trillion.
She Loves Tech, a tech contest founded by Lean In China, held its final women entrepreneurship competition on September 16 in Beijing. The contestant teams hail from seven countries including China, Canada, Israel, Germany, Pakistan, and more.
The future: the era of female leadership
The contest opened with female investor Long Yu, founder of Bertelsmann Asia Investment Fund (BAI), who addressed the importance of increased investment for women, especially in the tech industry. She pledged to invest in women entrepreneurs because women leaders, she said, are skilled in making crucial decisions and are worthy of investment.
Compared to male counterparts, women entrepreneurs may need to devote more time and energy to outside responsibilities, especially for those who are married and have children. Though challenging for women to start businesses, once they are determined, they are unremitting. As women participate more and more in social development, Long says, more female leaders will shine in the future.
The Top 3
The 10 contestant teams came from various industries including AI, healthcare, AR/VR, IoT, and others.
Ultimately, the Israeli voice recognition startup Voiceitt prevailed and won first prize. A technology designed to assist consumers with pronunciation disabilities, Voiceitt takes speech which is not understandable due to poor pronunciation and converts it into corrected words, verbally and physically.
Second prize went to QuantWave from Canada, which is a healthtech startup that runs a real-time pathogen detection system that requires no laboratory facilities. It can greatly increase medical tests efficiency and lower labor cost.
And third prize went to Chinese team NaiNiuMaMa. The startup provides online-to-offline services on professional puerperal care, health management, and other services to pregnant women as well as users who are already mothers.
Who knows what’s next? We’ll likely continue to see more surprises from women entrepreneurs in the near future.
(All photo from She Loves Tech)
Read More: Takeaways from She Loves Tech: Investment in women is the future trend