Call it an “old boys’ club” or “brogrammer culture,” there’s no denying that the tech world is still dominated by men. Of course, much has been written about the lack of diversity in the industry. Most technology companies are led by men and there are few female role models.

According to a report by The World Bank, women make up less than a third of the global workforce in technology-related industries. In the European Union, they make up only 17% of the ICT (Information and Communication Technology) sector.

This gap grows further at board level, where women hold only 11% of leadership positions. To add insult to injury, Atomico’s State of European technology report revealed that the share of funding raised by women-only teams has dropped from 3% to a paltry 1% since 2018. And those who do receive funding receive less than male-led teams and mixed gender-led teams. Sigh.

Grim statistics

The statistics remain bleak, even as numerous studies show that the most diverse tech companies consistently outperform homogeneous ones. In a global analysis of 2,400 companies conducted by Credit Suisse, organizations with at least one female board member achieved a higher return on equity and higher net income growth than organizations without women on the board.

And when VCs invest in women-led businesses, they also make more money. Research shows that female leadership influences company performance and overall growth. This is shown by a study by BCG and Mass Challenge women-run businesses higher income – more than twice as much per dollar invested.

The following three women: Anne Boden, founder of Starling Bank; Victoria van Lennep, co-founder of lending platform Lendable; and Dr. Loubna Bouarfa, founder and CEO of OKRA Technologies, are living proof that women-led companies are poised to disrupt, innovate and elevate the tech world. Better yet, all three are currently hiring.

1. Starling Bank

Anne Boden is quite the glass ceiling breaker. When Starling Bank received its banking license in 2016, she became the first woman in history to set up a UK bank. She has since led her team to launch the UK’s first mobile payment accounts, partnering with the Post Office, raising over £300m in funding and opening three branches. Now Starling employs more than 2,000 people and has more than three million accounts.

“The vast majority of people in this industry are men in their early thirties, with beards. People don’t expect me to be a fintech entrepreneur,” Boden told The Times. “I think it’s harder when you stand out, but I’d much rather stand out by being the only woman to start a bank in the UK.”

Does this sound like the kind of leader you’d like to work for? Starling is looking for an infrastructure engineer for his bank in London. Starling is open-minded when it comes to hiring and cares more about suitability and attitude than specific experience or qualifications. It’s very open about how it delivers software. It believes in clean coding, simple solutions, automated testing, and continuous deployment. If you care enough about finding elegant solutions to difficult technical problems, Starling would love to hear from you. Read everything you need to know about this exciting feature here.

2. Loanable

Just as Starling Bank earned critical acclaim when it announced in 2020 that it was profitable after just three years, the leading AI-powered consumer finance platform, Lendable, has been quietly monetizing with revenues well above most European unicorns.

Launched in 2014 and co-founded by Victoria van Lennep, its mission was to undercut traditional banks by offering competitive rates and fast applications. Now it approves a new loan every 30 seconds, employs over 200 people and is in The Sunday Times Top 10 in Tech, ranked by fastest growing sales.

Lendable is looking for a new Senior Data Scientist for its team. This role is at the heart of the brand’s USP, developing the credit risk models to underwrite loans and credit card products. If successful, you will gain access to the latest machine learning techniques, combined with a rich data repository to deliver the best market risk models. Has your interest been awakened? Read all about the feature here.

3. OKRA Technologies

OKRA Technologies is a leading provider of AI-driven analytics for global life sciences. The company was founded in 2015 by Dr. Loubna Bouarfa, with the vision to move healthcare towards a future of personalized medicine powered by explainable AI.

Dr. Bouarfa’s goal has always been to ensure that AI makes us more intelligent as humans and enables us to make better decisions. She has been instrumental in building the OKRA Explainability Engine that empowers users by providing explanations behind the output of AI systems.

Last year, OKRA made the 2022 Deloitte Tech Fast 50 list for the UK’s fastest-growing technology companies, and also beat 70 startups from 20 different European countries to claim the Best Female-Led Startup award at the StartUp Europe Awards.

The company is currently looking for a Junior/Senior NLP Data Scientist to join the Leiden team in the Netherlands. As an NLP Data Scientist at OKRA, you play a critical role in designing and building solutions using the leading AI engine for healthcare and life sciences.

You’ll build new capabilities that can be leveraged to capture insights into unstructured free text data to drive appropriate actions and desired outcomes. In this role, you will work closely with the executive team, who have more than 15 years of experience implementing machine learning technology in real-world applications, turning research into commercial reality. Does this sound like your kind of role? You can apply here.

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