Charting new territories: Entrepreneurial women in the tech world

Sonal Vats

They may not get the same number of opportunities as their male counterparts, their pay scale might be half compared to a man in the same role, and they may not have many role models or mentors, but women entrepreneurs are breaking the glass ceiling to chart new territories in the technology world.

It’s an open truth that women are vastly underrepresented in the global technology workforce with limited networking opportunities and an entrenched gender bias. So, this Women’s day we bring you some of the women technopreneurs who have made it big in this fiefdom still held by Men. These women with their entrepreneurial grit and perseverance have carved a niche for themselves and are inspirations for many young girls aiming to make it big one day in the field of technology.

Shilpa Mahna Bhatnagar, CEO & Co-founder, Evoxyz Technologies:

With more than 18 years of experience in the Software industry, Shilpa Mahna Bhatnagar calls inception of Evoxyz as her biggest achievement. Evoxyz technologies is an IoT Tech Startup building child safety solutions that provide highly configurable and scalable platform for micro-location tracking that can be easily integrated with other solution providers to enable quick development of location-based solutions.

The startup has also won “Tipping Point 1.0”, a unique pitch competition for all Women Entrepreneurs who are trying to make a difference. Bhatnagar maintains a 360-degree approach on things to enhance the overall trajectory of the business. She identifies the problem areas and intelligently levels the uneven playing field to ensure rapid growth and success of the organisation.

Prior to Evoxyz, she has worked with various prominent organisations such as C-DOT, Aricent, Hughes Group and more. She has completed her Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science and Engineering from PEC- the University of Technology in Chandigarh.

Mitsuyo Tamai, Founder and CEO, KIWAMI:

Mitsuyo Tamai is the Founder and CEO of KIWAMI, a unique venture towards educational development outside the school. KIWAMI is a self-learning and cloud-based learning system, where children from pre-school till class 8^th are taught Maths and Science utilising ICT through videos, movies and 3D animations.

What sets KIWAMI apart is that it provides skill-based learning rather than content-based learning. Also, the ICT teaching method combines movies, textbooks and uses top-notch Japanese animation technology.

Tamai is an educationist, an advisor and has enlightened many minds through her innovative teaching methodology. Apart from her Indian venture, currently, she has partner companies in countries such as Singapore, India, Vietnam and the US.

Srividhya Srinivasan, Co-founder, Amagi Media Labs:

An innovator by nature, Srividhya co-founded Amagi Media Labs and currently heads technology and operations for Amagi. Prior to Amagi, Srividhya partnered with KA Srinivasan and Baskar Subramanian to establish Impulsesoft.

Srividhya was granted a patent for using technology to intelligently break satellite feeds to insert region specific adverts, relevant to the area, without breaking the flow of the content in the channel. This made her one of the few women in India who has innovated a patent technology and disrupted the television industry.

Mausmi Ambastha- Co-founder & COO, ThreadSol

Mausmi Ambastha- Co-founder & COO at ThreadSol, is an established expert in the garment industry with over 13 years of experience. ThreadSol Softwares, which was established in 2012 is a pioneer in enterprise material management enabling manufacturers to boost their top line by reducing material usage and hence production cost.

Within three years of incorporation and presence in 12 geographies, ThreadSol has won many prestigious awards like Microsoft Bizspark, Venture Engine, Young Turks, Grace Hopper Women Entrepreneurship, SmartCEO, Spirit of Manufacturing by TiE Con. ThreadSol products have been recognised and adopted by the top apparel manufacturers like Madura Garments of Aditya Birla Group, Blackberrys, Raymonds, MAS Synergy, Hirdaramani Group, Orit Apparels, Dekko Group and many more.

Sonia Sharma, Co-founder, GoodWorkLabs:

GoodWorkLabs was founded in 2013 by Sonia Sharma and was backed by Vishwas Mudagal (also, her husband), as the first investor. GoodWorkLabs helps Fortune 500 companies and startups alike to design and build robust products, be it mobile apps, software products or games. The firm has an in-house UX Design Studio, which builds aesthetic, easy-to-use and engaging user experience and interfaces that delight the target audience.

Sonia is known by her colleagues as a task-master who can move heaven and earth to ensure the company delivers on its promises and every team member works towards the same vision to make GoodWorkLabs a global leader in innovation outsourcing, delivering cutting-edge software solutions.

Her passion is to encourage and support women in their mission to succeed as entrepreneurs and achievers in their respective fields, where passion, hard work, determination, ambition and leadership come into play.