Women Entrepreneurs Around The World Chapter 2: Asia
After last month’s portraits of strong and innovative women in Africa, we now turn to our next continent, Asia. We’ve all heard of the success stories in China, Japan and Singapore. But what about the other countries that aren’t necessarily in the media’s spotlight? From an Indian woman who tracks the availability of piped water through SMS to an eco-ethical fashion startup in The Philippines, let’s zoom in on the emerging gems of this vibrant continent!
Hooi Ling Tan
Country: Malaysia
Company: GrabTaxi (MyTeksi)
Position: Co-Founder
With companies like Uber and Easy Taxi, Southeast Asia is flooded with ride booking companies. Yet Malaysia-based GrabTaxi is gaining traction and was recently named one of Southeast Asia’s unicorn startups, with an estimated billion-dollar valuation.
A former McKinsey consultant, Hooi Ling Tan co-founded GrabTaxi with Anthony Tan, one of her classmates at Harvard. Their aim was to connect customers directly to taxi drivers via a mobile app. So they worked together on a business plan and were the runners-up in Harvard Business School’s 2011 Business Plan Contest. Launched in 2012 in Malaysia, the app is now available in 21 cities across the region. The company has raised USD 340 million in funding so far.
GrabTaxi Advertisement
Nabilah Alsagoff
Country: Indonesia
Company: Doku
Position: Founder and COO
Launched in 2007, DOKU is Indonesia’s leading e-payment solutions provider. The company’s COO, Nabilah Alsagoff, had 15 years of experience in developing customer-centric marketing concepts, IT services and sales programs for diverse companies and industries. She graduated from Murdoch University in 1990 with a Bachelor’s Degree in English and Comparative Literature.
Alsagoff came up with DOKU right after the Bali terrorist attacks in 2002 when she was working on a tourism website. A Malaysian company was servicing payments for transactions, so Alsagoff formed a similar concept for Indonesia. With a client list that includes names like Air Asia, Sinar Mas Land, Oppo, VIVA news portal, and Indonesian Idol, Doku is arguably one of the top companies in the region for online payments. It has also partnered with financial service brands including VISA, Mastercard, Mandiri, e-Pay, and BRI. A promising venture!
DOKU Logo
Reese Fernandez-Ruiz
Country: The Philippines
Company: Rags2Riches
Position: Co-Founder
Rags2Riches, Inc. is a for-profit social enterprise based in Manila, Philippines. The team’s mission is to create eco-ethical fashion and home accessories out of up cycled scrap cloth, organic materials and indigenous fabrics, by working with artisans living in the poor communities across the country. Since 2007, Fernandez-Ruiz and her team have trained 900 people in the business, mostly women who reside in one of the Philippines’ biggest dumping sites.
In 2010, Fernandez-Ruiz was named a Young Laureate for the Environment by the Rolex Awards for Enterprise. The 29-year-old was also recognized by Forbes in its prestigious annual list of “30 Under 30 Social Entrepreneurs” this year. The American magazine said that she belongs to “an elite group of people who are directing their talent and conviction to better the world.”
Rags2Riches Accessories
Thuy Thanh Truong
Country: Vietnam
Company: Tappy
Position: Co-Founder
Even though Vietnam’s tech scene has been relatively quiet these past few years, it has grown increasingly ferocious lately. One example is the recent acquisition of Tappy by California-based game-building platform Weeby.
Thuy Thanh Truong is a 29-year-old savvy entrepreneur and has made quite a name for herself in Vietnam’s startup scene. She co-founded Greengar, one of Vietnam’s successful mobile startups dealing with games and utilities, as well as Tappy, a social app that transforms any location into a virtual community sharing content. In May, Tappy was acquired by Weeby for an undisclosed seven-figure sum. Thuy is now Weeby’s Director of Business Development for Asia and will be based out of Singapore, along with some of the Tappy team, including her technical co-founders, Leslie Ngan Nguyen and Thuc Vu.
Tappy and Weeby Logos
Anu Sridharan
Country: India
Company: NextDrop
Position: Founder
Anu Sridharan was 23 years old when she became CEO of the social-oriented startup NextDrop. Founded in Hubli, a town approximately 500 kilometres from Bangalore, the startup allows Indian residents in the urban areas to track the availability of piped water through SMS. Sridharan began by tackling the problem of erratic water supply, as in most of urban India, water is available only a few hours at a time or a few times a week, and residents have no way of knowing when. Working with operators in the field, NextDrop sends text messages 60 minutes before water arrives in your tap, while also offering utility boards the tools to better manage and track leakages in water supply.
Anu has a Bachelors Degree in Civil Engineering and a Masters in Civil Systems Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. She served as the Education and Health director for a water/sanitation project in the slums of Mumbai, India called “Haath Mein Sehat”, where she piloted a successful volunteer recruitment and community-training model.
NextDrop SMS Alert
