Women-led unicorns no longer a myth, but venture capital needs to catch up

Dr Jamie Chiu, the founder of Hong Kong start-up Good Brain Labs, knows the difficulties of being in the minority as a woman entrepreneur in the city.

She is often one of the only women in the room during meetings and said she has received offhand comments that undermine her intellect or credibility, such as, “Oh, you’re a PhD. But you’re very pretty”.

“When you walk into a meeting, people think that the boys are the founders, not the girls. The men don’t always recognise me as an equal, and this can be quite subtle,” said Chiu, whose company uses games to screen for and measure mental health. “Even from male teammates, it can be hard for them to understand.”

Attitudes are changing. Several women who have founded companies in Hong Kong said their experiences have been positive and have not found gender to hold them back.

But reaching the status of unicorn – a private company worth more than US$1 billion – has proven more difficult for women founders globally, even as the number of companies started by women hit a historic high this year, according to industry data.

As of May, less than 25 of the 239 venture capital-backed companies globally had a woman founder, according to Pitchbook, the financial data and software company. Of those, 16 were from the United States.