FemTech Analytics, a strategic analytical agency focused on the emerging FemTech sector and a subsidiary of UK-based consortium Deep Knowledge Group, has recently created a global list of Top 500+ FemTech Personalities.
The FemTech personalities have been selected based on their leadership roles, passion for FemTech, the size of their followers and weight of their influence, their speaking engagements and the articles they have published over a 12-month period.
FemTech is defined as software, diagnostics, products and services that use technology to focus on women’s health and wellness. FemTech encompasses several sub sectors such as Women’s Wellness, Menstrual Health, Reproductive Health & Contraception, Longevity, Pregnancy & Nursing, General Health Care, Mental Health, and Pelvic & Uterine Health Care.
In the UAE the top 10 most influential FemTech figures are:
Sophie Smith
Sophie Smith is the Founder and CEO of Nabta Health, a hybrid healthcare company accelerating the detection, diagnosis, and treatment of chronic diseases in women in the Middle East and North Africa.
By combining the best of digital and traditional healthcare along patient-led clinical pathways, Nabta Health aims to make value-based care affordable and accessible to all women in MENA, while addressing some of the systemic gender and racial biases that exist in healthcare today.
Prior to founding Nabta, Sophie worked as a technology consultant with Accenture for four years, before going on to found a series of companies, including impact startups in Pakistan (HealthTech) and Sierra Leone (ClimateTech).
Sophie holds a degree in History from the University of Cambridge, and an MBA from the Quantic School of Business and Technology.
Mashal Waqar
Mashal Waqar is a writer, entrepreneur, and techie. She’s currently an EIR (entrepreneur-in-residence) at MyLily, a Hatch & Boost portfolio femtech startup destigmatizing the taboo around women’s health in the MENA region. MyLily has a period and femcare subscription box service, and has content that’s reached over 125,000 women and has been viewed over 18 Million times in 2021.
Mashal was previously the co-founder and COO of The Tempest, a global media company reaching millions of readers around the world. Her successes at The Tempest include working on the fellowship program which has graduated 700+ fellows into the media industry, global expansion, and audience growth into the millions range. She was also a cofounder at 60 Day Startups, a business accelerator supporting women entrepreneurs in growing from early stage to revenue in 60 days.
Mashal has been recognized for her work by the Pakistan Foreign Minister for the Achieving Overseas Pakistanis list, 2019 Forbes Middle East 30 Under 30 list, 2019 Entrepreneur Middle East’s Achieving Women of the year, and 2020 Women in Marketing Changemaker of the Year. She’s an advisor at Brulee Beauty, Polinate, and NOMAD (a project by Al-Ahli Holding Group). She has previously co-authored a research paper on challenges faced by female entrepreneurs, and is a co-author of the Possibilities Project. Mashal is passionate about women empowerment, startups, and media and is a frequent speaker on these topics; she has given two TEDx talks, and has been a speaker at Stanford University and Harvard University conferences. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computing Security from Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) Dubai. She’s also a Sr. Consultant at Telescopic Ventures, and a board member of the RIT Alumni Association.
Lucy Chow
Lucy Chow is focused on supporting entrepreneurs, disruption, innovation and women on boards. She funds and works closely with female entrepreneurs, helping them build their early-stage companies into thriving revenue generating businesses. She is the Secretary General, WBAF Global Women Leaders Committee and Investment Committee Chair, WBAF Angel Investment Fund.
She was one of #LinkedInTopVoices 2020 for MENA, one of CEO Middle East’s Influential Women in the Arab World 2020 and is Titanium Magazine’s Top 50 Global Inspirational Women to Look Out for in 2022. She has a video series targeted at entrepreneurs titled “Down to Business.”
She serves in advisory and Non-Executive Board roles for The American School of Dubai, Solidarity Circle, UNHCR, Women’s Angel Investor Network (WAIN), and Boy Scouts of America (Troop 813).
Heather Henyon
Heather Henyon is a venture investor focused on women-led tech companies in the Middle East, US and Europe with 100 direct and fund investments. Heather has been active in cross-border deal structuring, investment placement, closing, negotiation and portfolio management. Her accomplishments include the closing of more than 20 microfinance debt transactions amounting to $47 million in seven countries; founding the first social business in the Arab region; structuring a $50 million loan guarantee program for microfinance investments; and launching the first women’s angel investor group in the Middle East. Heather was nominated as Investor of the Year by Arabian Business in 2016 and 2017.
Elissa Freiha
Elissa Freiha is an entrepreneur, angel, producer, activist, Forbes 30U30. She is the founder of female-focused company Womena and has invested in more than 35 companies. Freiha is also an executive producer at Womentum, a documentary series and a three-month acceleration program focused on women-led tech startups from across MENA. Womentum is the result of a partnership between Standard Chartered and Womena. Freiha helped to expand the business to Egypt by setting up official headquarters in Cairo.
Chanda Lokendra Kundnaney
Obsessed with leveling the playing field, Chanda is the driving force behind LiZZOM. A serial entrepreneur, and a sensitive soul, an MBA by education, a financial planner by profession, a snack connoisseur, and certainly an artist by hobby. Being a big fan of productivity and mental wellness, she embarked on her entrepreneurial journey for the third time with LiZZOM, centering vision around what women should want. Realizing that women put their menstrual life and experiences, at last, owing to the taboo attached to the subject. She started her lifestyle organic period care brand with two objectives in mind. One was to provide a solution to common menstrual problems and the other one was to unmask the period taboos. Strong supporter of sustainable goals and committed to eradicating period poverty, Chanda is an inquisitive mind currently exploring the role of block chain (the tech angle) in women’s health.
Seema Gupta
The founder of Orgabliss, Seema Gupta, is making a difference with her one-of-a-kind product. The cautiousness around women’s health and hygiene has always been an issue. But Seema took inspiration from that and turned her attention on women’s hygiene into a business idea.
Orgabliss, within just a year, has become a lifestyle choice for women across Dubai. And this is because Gupta has always been attentive towards making the product healthy for women. She went to new heights to develop a product that not just promotes a hygienic lifestyle, but also a better and cleaner environment.
Seema was aware of the dangers of the chemicals used in sanitary napkins, which is a necessity for every woman. To safeguard women’s health, she launched 100% organic sanitary pads, bringing forth change in women’s hygiene and the planet. Her commitment towards making a better world for the future generation has made Seema Gupta an inspiration. For more information, visit: FemTech Analytics
