In honor of International Women’s Day, we’re spotlighting women CEOs and founders from HolonIQ’s Global EdTech 800, the world’s top EdTech Startups who are transforming the way the world learns.
Through 2020, HolonIQ identified the top 800 EdTech startups around the world. Region by region, we mapped the most promising EdTech startups, both early and late stage. We mapped the Africa EdTech 50, Australia and New Zealand EdTech 50, Europe EdTech 100, India and South Asia EdTech 100, LATAM EdTech 100, Nordic and Baltic EdTech 50, North America EdTech 100, Russia and CIS EdTech 100 and finally the Southeast Asia EdTech 50. To be eligible, these companies had to be startups (i.e. not acquired, controlled or listed), operating in the field of education, learning or training technology, and generally less than 10 years old.
In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8 – 2021, we’re celebrating the women leading these incredible startups as CEOs, Founders and Co-Founders — and the work they’re doing across 185 EdTech companies around the world. 21% (170) of the 800 companies were founded by women, and 13% (104) have women CEOs or Co-CEOs. Through our work at HolonIQ, which is also co-founded and co-led by a woman, we are determined to play our part in eliminating the gender gap in leadership, entrepreneurship and education.
Despite the progress made in parity for women, there’s still an enormous amount to be done. Our Global State of Play Report on Women CEOs and Leadership around the world deep dives into the numbers across different industries to highlight the areas making most progress and where much work is still to be done.
210 Top Women CEOs & Founders leading Global EdTech Startups
The following amazing women have Founded or Lead the most promising Edtech Startups globally. Building and running a startup is not for the faint hearted with an estimated 90% failure rate and research shows that barriers for women to start or lead a successful business are higher than normal. The women you see below have not only overcome significant odds but are focused on making a difference in the lives of millions of learners worldwide. Congratulations on your impact so far and we look forward to tracking your progress over the coming years.
If by chance we have missed a female CEO or Founder/Co-Founder who leads an EdTech company selected in HolonIQ’s Global EdTech 800 Series, please contact us immediately and we will update the list.

Daphne Koller
Co-Founder at Coursera

Dasha Kroshkina
CEO and Founder at StudyFree

Denise Wang
Co-Founder at UniCareer

Diana Andronic
COO and Co-Founder at Fun Easy Learn

Diane Lahmy
Co-Founder and VP, Growth at Klassroom

Diane Lenne
CEO and Founder at We Are Peers

Divya Agarwal
Co-Founder at ProEves

Divya Gokulnath
Co-Founder at Byju's

Dora Palfi
CEO and Co-Founder at ImagiLabs

Dorothy Yiu
COO and Co-Founder at EngageRocket

Dr Gráinne Oates
CEO and Founder at Quitch

Dr Itoro Emembolu
Director at TechQuest STEM Academy LTD/GTE
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