Discussions about the role of women in the startup ecosystem need to be understood within the broader context of global funding dynamics, which continue to show significant disparities. A Founders Forum Group report found that more than 80 percent of startup funding continued to flow to male founders throughout 2024–2025, while women founders received a much smaller share. This illustrates that access to capital across the global technology ecosystem remains unevenly distributed.
In terms of funding value, Tech in Asia data shows that startups founded or led by women raised approximately US$304.66 million throughout 2024–2025. Meanwhile, startups founded by men continued to dominate, raising approximately US$1.23 billion over the same period. This gap highlights that, in terms of funding value, women founders still have considerably less access to capital than their male counterparts.
The number of local startups founded by women has grown more rapidly since the mid-2010s. After years of gradual growth, the number of new women-founded startups jumped from 15 in 2014 to 27 in 2015.
This growth continued over the following years and peaked in 2020 with 29 new startups. Despite some fluctuations, the number of women-founded startups remained relatively high throughout 2017–2022, ranging from 17 to 22 startups per year.
After reaching its peak in 2020, the trend began to slow. The number of new startups fell to 20 in 2021 and 22 in 2022, before declining sharply to just four startups in 2023. In 2024, the figure increased slightly to five startups, but remained well below the levels recorded during the peak period several years earlier.
These dynamics show that women’s participation in Indonesia’s startup ecosystem experienced strong acceleration from the mid- to late 2010s before slowing again in recent years.
Looking at the sectors in which they operate, women-founded startups are most heavily concentrated in commerce, followed by media, healthcare, and financial services. Meanwhile, sectors such as green technology, manufacturing, and tourism account for a smaller number of startups.
This distribution indicates that women founders tend to be involved in sectors closely connected to people’s everyday needs, while also highlighting the increasingly diverse areas of innovation they are exploring beyond these more traditional sectors.
Overall, the sectoral distribution of women founders in Indonesia does not differ significantly from global trends. Both globally and domestically, the Founders Forum Group report shows that women tend to have a stronger presence in sectors directly oriented toward consumer needs and services, including commerce, healthcare, education, media, and consumer products.
For a more concrete picture, a number of local startups led or founded by women represent a wide range of backgrounds and business sectors, as reflected in the following list of women founders across different industries.
The presence of these founders shows that women’s participation in Indonesia’s startup ecosystem is not sporadic, but has developed into a meaningful network of contributions across various sectors. This participation is reflected not only in the growing number of founders, but also in the range of strategic roles they take on.
Across diverse industry backgrounds, this participation also reflects the growing opportunities for women to take on leadership roles and contribute to the growth and development of Indonesia’s digital entrepreneurship ecosystem.
