We’re putting tech for her at the forefront of power, progress and change.

After having difficulties conceiving and suffering miscarriages, Lina Chan founded Adia Health to give women the tools and knowledge to control their own fertility journey, by providing access to expert support. Adia Health’s online platform gives women personalised fertility health information through interactive quizzes, courses, and informative articles. Lina Chan wanted to make fertility information more accessible for women who needed support at a low cost.

Eight years ago Judith Owigar, Angela O. Lungati, Linda Kamau, and Marie Githinji were among very few women in tech in Kenya, and so created AkiraChix. With support from Google and the Institute of Software Technology, AkiraChix works with women in deprived areas of Nairobi, including young girls from poor social and economic backgrounds, to teach them skills in programming, graphic design, and technology training and entrepreneurship.

Ask Without Shame was developed by Ruth Nabembezi, herself HIV-positive, who was determined to find a solution to address the stigma around sex in Uganda that prevents individuals from seeking preventative information in the area of sex. Ask Without Shame, provides emergency sex education anonymously through an app, WhatsApp, phone calls and SMS. Medical experts and counsellors are available 24/7 to assist users with support and SHRH information.

Based in Switzerland and the USA, the Ava bracelet provides women with a modern, convenient, and non-invasive method of tracking their cycles and their health at every phase of life using accurate and reliable data. The bracelet uses sensor technology to analyse women’s cycles for those who are pregnant, trying to conceive, or who simply want to better understand their bodies.

B-wom, based in Spain and headed by CEO Helena Torras, is an interactive app created to empower women to take control of their own health and wellbeing, focusing on markets in Latin America, Europe and the US. B-wom offers counselling, specialised information, personalised workouts, tracking, and evaluation for women to manage and improve their pelvic and intimate health. Intimate health is surrounded by many taboos that can cause women to feel insecure. B-wom believes in using technology to create a positive impact on a global scale to overcome this.

Young entrepreneur Lulu-said-Ameir, led the development of Be a Lady, which installs sanitary pad vending machines in schools to supply young girls and women from low-income households with access to good quality and affordable sanitary pads in Tanzania. Information from the use of these vending machines is then utilised to analyse school attendance rates and make recommendations. Be a Lady aims to reduce high levels of school absenteeism in Dar es Salaam and hopes to expand to other cities in Tanzania.

Breast Check Now is an app launched by a UK-based charity, to encourage women to regularly check their breasts in the comfort of their homes, and empowering them with the information and knowledge to do so. The free app has helpful information about the signs and symptoms of breast cancer. Users can write and store notes in the app after each check to help them get to know their breasts and monitor what is normal in relation to their bodies over time.

Bright Sky is a free mobile app providing information to anyone who may be in an abusive relationship or concerned for someone else who may be. The app is designed to be used by specialist and non-specialist practitioners, and employers and provides information about issues around domestic abuse such as online safety, stalking, harassment, and sexual consent. Users can record incidents of abuse via text, audio, video, or photo to a secure ‘My Journal’ tool.

Dr. Cortina McCurry, an expert in women’s health, and Rob Haggett, 10 years of experience in social impact, established the Caia platform. Caia supports women’s and family health by connecting women with qualified health professionals, from their mobile, tablet or laptop. Consultations and appointments are carried out through online video chats so women can access support in a more convenient way.

CareNX’s “Care Mother” platform, based in India, empowers healthcare workers to monitor patients’ health during pregnancy and reduce high maternity deaths caused by pregnancy complications via two apps. Healthcare providers connect with the CareDr app and patients through the CareMother app. This allows healthcare workers to monitor vitals, identify irregular symptoms, and provide consultations to avoid health risks during pregnancy.

Chat Crecer was created as a solution to high infant and maternal mortality rates in Argentina. Whilst regular prenatal checkups are a proven method to reduce risk of mortality, attendance rates for these checkups were low, with more than 30% of mothers failing to attend. So the Argentinian Undersecretary of Digital Government, Daniel Abadie designed a virtual assistant chatbot via Facebook messenger to provide a vital channel for interaction with pregnant women via their phones. The chatbot sends out relevant information and check up reminders about their pregnancy in an accessible way.

Chipatala cha pa Foni (CCPF) is an initiative from the NGO VillageReach, aiming to create a link between health centres and communities. Originally developed as a maternal and child health innovation, the service has become a general health hotline, covering topics such as nutrition and sexual and reproductive health in accordance with Ministry of Health guidelines. Through CCPF, women and caregivers can also sign up to receive voice reminders on maternal and child health topics specific to their month of pregnancy or their child’s age.

Clio is an app aiming to help women in their mid life to live healthier and easier lives. It stores all the information women might need related to menopause. Women can keep track of their symptoms, get tailored recipes, meal plans, and personalised tips based on their logs. It also includes science-backed resources to improve health and audio exercises for relief.

Dr. Consulta was founded as a physical space to keep patient records by Thomaz Srougi in the favelas of São Paulo, Brazil. Today, Dr. Consulta stores patient records digitally, improves patient record tracking, and opens opportunities for machine learning. Now an extensive online entity, Dr. Consulta focuses on the 100 million uninsured in Brazil with hubs in São Paulo, Santos, and São Vicente. The knowledge acquired through Dr. Consulta is then used to keep patient costs low and to tailor services to local areas.

Elvie is the world’s first silent, wireless, and wearable breast pump. Founded by Tania Boler, the Elvie Pump app monitors milk volume in real time, tracks pumping history, and controls the pump remotely. For many women returning to work, breast pumping, and maintaining a milk supply can be challenging. Armed with female insight and design expertise, Elvie works to transform the way that women think and feel about themselves.

Founded by a young Cameroonian entrepreneur, GiftedMom is a leading mobile health provider that leverages last mile technologies to provide pregnant women and new mothers access to health information and strengthen links to antenatal care in Cameroon.

Sadia Khatri set up the Girls at Dhabas in 2015 to challenge perceptions of how women access public spaces in Pakistan. Girls at Dhabas runs a blog and an Instagram account, which collates photographs of women in places normally dominated by men, such as sitting at dhabas. Dhabas is a local term for roadside tea-shops that are traditionally male-dominated domains in South Asia.

Gyan Jyoti is a smartphone app developed for use by frontline health workers in Bihar to make it easier for married women living in rural India to access relevant information on contraceptive choices. Through motivational videos the app provides information regarding family planning that rural women may otherwise not have access to.

HARASSmap is tackling the issue of lack of action around sexual harassment in Egypt. It aims to engage all parts of the Egyptian society and create an environment with zero tolerance toward sexual harassment. The online platform includes a guide on how to take action when you witness sexual harassment and provides the possibility to report incidents to the platform as well as if someone intervened. The incidents are being plotted on a map and indicates hotspot areas, as well as visually showing the often lack of action from by-standers.

HeraMED, a technology start-up based in Israel and Australia,have developed HeraBEAT™; their first medically accurate, scientifically optimised, smartphone-based foetal heartbeat monitor for home use. HeraBEAT™ empowers expectant mothers to monitor their foetus’ heartbeat at anytime, anywhere. The monitor allows for seamless data sharing of the foetus’ vital signs with medical professionals and reassures parents that their foetus is receiving needed medical attention.

Designed by a team of female social entrepreneurs in Uganda to tackle barriers to accessing health services for women in the country, HerHealth is a screening-test tool for urine infections, encouraging more women to seek treatment before conditions worsen. HerHealth aims to empower women to take their health into their own hands and to increase awareness about the adverse effects of urine infections, affecting women worldwide. The tool works by the user urinating into a beaker and dipping a pH sensor into the fluid. The sensor then communicates with the user’s smartphone via an app using bluetooth to visibly detect and alert users of any potential issues.

I Am That Girl is a website and app, founded in the US, that hosts premium and user-generated content to improve girls’ confidence and aid their personal development. I Am That Girl believes that a girl’s physical, emotional, and mental well-being is deeply rooted in her self-worth and that we are living in an epidemic of self-doubt. That’s why I Am That Girl believes so strongly in its mission, to increase confidence among girls.

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is an issue affecting girls and women’s health in many countries. In 2017, five Kenyan girls created the app I-Cut with the aim to tackle this issue. The app connects those who have been affected to legal and medical assistance as it provides the user with the emergency buttons “help, rescue, and report”, connecting the user with police or medical aid. It also includes general information on FGM.

Founder of Invu, Oren Oz was inspired to reinvent pregnancy monitoring after his wife became high risk during her pregnancy. Invu is an investigational, medical grade device for remote pregnancy monitoring. The patented technology is designed to detect signals including foetal and maternal heart rates, and uterine activity, creating a comprehensive digital dashboard.

With the tech sector lacking female representation, it’s often hard for women to get through the door. That’s why Mariana Costa Checa co-founded Laboratoria, a startup that aims to create a more inclusive digital economy in Latin America by upskilling women from low-income backgrounds. Their intensive bootcamp program teaches women how to code through a combination of in person sessions and online courses.

As public carpool services have grown in popularity in Brazil, concerns around the safety of women who take these services has also grown due to an increase in violations. Lady Driver is an app employing exclusively female taxi drivers. Women can bring a partner, of any sex, into the taxi with them. Men, however, must be approved by the female taxi driver. With Lady Driver entering the mainstream, women’s safety in Brazil is improving. This then positively impacts their health and wellbeing prospects at the same time.

Adriana C Vázquez Ortiz founded Lilu after interviewing mothers about their experiences around breast pumping. She then discovered research showing that breast massaging could increase milk production by 50% per session, and created a bra using custom-engineered massage cushions to give mothers automated massages to pump more milk.

Anne Garnier founded Lisa Health to combat the lack of research beyond fertility and pregnancy after finding she was offered little support from healthcare professionals once she began her menopause. The digital app provides health advice for midlife women to help them with the transition into menopause through personalised advice, symptom tracking, virtual coaching, and education.

Franciscah Nzanga founded Mama Mzazi Mommy and Me, an organisation dedicated to supporting and empowering mothers throughout their motherhood journey in Kenya. A digital platform is used to provide information relating to child care, parenting, and local first aid training opportunities, and includes live discussion forums called ‘Mama Mzazi Talks’ with guest speakers. Participants are able to join the discussion on their mobile phones from the comfort of their home.

Maven is a digital clinic, founded in the USA by Katherine Ryder, with an all-female board. Maven technology provides immediate and continuous lines of communication between patients and providers. Maven enables video chats with doctors, nutritionists, paediatricians, gynaecologists, midwives, and mental health providers to make them more accessible. It hopes to provide more resources to women who re-enter the workforce or return to their previous jobs after giving birth.

Maya is a smart personal health assistant for women made by Plackal, based in India. The app focuses on female issues around fertility, periods, pregnancy, and more through features such as pregnancy tracking, fertility prediction, diagnostic tests, and online doctor consultations.

Maymay was developed by a local tech startup called Koe Koe Tech, to address the high maternal and infant mortality rates in Myanmar. Through the Maymay app, pregnant women can gain access to accurate information to support individual health management and promote healthier pregnancies. Using the latest mobile phone technology the app sends out weekly push notifications to expectant mothers with relevant advice regarding their pregnancy.

The Meet You app was founded in 2013 as a menstruation tracker and calendar to help women in China log their menstruation and health. Since then the app has become an online social networking platform for women, with users discussing and sharing tips and stories related to health, relationships, finance, pregnancy, and children.

With support from ARMANN, an NGO founded by urogynecologist and social entrepreneur, Dr Aparna Hegde,the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Action (MAMA) in India, launched a program in the slums of Mumbai in 2014 called mMitra. The digital service sends free pregnancy and child health information to pregnant women and new mothers twice each week, in a language and at a time of their choosing. MAMA uses mobile phones to deliver vital health information to new and expectant mothers, plus additional content on breastfeeding/infant feeding, postpartum family planning, and mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

MomConnect is a mobile health initiative launched to help more women gain access to vital information and care needed to ensure a safe and healthy pregnancy and labour in South Africa. MomConnect messages are designed to build an emotional connection with mothers, encouraging and empowering them to take an active role in their healthcare.

Nabta Health empowers women to manage their own health in the Middle East and North Africa. It is a hybrid platform offering traditional as well as digital support through a unique set of technologies. The platform offers clinical advice, personalised health recommendations, consumer product reviews, and virtual consultations.

Natural Cycles is an app that takes fertility tracking one step further. The intelligent birth control app identifies the fertility window from the body temperature and uses an algorithm that learns the unique cycle from the temperatures added. Once Natural Cycles has analysed the temperature curve it can detect ovulation, learn the fertile window and inform women when they are in their menstrual cycle. Natural Cycles is quality assured and approved as a birth control method by the US Food and Drug Administration and in Europe.

Omomi is an app providing mothers in Nigeria with digital health services, such as an online community of mothers where women can share experiences, a chat-a-doc feature allowing women to privately chat with a doctor, and a child growth monitor helping mothers to check the growth and development of their child.

Celmatix was founded by Piraye Yurttas Beim to empower women and their physicians to make more informed decisions regarding their fertility. The personalised medicine company uses the latest innovations in technology with data and genomics to improve people’s chances of conceiving. Their real-time predictive analytics platform Polaris creates tailored treatment plans and counselling and ensures women are informed on every part of the journey through personalised reports.

rAInbow is a smart AI assistant designed to reach millions of people in South Africa who are in abusive, controlling, or unhealthy relationships. rAInbow shares personalised and immersive stories, and helps identify signs of abuse in relationships though a chatbot. In partnership with Sage Foundation; together with AI for Good, founder – Kriti Sharma, and the Soul City Institute for Social Justice, the chatbot creates a digital safe space, and has the potential to protect millions of women and girls around the world.

READY is a collection of projects, supported by digital tools, that aim to empower young people to demand their right to lead a healthy life. It includes the READY movement which utilises hashtags on social media to mobilise young people, iREADY which supports the creation and use of innovative ICT solutions to respond to sexual and reproductive health needs in Burundi and Mozambique, and READY to LEAD, which trains and equips young female peer supporters with advocacy and leadership skills in Zimbabwe.

Roshni Rides was founded by 4 Pakistani-Americans who wanted to address safety issues experienced by mainly female commuters. They created female-friendly carpooling that connects nearby riders with authorised drivers.

Sexual harassment is hindering women to move freely in cities. Safecity was founded by Elsa Marie DSilva and is a platform that crowdsources personal stories of sexual harassment and abuse in public spaces in India, Kenya, Nepal, and Cameroon. The data, which can be submitted anonymously, gets aggregated as hot spots and indicates trends at a local level. The data has proven to be useful for individuals to be aware of hotspot areas, as well as for local communities and local administration to work on strategies and solutions to tackle the areas where harasment is prevalent.

D-tree International’s Safer Deliveries Program has been working to improve the delivery of community-based maternal and neonatal health in Zanzibar, where mortality rates remain high. Community volunteers are supported and guided by an integrated mobile app when conducting home-based visits with families. With the app, volunteers are empowered to create personalised birth plans, identify any health warning signs, and link women and families to health facilities.

SafetiPin was founded in India and looks to mobilise the power of civil society to develop cities that are safer for women. SafetiPin creates crowdsourced maps based on suggestions from citizens to help people take the safest way home. The app also provides night-time GIS data and tools for safer and inclusive cities. It currently operates in Nairobi, Bogotá, and New Delhi; cities that report high levels of violence against women.

SHEROES is a social networking app for women created by technology entrepreneur Sairee Chahal with the aim to use technology to address gender inequality in India. The app provides a safe space for women to join an open online community of women, offering a range of support services including free counselling, sexual reproductive health advice, and legal advice. Currently there are 14 million members in the SHEROES community.

Text4baby was the first free national health text messaging service in the USA. It aims to provide information to pregnant women and new mothers to help them to improve their health and that of their babies. Text4baby includes critical information that experts want pregnant women and mothers to know, including: prenatal care, safe sleep, immunisation, breastfeeding, and nutrition.

Toranj is an app that educates and supports those at risk of experiencing violence in Iran, inside or outside the home. Social, cultural, and legal barriers make it difficult for women to access services and know about their rights, and the use of technologies can play an important role to support survivors of violence and those at risk to experience violence. Toranj offers services such as emergency calls, a legal support handbook, educational resources, self-assessment of romantic relationships, and a database of pro-bono counselling clinics and law firms.

Totohealth, in Kenya, uses mobile technology to detect developmental abnormalities in early stages of pregnancy, and ultimately reduce maternal and child mortality. The platform sends new parents two text messages a week, tailored toward promoting the health of the mother and child. For example, when the child is one years old, parents receive a text asking if the child’s ankles are bent inwards as a sign of paediatric flatfoot. If applicable, the parents are referred to a local doctor by Totohealth’s full-time health worker.

Fundación Huésped founded and launched VAMOS in Argentina. VAMOS is the first of its kind. It is a mobile app in regions of Argentia, where illegal abortions lead to a high number of deaths each year, and where teenage pregnancies are high. It works to provide women with information and supportive advice on safe abortion access, contraception, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, breast and cervical cancer screenings, condom distribution, and other sexual and reproductive health services.

We Care Solar was invented by Dr. Laura Stachel, after working in Northern Nigeria and witnessing the challenge in providing effective healthcare during night duties in hospitals, where there were high maternal mortality rates. We Care Solar promotes safe motherhood and reduces maternal mortality by providing health workers with reliable lighting, mobile communication, and medical devices using solar-powered electricity through low maintenance solar suitcases.

WOOM, based in Spain, is a data-driven app to empower women to maximise their chances of pregnancy. The founders, Laurence Fontinoy and Clelia Morales, wanted to help women better understand their bodies and provide all the information needed during the process of trying to get pregnant. WOOM calculates daily chances of pregnancy using a cycles calendar. Users also receive support through both an engaged community and a fertility services platform online.