8 Female-Led Startups That Are Changing the Game in the Philippines

In celebration of Women’s Month, The Business Manual shines the spotlight on female-led startups that are making waves in different industries across the country. 

A recent study by Endeavor Insight and Endeavor Philippines, Mapping the Philippine Tech Sector: An Analysis of the Entrepreneurship Community, has boldly declared that female entrepreneurship in the country is increasing. 

In the tech sector, for example, one-third of companies now have at least one female founder. From 2015 to 2019, only 28% of companies had a female founder, but this increased to 34% between 2020 and 2024.

This Women’s Month, The Business Manual celebrates female founders across different industries by shining the spotlight on female-led startups in the Philippines. 

Female-Led Startups in the Philippines

Here are eight female-led startups in the Philippines that deserve serious recognition.

Backscoop (Amanda Cua)

Named as part of last year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list, Amanda Cua has made it her mission to simplify technology and business news—making it engaging, easy to understand, and still deeply informative through her platform, Backscoop.

At just 19 years old and fresh out of high school, Amanda Cua launched Backscoop—a free newsletter delivering the latest tech and business news from Southeast Asia. She later expanded the platform with One More Scoop, a podcast where she hosts in-depth conversations with leading figures in the tech and business space.

Beppo (Jenny Galang) 

Bookkeeping and tax compliance are among the most challenging tasks for entrepreneurs, often made more difficult by complex government processes. To ease the burden on small businesses and self-employed individuals, Jenny Galang co-founded Beppo.

Offering services that aim to simplify bookkeeping and tax compliance for MSMEs and self-employed individuals, Beppo has served more than 18,600 organizations and filed Php6.7 billion in tax returns. 

CloudEats (Kimberly Yao)

Breaking new ground in any industry is no small feat, but it’s a challenge Kimberly Yao embraced when she co-founded CloudEats in 2019. The company has since been recognized as a trailblazer in the cloud kitchen and online restaurant space, a concept that experienced rapid growth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

An online-only food and beverage company, CloudEats has since developed and launched some of the country’s more successful online-optimized brands, including Burger Beast, Lucky 88 Bowls, Pia Wurtzbach’s Pia Bowls, and Rhian Ramos’ Healthy Appetite. 

Hive Health (Camille Ang and Jiawen Tang)

Driven by a mission to make quality healthcare more accessible to Filipinos, Camille Ang and Jiawen Tang co-founded Hive Health. Hive Health is a digital platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the country, offering customized HMO plans tailored to their needs.

In 2023, Hive Health expanded its reach by acquiring Health Plans Philippines, Inc. (HPPI), significantly growing its network to include over 1,700 hospitals, clinics, and dental centers, and more than 20,000 doctors nationwide.

Lhoopa (Sabrina Tan) 

In a country where homeownership remains out of reach for many, Sabrina Tan set out to change the landscape by co-founding Lhoopa—a property technology startup with a bold mission: to make affordable housing accessible for more Filipinos.

Tackling the Philippines’ housing backlog head-on, Lhoopa offers a seamless digital platform where users can find homes priced between Php500,000 and Php2 million, with minimal to no downpayment required. What started as a vision to empower underserved homebuyers has grown into a thriving operation with over 3,700 properties sold, made possible by a growing network of more than 4,000 brokers, agents, contractors, and notaries nationwide.

NoneAway (Crystal Gonzalez)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been increasingly integrated into different industries, and real estate is no exception. In the Philippines, one startup leading the charge is NoneAway, which has successfully harnessed AI to innovate within the property sector.

With CEO and co-founder Crystal Gonzalez at the helm, NoneAway offers an AI-powered app that seeks to make property buying, selling, and renting scam-free by ensuring that users will have a safer and more straightforward experience.

To date, NoneAway has listings worth over Php21 billion and more than 170 registered professionals. The platform also offers advanced, secure features such as AI-powered verification, anti-screenshot protection, and a comprehensive search function.

Plastic Credit Exchange (Nanette Medved-Po)

In 2019, Nanette Medved-Po founded Plastic Credit Exchange (PCX) ias a non-profit organization dedicated to environmental protection and addressing the growing plastic waste crisis in the Philippines.

To advance its mission, PCX harnessed technology through the launch of PCX Markets, a global marketplace for audited, traceable plastic waste recovery and responsible processing. To date, its efforts have helped clean up and divert more than 122 million kilograms of plastic waste in the Philippines and around the world.

SeeYouDoc (Vanessa del Castillo)

Telemedicine emerged as a vital alternative for accessing healthcare in the Philippines, especially during the pandemic. The shift to digital, however, hasn’t always been easy for many healthcare practitioners.

To bridge this gap, Vanessa del Castillo co-founded SeeYouDoc, a platform that delivers telemedicine solutions to healthcare providers. It also serves as a marketplace, that connects patients with a wide range of medical services.

Since its launch, SeeYouDoc has established over 700 virtual facilities nationwide. The platform is used by over 1,300 physicians and 32,400 registered patients. 

Encouraging Future Generations of Female Founders 

In recent years, the number of female-led companies has grown steadily. But the journey is far from over. Many women still face barriers to entry, and there’s more work to be done to empower and inspire the next wave of female founders to take the leap and build startups of their own.

Supporting the growth of female-led businesses starts with actively identifying promising women entrepreneurs and equipping them with the resources, mentorship, and guidance needed to launch, scale, and sustain their ventures.

Breaking down barriers such as gender bias and inequality remains essential. As highlighted in the Endeavor study, there’s a clear need to better understand and address the unique challenges faced by female entrepreneurs. Investors, support organizations, and government institutions all have a critical role to play in connecting women to the right networks, resources, and opportunities.