Six Women Run Tech Startups to Watch in Austin

Laura Bosworth, co-founder of TeVido Biodevices, photo by John Davidson.

The stats don’t bode well for women-run tech startups nationwide. Less than 3 percent of venture-backed startups have a woman as a CEO.

But things are changing. Groups like Women@Austin, Women Who Code and Women in Technology are shining a spotlight on female tech entrepreneurs locally. And crowdfunding, bootstrapping, government grants and angel investors are helping more women entrepreneurs to launch and grow their ventures.

In fact, Nerd Wallet named Austin as one of the top 10 places for female entrepreneurs. And here’s six women run technology startups in Austin to keep an eye on as they expand their ventures:

Spot on Sciences – Dr. Jeanette Hill founded her medical device startup in 2010. It creates a blood collection device called HemaSpot. It lets people take a blood sample safely, securely and easily from a remote location and send it to their doctor for analysis. The company is bootstrapped but has received about $2 million in research grants.

TeVido Biodevices – Laura Bosworth is the co-founder and CEO of this life sciences startup that is making nipples from human cells using 3D printers. The company recently completed a successful crowd-funding campaign and received a Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institute of Health and a grant from the National Science Foundation.

Fashion Metric – Daina Linton is a CEO and co-founder of the startup that acts as a virtual tailor. Her husband, Morgan Linton, is also a co-founder. They founded the company in Los Angeles and moved to Austin last year to participate in Techstars. They decided to permanently relocate and they recently closed on $1 million in financing. The company makes software and has a special algorithm to help people find the right-sized clothes online.

Testlio – Kristel Viidik is one of two co-founders of this startup that is a community of test engineers that test mobile apps to find bugs. The company, originally from Estonia, relocated to Austin to participate in the first Austin Techstars program in 2013. The company has raised $1 million.

Wisegate – CEO Sara Gates founded the company in 2010 and has since raised nearly $9 million. Wisegate has created a platform for IT leaders to interact and share information.

Double Line Partners – Zeynep Young founded the company in 2009 and has since grown it to $20 million in revenue and 120 employees. The startup makes software, data system dashboards and other tools to help schools improve the performance of their students in grades K-12.