She Loves Tech

women

Ever since we have stepped into the era of digitisation, the tech industry has remained a male-dominated arena. Despite the efforts of forward-thinking companies and passionate individuals, there was a noticeable underrepresentation of women in the tech industry. Fortunately, there is an incline of girls entering the tech world today. The female engineer population is still growing and catching up.

‘She Loves Tech’ is a global initiative that showcases the convergence of the latest trends in technology, entrepreneurship, innovation, and the opportunities it creates for women. Their goal is to provide a platform for international and Chinese tech companies, investors, entrepreneurs, start-ups, and consumers together, to promote technology for women and women in technology. CIRCLE, a social enterprise focuses on furthering women economically in Pakistan, has partnered with ‘She Loves Tech’ to bring the competition home so that Pakistani women have an opportunity to showcase their talent. CIRCLE is hosting the local rounds for the competition in Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi from June to August and is bringing all key incubators and stakeholders on board. The Startup Competition is being held in 14 locations across Africa, Canada, China, France, Germany, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, and the UAE.

The competition is expected to attract over 500 women impact and women-led projects from around the world and male start-ups that are using technology to solve problems that women face, will benefit from an interconnected global network of like-minded innovators, mentors, investors, and other supporting organisations.

Last year, a female-led project was crowned winner for an innovative idea for the betterment of the country. Anusha Fatima, a young learner and environmental enthusiast, used her passion for civic hacking to start a project called ‘TrashIt’, which will have a great social and environmental impact. Its pitch dealt with the garbage disposal problem in Pakistan and how the garbage dumped on streets everywhere was choking the country’s growth.

The main focus of ‘TrashIt’ is on reusing kitchen waste (also known as green waste) and paper scraps (referring to brown waste) to make organic compost - khaad. Their motto states that ‘if each household starts composting, imagine the difference we will be able to achieve as a community.’ This project enables residents of Pakistan to efficiently dispose their trash by adopting composting and other ways; encouraging them to transition towards a zero waste lifestyle.

Speaking about TrashIt and what it meant to present it on a global platform, Anusha Fatima believes that it has really given them a much needed boost. “Through the ‘She Loves Tech’ initiative, CIRCLE connected me to amazing mentors such as Raza Matin (Country Consultant, Google) who helped my team further advance trashIt.” Like Anusha, this time around also, there are winners coming forward and inspiring women in tech and create role models for Pakistani youth.

This year, all the women entrepreneurs are encouraged to participate in this global competition. This will not only provide them a chance to showcase their business but will also provide them a chance to go to China and participate in a boot camp which includes visits to leading companies and incubators, networking with investors and cultural visits. Apart from receiving mentorship and expanding their networks, the runner-ups can win monies (50,000 PKR to 100,000 PKR) for their project.

You can enter the competition if you are an early stage tech start-up that has a viable product past its conceptual stage or if you fulfil at least one of the following criteria: have a product designed specifically for women, have a product that disproportionately affects women, have a significant proportion of female consumers, have at least one female entrepreneur on the founding team.

You can register for the competition till July 8th, 2018 at www.shelovestech.org

— Adeela Akmal