Railsbank customer Cledara, a groundbreaking purchase and analytics platform for the subscription economy, has been selected by Microsoft’s venture fund M12, together with Melinda Gates’ Pivotal Ventures and Mayfield Fund, as one of the top five female-founded enterprise software startups outside of the US.
The selection was part of Microsoft’s global Female Founders Competition. This promotes the world’s leading female-founded startups and helps address the under-investment in female-founded companies, which raised only 2.8% of venture capital in 2019 according to PitchBook.
The competition final was originally planned to take place in Silicon Valley, but was changed to an online event due to ongoing public health concerns.
Over the next two days, finalists will pitch to an all-female panel of judges for the chance to share in $6m of investment.
Cristina Vila, CEO and founder at Cledara, said: "I'm honoured to be recognised by so many leading women and to have the opportunity to provide a positive example for other female founders around the world. Thanks to Railsbank for being hugely supportive, right from day one, both as a partner and a customer. We wouldn't be where we are today without Railsbank's support!"
