Seven inspirational female leaders in the UK retail tech sector

In celebration of this year's International Women’s Day theme, I am Generation Equality: Realising Women's Rights, here are some of the many female leaders pathing the way in the retail tech space.

Imogen Wethered, Qudini, CEO & Co-founder

Soon after graduating from university, Imogen attended a corporate sponsored hackathon where she and Qudini co-founder, Fraser Hardy, developed a business model that enables retailers to improve their in-store experiences through SaaS technology.

In 2012, she brought the idea to life by creating Qudini and went on to land such clients as Samsung, O2, Specsavers, NatWest, Tesco, Tui and Brown Thomas.

In 2020, she launched the Retail Choreography framework – “a new model that enables retailers to increase profitability and brand relevance by creating superior customer experiences, advanced operations and game-changing data capture points”.

Karoline Gross, Smartzer, CEO & Founder

After setting up her first business, a video production company based in Los Angeles, Karoline noticed a disconnect between video content and related information online, which sparked an idea – what if there was a technology that could make videos clickable, linking directly to related content?

In 2012, she founded Smartzer, which makes videos clickable and shoppable by allowing consumers to click on items within a video to see further information and links to purchase.

Since then, she has landed such clients as LVMH, Marks & Spencer, Puma, Whistles, Galeries Lafayette, Jaguar Land Rover and Sephora.

Georgina Nelson, TruRating, CEO & Founder

After noticing how influential online review sites were becoming and how they were impacting consumers’ decisions, Georgina became concerned that these reviews were not reflecting the opinions of the general population

So, in 2013, she set out to build a Point of Sale ratings system that would allow customers to have their voice heard with a simple tap from 0-9 – and that's how TruRating came into being.

The system asks people one anonymous question rotated from a set during the payment process about their experience. As a result, it provides retailers with accurate insights into what their customers really think about them.

Cathy McCabe, Proximity Insight, CEO

After a career that took her from the shopfloor to the top technology leadership roles at brands such as Burberry and Jaeger, Cathy is now the CEO at startup Proximity Insight.

The Proximity Insight Retail Hub platform puts technology tools into the hands of sales associates to deliver personalised customer engagement and outreach that drives omnichannel customer journeys. Cathy is passionate about bridging the gap between digital and physical experiences by connecting customers, products and services.

Sarah McVittie, Dressipi, Co-founder & Co-CEO

After selling her first business, Texperts, a text message question answering service, in 2008, McVittie co-founded Dressipi in 2011.

Dressipi offers women a tailored shopping experience through its machine learning-based fashion prediction platform which is built to provide personalised recommendations to customers. The firm works alongside some of the UK's leading retailers including Shop Direct, Jacques Vert Group, Arcadia Group and M&S.

Its service not only helps customers find clothes that match their 'digital fashion fingerprint', it also enables retailers to predict what customers are likely to buy using AI and algorithms to integrate the recommendations into their own applications and services.

Nidhima Kohli, Beauty Machine Engine, CEO & Founder

After a successful career in investment banking, Nidhima made a career move into the beauty tech sector, by qualifying as a beautician and then launching her first business MyBeautyMatches.com – a personalised recommendation and price comparison site.

And in 2019, Kohli utilised her beauty and tech expertise to create Beauty Matching Engine, an AI-driven personalisation and optimisation software built specifically for the beauty industry. The platform helps beauty companies personalise customer touchpoints by narrowing down customers’ choice, predicting each touchpoint in the shopping journey, and subsequently increasing loyalty and conversion rates.

Laura Wynch, Validify, Co-founder

Coming from a management consulting background, Laura put her strategic and operational expertise to good use by co-founding Validify, a marketplace connecting consumer-facing businesses such as retailers and brands with emerging tech startups from around the world.

Validify helps retailers and brands with everything from digital transformation through to omnichannel development, with the key aim of helping them innovate smarter, faster and without fear.

The venture is part of a wider ecosystem dedicated to developing strong, strategic partnerships with corporates, VCs, innovation hubs, accelerators and media outlets. Its platform is currently used by over 70 businesses across the UK and Europe.