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Being a female founder of a fast-growing company can often feel like a challenging and isolating experience. See how ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ created a program to provide support for innovative female leaders.

Although women are starting more businesses than ever, only 3% generate USD 500,000 or more in annual revenue. This is because female founders have less access to capital, resources and networks than their male counterparts. In fact, only 2% of the USD 85 billion dollars in venture capital funding went to female founders in 2017 ¹. And we want to help change that – it's why we started Project Entrepreneur to support innovative women entrepreneurs and level the playing field for female founders. More than 400 ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ colleagues across all business areas have engaged in every aspect of the program, from application review to facilitating workshops to volunteering at events.

Project Entrepreneur is a US-based program that ignites bold ideas and enables women to build scalable, high growth companies. Funded and designed by ÃÛ¶¹ÊÓƵ in 2015, the venture competition has attracted 1,800 submissions from an ethnically diverse group of female founders from nearly every state in the country, with 25 industries represented including e-commerce, healthcare, consumer products and fintech.

Five entrepreneurial trailblazers we worked this year really made an impression. Learn more about their journeys and challenges.

How she's disrupting: protecting restaurants and their customers from the threat of food-borne illness

How she's disrupting: empowering service industry workers to speak English as they work, using audio and support systems

How she's disrupting: providing refugees and displaced people with an income by connecting them to remote language and translation opportunities

How she's disrupting: reimagining oral health through a convenient, affordable and fun way to get basic dental services

How she's disrupting: providing portable lactation suites empowering women in the workplace by solving a legal mandate