It will take another 163 years for East Asia and the Pacific region to reach gender parity.

Despite the recent stride in gender equality, there is still a lack of women taking prominent roles in the Artificial Intelligence (AI) sector. Ultimately, the tech industry has a gender problem. The World Economic Forum survey found that women comprise only 22% of the workers in artificial intelligence. This might hinder their preparedness for an AI skilled future.

According to a Forbes report, women received only US$1.9 billion in funding compared to US$83.1 billion that men received. The balance is more critical in Southeast Asian nations. Developing nations like Indonesia and Malaysia involves a huge contribution from female entrepreneurs. Southeast Asia is a tougher region to change regarding the perceptions and roles of women in society. Henceforth, a fintech start-up has initiated a mission to provide female entrepreneurs in the region with the financing and support to grow their business.

The stats of women entrepreneurial engagement in Southeast Asia

According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2020 conducted by the World Economic Forum (WEF), it will take another 163 years for East Asia and the Pacific region to reach gender parity at its current rate. This is the longest estimated time compared to any other region including the Middle East and North Africa (140 years) and South Asia (71.5 years). Even though when women in the Southeast Asian region get high attention across political, social and economic arenas, the digital market is a loophole where women are taking by storm.

However, the gender disparity in the region is high. United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) reported that women are 23% less likely to participate in the workforce compared to males in the Southeast Asia region. When women are striving for employment on a varied scale, women entrepreneurship looks like a one in a hundred things. Financial inclusion has been a challenging task in the region as a large part of the territory comes under either underserved by banks (users may be having a single bank account) or unbanked entirely (zero access to traditional banks and credit institutions). Some estimates report that Southeast Asia alone has 650 million unbanked individuals. Generally, this region’s needs basic concentration on funding which could trigger them to focus on digital and artificial intelligence sectors.

Some parts of Southeast Asia have lower female participation in tech workplaces and business management. For instance, Cambodia and Brunei lost 7% and 26% of the per capita income annually due to the lack of female participation. Henceforth, the region is in immense need of support for women who could be game-changers soon.

Lucy, a fintech that empowers and aids women

The start-up called Lucy is currently testing its pilot initiative in Singapore, where it is based. Its primary focus is on harnessing technology to make needy investments on behalf of female business owners who are often underserved and underbanked in the Southeast Asia region.

Lucy plans to establish its network using a mobile app, which will keep track of necessary personal and company data. The start-up wants to promote financial offerings through a handy source which has more excellent connectivity to people throughout Southeast Asia. Remarkably, the region is already seeing an increase in microfinancing support to small business owners who might not qualify for bank loans. Women are minor beneficiaries of the way of funding. The reason behind women showing concern over leveraging bank loans is due to a lack of collaterals. Women in the region are less likely to own prosperities. Mostly, husbands are landholders.

As an initial step, Lucy has identified four distinct groups of women for its pilot offering who are underserved by banks in Singapore. The fintech is expected to reach a wide range of women groups in other nations.

The start-up's reliance on technology

Even though Lucy’s motive is to empower and fund women in the Southeast Asia region, it depends on cutting-edge innovation to solve or complement a financial aim that the client needs to achieve. The start-up uses leading-edge technology to provide the kind of personal experience lacking in the typical banking app, enabling its clients to feel that Lucy is really there with them. To know more about the customers, fintech leverages machine learning and data analytics technologies.