Three of our six companies in BBC Worldwide Labs have women founders – and two women CEOs!

By Jenny Fielding (Head of Digital Ventures, BBC Worldwide)

As a company, we started BBC Worldwide Labs to help do our part in the burgeoning London startup scene. In much the same way that the BBC has historically supported the independent television sector, we set out to create a similar support structure for digital media companies. Labs is a business accelerator focused on helping early stage companies reach that next level of commercial success by providing infrastructure, mentoring and the promise of partnering with BBC Worldwide.

Last summer, we selected six promising startups to join the program and spend six months emerged in the BBC ecosystem. As it turned, three of our six companies have women founders (with two women CEOs) bucking the male-dominated startup trend – Melissa Clark-Reynolds (Founder & CEO, Minimonos), Gerlinde Gniewosz (Founder & CEO, KO-SU) and Hannah Wong (Founder & Ops Lead, Foodity).

Building on the success of the current program, which comes to a close next month, we recently announced the launch of our second Labs program in London beginning in June. To kick-start the program, a session will be held on Tuesday, March 5 from 6pm to 8pm at Wayra’s Academy in London giving potential applicants the opportunity to meet and hear from members of the Labs team and current Labs companies.

There are still a few spaces left for the event, so join us and spread the word to any superstar entrepreneurs that you think may want to apply to the program.

Women 2.0 readers: Are you a woman entrepreneur based in London? Let us know in the comments!

About the guest blogger: Jenny Fielding heads Digital Ventures at BBC Worldwide where she evaluates digital opportunities, strategic partnerships and investments. She runs BBC Worldwide Labs, a business accelerator for early stage digital media companies in London and New York. Jenny has a long history in the tech industry founding startups including Switch-Mobile, a disruptive VoIP mobile software company acquired in 2008. Jenny is based in San Francisco and New York when she’s not in London. Follow her on Twitter at @jefielding.