Celebrating four women-led unicorns in the private market on International Women’s Day

As Forge celebrates International Women’s Day (IWD) 2025, it’s important to recognize the remarkable achievements of female entrepreneurs who have built billion-dollar businesses and make daily contributions to the private market.

Under this year's theme of 'Accelerate Action,’ IWD 2025 emphasizes the importance of taking swift and decisive steps to achieve gender equality. It calls for increased momentum and urgency in addressing the systemic barriers and biases that women face, both in personal and professional spheres.¹ Despite persistent challenges in venture funding and leadership representation, women continue to shatter glass ceilings and redefine industries, while inspiring future leaders.

Here, we highlight four extraordinary unicorn companies founded by women, each valued at over $1 billion.

Klarna

• Co-Founder: Camilla Giesecke
• Industry: Fintech
• Valuation: Over $14 billion
• Why It Matters: Camilla Giesecke is Klarna’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) and the company is currently eyeing an April 2025 IPO.² The company pioneered the buy-now-pay-later model, transforming global e-commerce. Klarna recently added Stripe, Adyen and Worldpay to its distribution roster, after selling its checkout business in 2023. The company has also been expanding in the U.S., where it is exploring a banking license.³

Canva

• Founder: Melanie Perkins
• Industry: Design and technology
• Valuation: Over $25 billion
• Why It Matters: Canva has revolutionized digital design, making graphic creation accessible to businesses and individuals worldwide. Defying those who doubted her, Canva Perkins helped attract 130 million monthly users to its freemium software, while six million teams from companies such as Zoom are paying for the platform.⁴ Melanie Perkins’ vision has truly transformed the creative industry.

Away

• Founders: Jen Rubio and Steph Korey Goodwin
• Industry: Travel / Luggage
• Valuation: Over $1 billion
• Why It Matters: Away disrupted the luggage industry by offering high-quality, stylish luggage directly to consumers through a digitally-focused approach, creating an almost cult-like following with its minimalist designs, innovative features and strong brand identity. This has essentially redefined travel experiences through thoughtfully designed products and a focus on customer engagement. Away is often considered a pioneer in the direct-to-consumer model for luxury goods.

Guild Education

• Founder: Rachel Carlson
• Industry: EdTech
• Valuation: Over $4 billion
• Why It Matters: Guild partners with major companies to provide education benefits, upskilling workers worldwide. Guild’s platform allows employers to offer their employees access to a wide range of educational programs, essentially treating education as a benefit, by facilitating direct payment to universities and providing support to students. Thus, they enable employees to upskill and reskill without incurring upfront costs, which can lead to increased workforce retention and career mobility within a company. This has transformed traditional tuition reimbursement programs into strategic talent development tools for businesses.

Championing the future of women in the private market

The success of these women-led unicorns echo the spirit of IWD 2025. As we celebrate these companies and the notion of accelerating action, we embrace a private market that supports women-led ventures, ensuring a more equitable future for all.

To all the female founders, leaders and innovators: Forge says ‘thank you’ for inspiring the next generation of entrepreneurs.