The Hidden Barriers for Women in Finance

What does it take to build a successful business, access investment and create more opportunities for women in Financial Technology?

From launching a business in an emerging market to navigating investment networks and building effective leadership teams, entrepreneurship brings challenges that extend far beyond having a strong idea.

In this episode of FinTech's DEI Discussions, host Nadia Edwards-Dashti, welcomes Leena Khalil, Managing Partner at Key Capital and Co-Founder of Mumzworld, to explore the realities of entrepreneurship, investment and inclusion across the global Financial Technology industry.

Drawing on her experience in technology investment banking, co-founding the Middle Eastern e-commerce business Mumzworld and supporting entrepreneurs through Key Capital, Leena shares practical insights into business growth, market timing, professional networking and the barriers women can face when accessing opportunities.

Their conversation also raises important questions for Financial Services organisations, how can businesses create more inclusive networks, attract the right expertise and develop leadership structures that support long-term success?

From Technology Investment Banking to Female Entrepreneurship

Leena's career demonstrates how opportunities in Financial Technology and Financial Services can develop in unexpected directions.

Having originally trained as an electrical engineer, she moved into investment banking at a time when technology-focused teams were relatively uncommon in Europe. Joining a San Francisco-based investment bank introduced her to the technology sector during a period of significant growth.

Over the following years, she experienced multiple technology booms and downturns, developing an understanding of how markets change and how businesses must adapt.

Rather than discouraging her, those experiences eventually contributed to her decision to become an entrepreneur.

Her career illustrates the value of combining technical knowledge, commercial understanding and experience across different business environments. For professionals working in Financial Technology, these skills can create opportunities beyond traditional career paths.

For employers, it also highlights the importance of recognising transferable expertise when building teams. Technical specialists, commercial leaders and professionals with investment experience can bring different perspectives to the challenges facing growing businesses.

This combination of capabilities is particularly relevant to recruiting specialist technology and commercial talent for Financial Services businesses, where organisations may need expertise that crosses conventional departmental boundaries.

Building Mumzworld and Identifying Opportunities in the Middle East

One of the most revealing parts of Leena's story is her experience co-founding Mumzworld, an e-commerce business serving mothers and families in the Middle East.

When the business launched, the regional e-commerce market was still developing. Leena had experienced the convenience of online shopping while living in London, but moving to Saudi Arabia exposed significant differences in access to everyday products and information.

For Arabic-speaking mothers, those challenges extended beyond shopping.

Leena explains that important parenting information was often less accessible in Arabic, creating a gap between the resources available to English-speaking mothers and those relying on Arabic-language information.

As a mother of three young children, she recognised the need for a service that addressed these practical problems.

Mumzworld was developed to respond to that need, but identifying a genuine market opportunity did not mean the supporting infrastructure was ready.

When the business began operating, the region's venture capital ecosystem was still relatively immature. Delivery providers, banks and other commercial partners were not necessarily equipped to support a growing e-commerce company.

Leena describes having to repeatedly persuade a major regional delivery partner to work with the business, illustrating the additional effort required when a company enters a market before the wider ecosystem has developed.

The experience offers an important lesson for entrepreneurs, identifying an underserved customer need is only one part of building a successful business. Access to finance, operational infrastructure and suitable partners can be equally important.

FinTech Investment Opportunities in the Middle East

Leena's experience building a business in the Middle East also informs her perspective on the region's Financial Technology investment opportunities.

Although establishing a company in a developing market can be difficult, she believes there are significant advantages to operating in an environment where businesses can help shape the development of an industry.

During the discussion, Leena identifies areas of Financial Services that remain underserved, particularly business-to-business lending and financial products for small and medium-sized enterprises.

These gaps represent potential opportunities for FinTech entrepreneurs to develop services that address unmet commercial needs.

She also highlights how the environment has changed since Mumzworld launched. Governments and other organisations have become more responsive to the development of Financial Technology, creating a different operating environment for founders entering the market today.

For investors and entrepreneurs, understanding these regional differences is essential. The same product or business model may face different challenges depending on the maturity of the local market, its financial infrastructure and the availability of specialist expertise.

This international perspective is also relevant to talent strategy. As Financial Technology businesses consider expansion, they must understand how skills availability, salaries and hiring conditions differ between markets.

Harrington Starr's Financial Technology and Financial Services Salary Survey 2026/27 provides a complementary view of international Financial Technology salary benchmarks and emerging hiring hotspots.

Why Timing Matters for FinTech Startups and Investment

Having an innovative idea does not necessarily mean the market is ready for it.

Reflecting on Mumzworld's early development, Leena believes the business entered the market approximately three years before the surrounding ecosystem was sufficiently established.

That experience has influenced how she now evaluates opportunities as an investor.

She explains that businesses can consume substantial capital when they launch too early, particularly if customers, commercial partners or the wider industry are not prepared to adopt their products.

For FinTech startups, the challenge can be especially pronounced because business-to-business sales into Financial Services organisations may involve lengthy decision-making processes.

A company might have a strong product and a genuine market opportunity but still struggle if it takes too long to generate revenue.

Leena therefore considers the cost and duration of sales cycles when assessing businesses. Understanding how quickly customers can be acquired, how expensive those relationships are to develop and whether the market is ready can help founders make better commercial decisions.

This is not an argument against innovation. Instead, it highlights the importance of matching ambition with realistic expectations about market conditions.

For growing FinTech businesses, the same thinking applies to commercial hiring. Expanding sales functions before a product or market is ready can increase costs without delivering the expected returns.

Building effective commercial teams requires a clear understanding of the customer, the sales process and the experience needed to support the company's stage of growth.

Harrington Starr's expertise in Sales and Marketing recruitment for Financial Technology businesses connects directly to this challenge, supporting organisations seeking specialist commercial talent across Financial Services and technology.

Women in Finance and the Gender Gap in Professional Networks

One of the central themes of the conversation is the relationship between professional networks, investment opportunities and gender equality in Financial Services.

When Nadia asks about improving gender balance in investment, Leena challenges the idea that there is a simple tool capable of solving the problem.

Instead, she focuses on who has access to the right conversations, relationships and opportunities.

Leena reflects on her own experience, comparing her professional network with that of a male contemporary who attended Cambridge alongside her.

Despite their shared educational background, she explains that their networks developed differently, with her male contemporary's connections offering different forms of professional advantage.

As a mother of three, Leena has invested time in building relationships around her children's education, activities and community. These networks are valuable, but they do not always provide the same direct access to investors, technology partners or government contacts as more traditional business networks.

Her point is not that women's networks lack value. Rather, opportunities can depend on whether people have access to the circles where important commercial decisions and introductions take place.

This raises a wider question for Financial Technology and Financial Services, are businesses creating opportunities for people with different experiences to participate in influential professional networks?

For women working in investment, technology and entrepreneurship, greater visibility and access to decision-makers can help create connections that might otherwise be difficult to establish.

This theme is also explored through Harrington Starr's work on inclusion and representation, including creating greater visibility and opportunities for women in Financial Technology.

The connection is particularly relevant because improving representation involves more than encouraging individuals to develop their skills. It also requires examining how opportunities are shared, who receives introductions and whose expertise is recognised.

Inclusive Leadership and Building the Right Board for Business Growth

As the conversation moves from networking to leadership, Leena discusses another important challenge for entrepreneurs: ensuring that a company's board evolves alongside the business.

Drawing on her experience at Mumzworld, she explains that the company's board changed over time, although those changes were not always strategically planned around its next stage of development.

Looking back, she believes founders should think more carefully about the expertise and experience required from their boards at different points in the business lifecycle.

A board that provides valuable support during the early stages of a startup may not necessarily be the right board to guide international expansion, a major funding round or a potential acquisition.

Leena also argues that board membership in private companies should not automatically continue indefinitely.

As businesses develop, they may benefit from introducing people with different capabilities, commercial experience and perspectives.

Importantly, she emphasises that founders need advisers who are willing to challenge their thinking.

An effective board should provide more than financial backing or reassurance. It should offer constructive criticism, share relevant experience and help leaders recognise opportunities or risks they might otherwise overlook.

Nadia connects this idea to the wider importance of diversity of thought. Bringing different people into leadership discussions can strengthen decision-making by introducing perspectives that may not already exist within the organisation.

For Financial Technology businesses navigating growth, these considerations extend beyond board appointments.

Leadership development, organisational culture and the ability to retain experienced professionals can all influence whether a business is equipped for its next stage.

Why Leadership and Workplace Culture Must Evolve as Businesses Grow

Leena's observations about board development raise a wider challenge for growing Financial Technology businesses, the people and structures that support a company in its early stages may not be enough to sustain its future growth.

As organisations expand, maintaining effective communication, strong leadership and a positive workplace culture becomes increasingly important. Growth can introduce new teams, responsibilities and expectations, making it essential for businesses to adapt without losing the values that contributed to their success.

This challenge is also explored in Culture at Scale: Four Keys to Getting It Right, an article featured in Harrington Starr's latest edition of The Financial Technologist, featuringThe Top 1% Workplace Awards 2026, which examines how businesses can maintain a strong workplace culture as they grow.

Although Leena focuses specifically on the composition of company boards, both discussions highlight the importance of intentionally developing the people, relationships and structures that support an organisation.

For Financial Technology leaders, the key question is not simply whether a business is growing, but whether its leadership and culture are evolving alongside it.

Why Professional Networking Matters for Women in Financial Services

Towards the end of the episode, Leena returns to networking with practical advice for professionals looking to expand their connections.

She encourages people to approach networking with curiosity rather than treating it solely as a means of achieving an immediate commercial outcome.

Instead of entering an event focused entirely on meeting one particular person, she suggests using conversations to learn about different perspectives and experiences.

Leena describes asking several people the same question to understand how their answers differ. This approach makes networking more engaging while helping her identify people who may offer valuable insights or connections.

She also emphasises persistence.

Building a useful professional network takes time, and meeting a relatively small number of people without an immediate result does not necessarily mean the effort has failed.

Her advice has relevance beyond entrepreneurship and investment.

For professionals pursuing careers in Financial Technology, relationships can provide access to industry knowledge, career opportunities and perspectives that are difficult to gain through formal applications alone.

For employers, it reinforces the importance of building relationships across different communities rather than relying exclusively on familiar professional circles.

However, Leena's broader argument also makes clear that individuals should not carry the entire responsibility for overcoming unequal access. Greater participation in investment and leadership conversations requires established networks to become more accessible.

Creating Greater Opportunities for Women in FinTech

Throughout the episode, Leena's experiences connect several important themes: entrepreneurship, investment, professional networks and inclusive leadership.

Her career demonstrates how identifying an underserved market can create significant opportunities, while also showing the challenges of building a business before its supporting ecosystem is fully developed.

Her investment experience highlights why timing, commercial readiness and access to appropriate expertise matter when evaluating a growing company.

And her observations about professional networks raise important questions about how women gain access to the relationships that influence funding, partnerships and leadership opportunities.

For Financial Technology businesses, these issues are interconnected.

Creating more inclusive environments means considering who participates in important conversations, how leadership teams develop and whether organisations are recognising talent and experience beyond their existing networks.

It also means acknowledging that building a successful business requires more than a strong product. Founders need suitable partners, experienced advisers, effective teams and the flexibility to adapt as their markets evolve.

For professionals across Financial Services, Leena's advice offers a reminder that careers and opportunities rarely follow a single predetermined path.

Curiosity, adaptability and the willingness to build relationships across different communities can all contribute to professional development.