Starting a business is always challenging. While women have historically faced additional challenges, some female founders say the landscape is changing for the better. “It’s an amazing time to raise funding as a female founder,” Victoria Zorin, founder of Australian crowd analytics software company Nola Technologies, told CNBC at the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit Asia in Singapore. Zorin was also among this year’s list of honorees. More women are starting their own businesses, accounting for nearly half of new entrepreneurs in recent years according to a report from Gusto, which operates a payroll, benefits and HR platform. In 2020, women made up 47% of new business owners, a significant jump from 29% in 2019, the report showed. That figure has held near that level — at 49% in 2021 and 47% in 2022 — signaling a stable trend rather than a one-off surge, the report said. Cotes-James founded menstrual health startup Luüna and was named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list in 2021.