Last year Ms Lloyd won the Tech Diversity Leaders in Advertising award and was named the Women in IT Queensland Entrepreneur of the Year. The company is again seeking investors,this time to expand globally.

"It's quite a different conversation now we've demonstrated that we're a successful business,we're generating revenue,we've got big clients,"she said.

Ms Lloyd said that as young women,she and Ms Ignatieva initially came up against the bias of investors asking,"What do these two know about business?"

Part of the problem was the lack of female investors,she said.

"If you have a female entrepreneur pitching,potentially that idea is something that's going to address a problem that affects women,"Ms Lloyd said. Male investors did not see the value in their business idea,she said."Whereas when I tell women about this,they say,'This is amazing'."

The number of female entrepreneurs in Australia is growing. The 2016 Startup Muster found almost 24 per cent of start-ups were founded by women,up from 16 per cent in 2014.

But female-led businesses often struggle to attract investment. OneHarvard Business School study found that even when men and women pitched the same idea,investors were 60 per cent more likely to invest in the man's proposal.

Financial expert Shivani Gopal,founder of social enterprise The Remarkable Woman,said less than than five per cent of female-founded tech companies in Australia were funded by investors.

"Given that so many startups are technology based,it paints a really depressing picture of how hard it is for women to get funding,"she said.

"It is simply assumed that a male entrepreneur has the business smarts,has the know-how. With women,unfortunately,it's very much a fact that has to be proven. Not only does a female entrepreneur have the same risks of failure as any other business,but she's got these added challenges which accentuate the risk of not even getting off the ground."

Ms Gopal is working to help female entrepreneurs secure investment,running a start-up mentoring program and giving them the chance to pitch in front of executives,business owners,venture capitalists and angel investors.

The Remarkable Woman has partnered with Alcatel Australia and its regional managing director,Sam Skontos,to connect female entrepreneurs with serious investors and expand their professional networks.

Ms Gopal said women had to be"absolutely fearless"about pursuing their business ideas and overcome any tendency to downplay their success."Just own it,"she said.