91探花

The tech industry loves a good unicorn story. Tales of startups run by ambitious founders, pitches to venture capital firms, stressful funding rounds and years upon years of investor backing before a company eventually reaches a billion-dollar valuation.

‘s doesn鈥檛 quite follow the usual trajectory from startup to unicorn.

Otherwise known as transformify, the London-based workforce technology company has recently been independently valued at just over $1 billion, according to the company鈥檚 founder and multiple independent expert assessments, putting it into unicorn territory without having raised traditional venture capital funding.

Yes, you heard that correctly. TFY has become a billion-dollar, privately-owned company without having received a cent of venture capital.

Indeed, according to TFY, the company鈥檚 only external funding came through a Virgin Startup loan in 2016 and an Innovate UK grant in 2020. But other than that, its growth has been achieved by means of nothing more than a combination of customer revenue, profits and good, old-fashioned bootstrapping.

This is, undeniably, an impressive feat. Achieving unicorn status ie. a privately owned company worth more than $1 billion) is an incredible achievement in itself, but for a bootstrapped company to hit that milestone? That鈥檚 not something you see every day.

But it鈥檚 not just that TFY is a bootstrapped unicorn; it鈥檚 also female-founded. And in a startup landscape dominated by male-founded businesses that also receive the vast majority of VC funding relative to female-founded startups, that鈥檚 an extra detail that deserves some attention.

An Unusual Route To Unicorn Status

I鈥檇 be remiss to neglect mentioning that it鈥檚 tough to definitively announce that any company is the first of its type in such a niche category. However, based on our independent research and insights, I haven鈥檛 come across any other female-owned, bootstrapped unicorns based in the UK. So, I鈥檓 fairly confident in saying that the title of the UK鈥檚 first-ever bootstrapped, female-owned unicorn certainly seems to belong to TFY; with the caveat, of course, that this hasn鈥檛 been 100% confirmed by external sources just yet.

Founder and CEO, Lilia Stoyanov, has repeatedly described TFY as simultaneously 鈥減otentially鈥� becoming “the first female-founded, bootstrapped unicorn in the UK”, while acknowledging the difficulty of definitively proving a claim built around several overlapping criteria.

Whether or not the title can be conclusively verified (I鈥檓 sure it will be soon!), one thing appears difficult to dispute: there are remarkably few examples of UK technology companies that are simultaneously female-founded, privately held, bootstrapped and valued at more than $1 billion.

And that alone makes TFY’s rise unusual.

A Unicorn Built The 鈥淯nfashionable鈥� Way

Founded in 2015, TFY has grown into a global workforce management platform that helps organisations hire, onboard, manage and pay workers across more than 184 countries.

The company operates in a space crowded with heavily funded competitors, many of whom have raised hundreds of millions of dollars from investors. But TFY took a different approach.

Instead of prioritising fundraising, the company focused on profitability. According to Stoyanov, “The biggest advantage has been freedom.” And that freedom, she argues, comes from being accountable to customers rather than investors.
“When you are funded by your customers rather than by successive investment rounds, you learn to listen very carefully to what customers actually need.”

It’s a philosophy that feels almost counter-cultural in today’s startup ecosystem, where funding announcements often generate more attention than financial results.

Looking Beyond the 1st-Place Price

The fact that TFY seems to be the first of its kind isn鈥檛 the most interesting part of this story (although it鈥檚 obviously incredibly impressive and noteworthy). The other aspect worth paying attention to is why there are so few companies in the conversation.

For years, the dominant startup narrative has suggested that scale requires venture capital. Founders are often encouraged to raise capital early, raise often and pursue growth aggressively. Having enough capital is absolutely essential for survival and growth.

Yet, TFY’s trajectory suggests that there may be another route. The company was identified by Tech Funding News as one of the UK’s “next unicorns” in 2025, it was ranked among the FT1000 Europe’s Fastest-Growing Companies and has won a string of industry awards while remaining independent.

Of course, nobody鈥檚 saying that this is proof that bootstrapping is better than venture capital. But it certainly is evidence that bootstrapping is a viable route to success, and perhaps more so than we鈥檙e told to believe.

An Important Unicorn Success Story

There is, undeniably, far broader significance to the milestone.

Female founders continue to receive a disproportionately small share of venture capital investment compared with male founders. In fact, according to the 鈥淲omen in VC and Startup Funding: Statistics and Trends鈥� 2025 report, of the $289 of venture capital investment in 2024 (in the United States), 2.3% went to female-only founding teams, 83.6% went to all-male founding teams and 14.1% went to founding teams made up of both men and women. The report does note that there was a 鈥渕odest鈥� improvement in these numbers compared to the 2023 report, but as the Women鈥檚 Founder鈥檚 Forum notes, 鈥渢he pace of change remains glacial鈥�.

In fact, they go on to project that if the current rate of improvement is maintained, gender parity in venture capital allocation will only reach parity in 2065. Undoubtedly, not the most encouraging statistic for female entrepreneurs and founders. Thus, perhaps the knowledge and expectation of this precise issue is what forces women to look beyond venture capital. After all, if your chances of receiving funding from traditional sources are slim to non-existent, your best bet would be to look for another route to success, right?

Regardless of how much that fact contributed to Lily鈥檚 untraditional route to unicorn status, it鈥檚 a noteworthy component and aspect of the female founder鈥檚 journey to success. Not only does it narrow the potential ways in which women can be successful as entrepreneurs, but it also leaves them one of the (arguably) most difficult paths to raise funding. After all, there’s a good reason why people shout loudly about companies that achieve success via bootstrapping – it鈥檚 damn hard to get it right.

Thus, the emergence of a female-founded company that appears to have reached unicorn status without relying on traditional VC backing is something worth talking about (and writing stories about!). Both as a celebration of incredible hard work and success, but also as a contribution to a conversation about how we need to work towards closing the gender inequality gap in startup funding. A complicated situation with no easy solution.

As Sheela Sharon, Founder of Platesfull, puts it, 鈥淐elebrating these 鈥渇irsts鈥� isn鈥檛 about suggesting women鈥檚 achievements deserve different standards. It鈥檚 about visibility. When more women are seen building companies, raising capital, entering new markets and leading teams, it makes those paths feel more achievable for the women coming behind them.鈥�

And importantly, recognition can have more impact than just a metaphorical pat on the back. Sara Reece, Founder and CEO or Workmind, explained that, in her view, 鈥淰isibility matters because disparity still exists. Celebrating consequential breakthroughs can influence who receives attention, capital and opportunity. The strongest recognition honours both the achievement itself and the barrier it changed.鈥�

Indeed, the common consensus seems to be that while we certainly hope that one day, we won鈥檛 need to differentiate between male and female achievements, we鈥檙e simply not there yet. And until we get there, it鈥檚 important to acknowledge female success in the startup and tech landscapes without being patronising or framing it as 鈥渋mpressive鈥� but with a small caveat – 鈥渇or a woman鈥�. Because that鈥檚 very different to celebrating a milestone that鈥檚 objectively impressive and then highlighting that the achievement is that of a woman (thus making it even more impressive!).

And in this context, in light of TFY鈥檚 impressive milestone and Lily Stoyanov鈥檚 personal achievement against all odds, we should be reminded that much like we are all different – competing in different conditions, under varying circumstances and with access to different opportunities – there are many paths to success that ought to be understood and acknowledged for what they are.

As Stoyanov puts it, “You can raise venture capital. You can bootstrap. You can build through revenue. There should not be a single acceptable model of entrepreneurship.”

And we should be ready and keen to acknowledge all of these things and give praise where praise is due.