The 19 hottest female-founded startups of 2015

Women may be underrepresented throughout the tech sector — but they're building some incredible startups, apps, and products.

We've rounded up a collection of 19 female-founded startups that made the news this year.

Some of them launched or came out of beta, while others raised funding or launched new services.

You'll want to keep these startups — and their founders — on your radar.

SEE ALSO: The 25 hottest startups that launched in 2015

DWNLD

These days it seems like everybody has an app in the App Store. And why not? It's a great way to make  extra money while putting out a product that you believe in.

Alexandra Keating is capitalizing on that idea with DWNLD, a mobile app-creation platform that helps companies, brands, and other influencers easily and affordably turn their content, from social media to photos to videos to GIFs, into native mobile apps in minutes. DWNLD landed a $12 million investment from Greylock Partners in September,and works with clients like Nylon, xoJane, and a number of YouTube stars and bloggers.

AptDeco

Reham Ragiri is one of the only minority female founders to take a company through the prestigious startup incubator Y Combinator, transforming the preowned-furniture marketplace in New York City.

She and cofounder Kalam Dennis developed their service so that buyers and sellers of used furniture don't have to coordinate delivery or pick-up times, or even do the actual delivering or picking up themselves —AptDeco has a delivery partner that does it all, taking one of the biggest hassles of trying to buy or sell furniture in New York City out of the equation.

Spoon University

Spoon University — a website to share recipes, health and lifestyle stories, restaurant reviews, BuzzFeed-esque quizzes, and other food-related content — went live in September 2013 and quickly grew to a 100-person student staff at Northwestern's campus, before expanding nationwide.

Spoon University, which has raised a $2 million seed round, says it attracts 2 million unique visitors every month — 10x growth from the 200,000 it had earlier this year. Schools like Penn, NYU, Dartmouth, and Michigan all have their own Spoon University pages, with 3,000 students actively contributing stories, photos, and videos to the website.

Spoon University's advisors include digital media startup talents like Bryan Goldberg, the CEO and founder of Bustle and Bleacher Report, and Chris Altchek, the CEO of Mic. Its readership is 75% female.