Female Founder Friday: In Conversation with Charlotte Ridley

This week's Female Founder Friday features Charlotte Ridley, a deeply driven and innovative tech leader building a product rooted in memory, legacy, emotion and joy. With a powerhouse background spanning Intel, Arm, and several high growth startups, Charlotte’s career has always lived at the cutting edge of technology. But it was the loss of her father during pregnancy that became a profoundly transformative turning point. The grief of losing digital memories sparked her mission to ensure others never face the same.

Charlotte is the founder of Memorify, a company dedicated to helping individuals and families capture, preserve and protect their most precious digital memories across generations. Memorify curates and protects meaningful digital moments for generations.

In our conversation, Charlotte shares her founder journey, the emotional inspiration behind her company, and her candid views on fundraising as a woman in tech.

FC: Could you please summarise your professional background?

CR: Oh gosh, where on earth do I start? I’ve primarily worked in tech my whole career. I secured a place on the Intel graduate programme, even though I never went to university, which set the pace early on. I then worked across corporate and start up environments including Shell and Close Brothers. I spent six years at Arm focusing on marketing, partnerships and global scaling of AI and ML products before it was fashionable.

I also joined a tech start up at an early stage that is now valued at over £300M, so I’ve experienced both corporate structure and start up chaos. That gave me the confidence to think, I can build this.

FC: Could you tell us more about the problem you discovered and your light bulb moment?

CR: When I was pregnant in 2021, my father suddenly passed away and we lost access to all his digital memories. He had archived our childhood photos and videos digitally, and we could not retrieve them. That was my wake up call. Digital memories are incredibly fragile.

The issue was not that memories did not exist, it was that they were scattered across devices and platforms with no intelligent structure. When he passed away, that problem was amplified. I realised this was not just my problem, it was everyone’s. We all have phones full of images but not organised, meaningful memories.

With my background in AI and machine learning, I could see no one was solving this properly. That became Memorify’s mission: to help people preserve memories intentionally and pass them forward across generations.

FC: What does it take to make it as an entrepreneur?

CR: Blind faith, determination and painful passion. If I had known how hard it would be, I might have hesitated. But I am fiercely competitive and curious. If I see a problem, I want to fix it.

This business is deeply personal, which keeps the fire burning. I have written pitch decks at 4am because I believe in what we are building. Passion is not optional. But it also takes a village. My partner, daughter, stepson and close network have all supported me more than I could have imagined.

FC: How has your fundraising journey been?

CR: We recently closed our pre seed round, raising over £420,000 against a £200,000 target from private investors, supported by Sheffield Angels, Anglia Capital Group and FundmyPitch. I closed the round exactly one year after being put at risk of redundancy, which felt incredibly powerful.

I was deliberate about bringing in angels who added value beyond capital. I chose not to pursue VC at this stage and instead bootstrapped longer than expected. Your network really is everything in fundraising. As my chairman says, your angels are often already in your network.

FC: Did you notice differences fundraising as a female founder?

CR: I have had strong male allies and worked in male dominated environments for years. Challenges exist, but resilience is part of the founder journey.

What is interesting is that more women are building sustainable, high growth businesses. Recent data shows women now drive 30 percent of UK high growth companies, generating £175B in turnover.

The number of UK female founders scaling beyond £50M revenue has risen sharply. Women are building long term, resilient businesses and the data is finally reflecting that.

FC: What’s next?

CR: Alongside closing investment, we won a competitive Innovate UK grant recognising our ethical AI development. We are deep into product and brand development ahead of our alpha launch, with YOREE launching publicly in July 2026. In September 2026 we will open our Seed crowdfunding round. It is going to be a busy year.

Most importantly, we make time to celebrate milestones. When you build a company around memories, you learn to create them along the way.

Charlotte’s blend of emotional insight and technical expertise is both rare and inspiring. Memorify is more than a product, it is a promise to future generations. To follow Charlotte’s journey and stay connected, explore the links below.

Website: https://www.memorifytech.com/
Personal LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotte-r-ridley/?originalSubdomain=uk
Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/memorify-technologies/

Author: Gideon Stott, Digital Marketing Executive at FounderCatalyst