On the shortlist: Farirai Gora

Farirai Gora has been shortlisted for the 2025 Tech Leader Award in recognition of her groundbreaking work as the founder of We Are Eden, a B2B SaaS platform transforming how financial services firms address inclusion and human capital risk. With over 12 years’ experience in insurance and product innovation, Farirai developed Policy Pulse™, an AI-powered tool that provides managers with clinically designed, legally compliant guidance on reproductive health—tackling the £20 billion productivity loss linked to inadequate workplace support.

A visionary entrepreneur, Farirai bridges data science, healthcare, and regulation to create scalable, ethical technology that drives both business and social impact. Under her leadership, We Are Eden has secured multinational clients, improved retention, and boosted productivity by up to 15%. As a Black female founder, she champions equity and visibility across fintech, inspiring the next generation of women to lead fearlessly and redefine what inclusion-driven innovation can achieve.

We asked Farirai to tell us more…

We Are Eden has pioneered a new category in financial services: Talent Risk Management. What inspired you to create this platform, and how did you spot the gap it now fills?

I built Policy Pulse™ after a 13 year career in regulatory and technology projects in insurance.  Throughout that time I went through a painful journey with dysmenorrhea – living the silence that our platform now breaks.

13.5M working men and women have a reproductive health challenge. Finding the workplace confusing with little or no support leading to a £20B* problem

Policy Pulse translates complex reproductive health and legal challenges into instant, AI-powered guidance for managers. How did you balance clinical, legal, and technical expertise in designing the product?

We are Eden was selected to take part in the Discovery Spark Accelerator in 2024, which gave us direct exposure to health tech, clinical, legal and regulatory rigour on our innovation. Amongst 8 other innovators we went through in depth workshops and presentations focused on health tech.

We’ve also taken part in the Hive female founders investment readiness programme. A platform where we tested our innovation with technical and investment experts.

During our market research, we’ve consulted with practicing OBGYN’s, lawfirm partners and innovation experts. As well as gathering over 100 first and second hand lived experiences.

This is evidenced on our Eden Talks platform.

Many see reproductive health as a “soft” HR issue, yet you’ve reframed it as a hard business challenge. Why do you think financial services firms are now ready to tackle this head-on?

The reason financial services firms are ready to tackle this head-on now comes down to three converging forces: regulatory pressure, economic reality, and competitive necessity.

First, there’s the regulatory imperative. The UK’s Employment Rights Bill, in its final stages of parliamentary approval as of November 2025 is nothing short of transformative.

For the first time in history, menopause has been explicitly named in employment legislation. From 2027, employers with over 250 staff will be legally required to publish Menopause Action Plans as part of mandatory Equality Action Plans.

This isn’t guidance or best practice – it’s law. Failure to comply carries consequences under the Employment Rights Act 1996, the Equality Act 2010, and the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.

Financial services firms are particularly sensitive to regulatory risk, and when something moves from the “nice to have” column into the “legally mandated” column, it gets C-suite attention immediately.

What has your journey been like, and what barriers have you had to break through along the way?

My journey has been one of continuous reinvention, resilience, and relentless belief in what’s possible – even when the path forward wasn’t clear.

I began my career armed with a biochemistry degree and over 12 years of experience in product innovation within the London insurance market.

The first barrier was legitimacy in an unfamiliar space. I was coming from insurance and product innovation, not healthcare. When I started talking about building an AI-driven solution for reproductive health in the workplace, many people didn’t see a natural founder. They saw a pivot. They saw risk. I had to prove that depth of expertise, rigor, and domain knowledge could be built quickly through partnerships with clinicians, researchers, and lived-experience advocates.

The second barrier was the stigma of the topic itself. Reproductive health is still treated as private, taboo, even within progressive organizations. I learned quickly that I couldn’t lead with empathy alone – I had to lead with data, with ROI, with the undeniable business case.

You’ve mentored women and built a diverse team at We Are Eden. How do you approach creating inclusive pathways for the next generation of women in technology and financial services?

I build inclusive pathways by combining three interconnected approaches: assembling genuinely diverse teams with strategic ownership, practicing intentional mentorship without gatekeeping, and using my platform for visibility.

At We Are Eden, my User Experience Lead Mary Prabah Anderson has real decision-making power – not just tasks – shaping our external developer engagement and product design.

I share knowledge openly through 2,400+ webinar views and direct mentorship.

I’m also deliberate about public recognition, nominating Mary for the WIBF Student Award so young women see themselves as essential contributors, not tokens.

My British-Zimbabwean heritage shapes this through Ubuntu—I am because we are—guiding me to model pathway-building, not permission-seeking. Visibility creates permission; when young women from underrepresented backgrounds see my story, they imagine their own.

I’m pleased to share that Mary’s nomination achieved the WIBF student awards shortlist

Q6) Looking to the future, what is your long-term vision for We Are Eden and for how financial services organisations address inclusion and human capital risk?

Long-Term Vision for We Are Eden and Financial Services

My vision is to transform how organizations think about talent and health. We Are Eden will become the global standard for Talent Risk Management, expanding beyond reproductive health to encompass all dimensions of employee wellbeing that impact organizational performance. Within financial services specifically, I see a future where reproductive and health-related support is seamlessly embedded into core HR infrastructure—not as a compliance checkbox, but as a strategic competitive advantage. We’ll scale Policy Pulse globally, enabling firms to proactively mitigate legal risks, retain senior talent, and unlock productivity gains. Financial services leaders will benchmark their inclusion strategies against standardized metrics we define, shifting culture from silence to psychological safety. This is how we move from managing crisis to building thriving, equitable workplaces.