Connected Women
Connected Women

Building our digital future together.

Connected Women is where women learn new skills, find work and grow businesses, backed by partners who invest in them and companies looking for trained talent.
Connected Women members at meetups, training sessions and work

For Members

Local meetups, learning programs, and income opportunities at every stage.

Connected Women is a community where women share, connect, work, and learn.

Through local chapters, learning programs, mentorship, advocacy, and partnerships, we bring opportunity closer to home.

Members share knowledge and experience, collaborate on work and advocacy, build skills for the future, and mentor those coming up behind them.

Join the community

For Partners

Economic opportunity for Filipino women, through skills, community, and decent work.

For more than a decade, Connected Women has used technology to bring that opportunity within reach: online communities, digital skills training, and remote work.

Our programs today focus on AI fluency, from first use of AI to earning from it.

Partners fund cohorts, co-design programs, co-run research, and co-host events with us.

Partner with us

For Clients

Ethical AI data services, delivered by trained, vetted talent from our community.

Mettamatch, powered by Connected Women, provides AI data preparation and human oversight of AI.

The work includes digitising documents and records, labelling the images, video, and text that AI systems learn from, and checking what AI produces for accuracy and bias.

When you bring AI work to Mettamatch, it becomes paid work for the women we train.

Explore AI data services

200,000+

community members

60,000+

trained in digital skills

3,000+

trained data annotation specialists

900+

volunteer-led meetups

Bringing opportunities home.

We started by advocating for flexible remote work, so women could stay in the workforce while raising families and juggling household responsibilities.

We added partnerships, volunteer-led meetups and flagship programs, including learning that brings women into tech and AI.

As AI grew, we expanded our services as Mettamatch, turning that learning into paid AI data work for the women we train.

Seeing how the workforce behind AI is often treated, we made our commitment to fair and ethical work.

Today, through Connected Women, our members in the Philippines and beyond build skills, find work and earn, close to home.

A Connected Women member working on a laptop.

Our leadership

Gina Romero

Gina Romero

Founder and Executive Chair

Gina founded Connected Women in 2013 and Mettamatch in 2017, building both around one idea: technology should bring economic opportunity to women, wherever they are. In 2022 she received The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS) award for women’s empowerment through ICT. She serves on the Board of Trustees of De La Salle University and the SheShapesAI Global Awards Council.

Ruth Yu-Owen

Ruth Yu-Owen

Co-Founder
Ruth co-founded the company and is President and CEO of Upgrade Energy Philippines, where she leads the development of wind, hydropower and solar projects. She was named Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2025 Asia CEO Awards. Born and raised in Zamboanga, she went to college with the help of an aunt, and has paid that support forward ever since. She guides Mettamatch’s investment strategy and partnerships.
Agnes Gervacio

Agnes Gervacio

Chief Executive Officer

Agnes has led Connected Women and Mettamatch as CEO since 2022, bringing a long track record of leadership in IT and telecoms. She was the first Filipino woman to serve as President of NEC Philippines, held senior roles at Eastern Telecoms and Pacnet, and was CEO of Novare. She chairs the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee of the Management Association of the Philippines. She runs day-to-day operations and the programs that prepare women for the work.

After working on our first project together, we saw how very dependable Connected Women is as a business partner.
Torsten Malchow
Torsten Malchow, Co-Founder and CRO, ScaleHub
We worked with Connected Women to do data annotation for our Voice of Customer project. They have the expertise and experience of data annotation for machine learning with the responsiveness, character, and true partnership that any company would want.
Kat Luna-Abelarde
Kat Luna-Abelarde, President and CEO, PLDT Global
We believe that there is a huge potential in using AI to uplift the lives of Filipinos. We partnered with Connected Women to help our team contextualize the technology through the real-life experiences of Filipinos working online.
Edwin Bautista
Edwin Bautista, President and CEO, UnionBank
This project [with Connected Women] aims to deliver innovations in technology while empowering Filipino women through work opportunities.
Adrienne Heinrich
Dr. Adrienne Heinrich, Head of AI Center of Excellence, UnionBank
Here is where our partnership with Connected Women comes into play – by combining the resources and expertise of both organizations, we aim to create a comprehensive digital ecosystem that empowers women in the field of Gen AI.
Sara Venturina
Sara Venturina, Chief Data Officer, GCash
SIP gives sari-sari store owners the data they need to make smarter business decisions. But data alone does not change behaviour. Partnering with Connected Women means every insight is paired with the coaching and confidence that turns knowledge into action. That is how AI actually reaches the stores that need it most.
Ibba Bernardo
Ibba Bernardo, Co-Founder, Packworks
It is high time for them (the Basilan ladies), who have been traditionally viewed as beneficiaries, to be active participants in the digital economy.
Sitti Djalia Turabin-Hataman
Sitti Djalia "Dadah" A. Turabin-Hataman, Mayor, Isabela City, Basilan
Talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not always equally accessible. Elevate AIDA helps bridge that gap by giving women the skills and confidence to participate in the digital economy wherever they are.
Ginggay Hontiveros-Malvar
Ginggay Hontiveros-Malvar, President, Aboitiz Foundation
With my newly acquired Gen AI skills, I was able to process tons of data faster and beat all my deliverables for three simultaneous research and writing consultancy projects.
Ayyi Gardiola
Ayyi Gardiola, Elevate GAIL graduate
I learned and discovered a lot of jobs I can do even while working from home. I also did not feel discriminated against.
Rica Uao
Rica Uao , Elevate AIDA graduate, juvenile stroke survivor.
It is not easy, but life itself is a motivation for me. A mother's heart motivates me a lot... I am really really happy from the deepest point of my heart that this opportunity came into being... I am hoping that this will be the realization of my daughter's dream.
Milagrosa Laxa
Milagrosa Laxa, Elevate AIDA graduate.
My favorite part of the program is meeting a lot of women in different fields and backgrounds. This is what uplifts me, and which sets this program apart from other AI training: the community we have.
Erika Carganilla
Erika Carganilla, Elevate GAIL graduate.
data.org

Winner
data.org Activate AI Challenge (2026)

TESDA logo

TESDA Certificate of Program Recognition
Big Data and Analytics (2023)

ITU logo

Finalist
ITU Digital World SME Awards (2021)

UN Women WEPs Awards

First Runner-up, COVID-19 Action
UN Women WEPs Awards Philippines (2020)

WSIS Prizes Champion, e-Employment (2019) | Finalist, MIT Inclusive Innovation Challenge Asia (2018) | Finalist, RSA Future Work Awards (2018)

Let's work together