SAN FRANCISCO, March 10, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — DianaHR, which offers the first AI-powered HR-as-a-Service platform for SMBs, is proud to announce that its founder and CEO, Upeka Bee, has been named to Inc.’s 2026 Female Founders 500, an annual list honoring the most dynamic women business leaders in the United States. The honor recognizes founders whose bold ideas, resilience, and execution are shaping the future of their industries. Bee will be recognized for her achievements in the Human Resources industry category.
The 2026 Female Founders honorees collectively generated approximately $12.3 billion in 2025 revenue and $12.2 billion in funding to date, underscoring the economic impact of women-led businesses across sectors.
Each year, Inc. editors evaluate applications through a rigorous, multi-round selection process. Founders are assessed on both quantitative performance metrics, including revenue growth, funding, sales, and audience size, as well as qualitative factors such as innovation, social impact, and brand momentum. The final list represents entrepreneurs who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and measurable progress over the past year.
“I founded DianaHR with the belief that HR should scale with a company’s growth, not slow it down,” said Upeka Bee, Founder and CEO of DianaHR. “Small and mid-sized businesses don’t need more dashboards, they need an intelligent layer that works across their existing tools, combining human expertise with autonomous AI agents to get real HR work done. Our mission is to reimagine HR as a service that evolves alongside the business. I’m incredibly honored to be recognized as a recipient of the Inc. 2026 Female Founders Award, and proud to be building a platform that’s redefining what modern, scalable HR looks like for SMBs.”
DianaHR, founded by Upeka Bee, the former Head of Engineering at Gusto HR, is delivering HR-as-a-Service to SMBs by automating routine back-office tasks that often overwhelm small business owners. The platform automates most HR activities, saving owners over 15 hours a week and cutting costs by 60 percent. Instead of building an HR team, owners can rely on DianaHR to handle most of the heavy lifting. Each client is assigned a human DianaHR specialist who coordinates service and offers expertise as needed, but most functions are fully automated with DianaHR’s AI platform. DianaHR continues to innovate, recently launching the industry’s first production-grade Agentic Onboarding system, a significant technological leap designed to automate employee onboarding with minimal human involvement.
Bee played a pivotal role in leading DianaHR’s growth, recently secured a $3.7M seed round led by SNR Ventures, and doubled revenue each quarter since the product release. In response to increasing demand, the company has doubled its workforce and is continuing to recruit to meet the need for greater operational capacity, with no sign of slowing down.
“Each year, we are increasingly amazed by the extraordinary leaders on our Inc. Female Founders 500 list,” says Bonny Ghosh, editorial director at Inc. “The honorees on this year’s list include innovators in AI, beauty and wellness trendsetters winning devoted fans, and nonprofit leaders making a real impact in their communities. Together, they’re showing all of us what trailblazing female leadership looks like.”
To see the complete list of honorees, please visit: https://www.inc.com/female-founders/2026.
About Inc.
Inc. is the leading media brand and playbook for the entrepreneurs and business leaders shaping our future. Through its journalism, Inc. aims to inform, educate, and elevate the profile of its community: the risk-takers, the innovators, and the ultra-driven go-getters who are creating the future of business. Inc. is published by Mansueto Ventures LLC, along with fellow leading business publication Fast Company. For more information, visit www.inc.com.
About DianaHR
DianaHR offers the first AI-powered HR-as-a-Service platform for the 1.4 million SMBs with at least 10 employees. Today, SMB owners spend 15+ hours a week struggling with back-office HR tasks such as managing software, payroll, compliance, benefits questions, onboarding, insurance and 401k. DianaHR, a human-in-the-loop AI that integrates with existing HR tools, combines AI automation with a team of professional operators to handle all that, eliminating the need for HR teams and expensive consultants while improving response times and accuracy. Join the waitlist at getdianahr.com.
Media contact:
Gina Rezendes
Big Swing PR
617-640-9278
[email protected]
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e275737a-df70-47c2-9f3b-516101700898