Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Women TechEU (Women Tech Europe Support Scheme)
Período documentado: 2024-02-01 hasta 2025-07-31
Entrepreneurship is crucial for economic growth and societal progress, yet women remain underrepresented, making up less than a third of EU entrepreneurs. This limits the EU’s ability to address digital, green, and resilience transitions. In deep tech, the gap is sharper, with women-led companies receiving less than 2% of total investment. Women TechEU aims to address this by scaling collaboration between the European Commission and women-led deep tech startups, building a gender-balanced entrepreneurship ecosystem. The project will deploy €12M in equity-free grants for 160 women-led deep tech startups and provide additional tailored support services aligned with EIC Business Acceleration Services. The consortium combines leading innovation players, major investors, and women entrepreneurship networks to reach more than 15,000 candidates across all EU regions and technology domains. Core partners include EIT Manufacturing West (with EIT Manufacturing South and EIT Manufacturing East as Affiliated entities), Sploro, AcrossLimits, AwakenHub, EBAN, EIT Health, EIT Food, CKIC, AFAEMME, and FI.
Women TechEU’s main objective is to create a targeted programme for female founders, empowering women to grow into technology leaders. The consortium leverages its pan-European network to reach more than 15,000 potential applicants from Europe, including underrepresented regions and sectors. Through specialized outreach, Women TechEU strengthens female leadership and fosters an inclusive, vibrant startup pipeline.
Expected impacts include an increased participation of women in deep tech innovation, improved access to investment, reduced regional and sectoral inequalities, and the creation of sustainable support structures for future generations of women entrepreneurs. The project also integrates social sciences and gender equality actions to ensure broad and fair access to resources.
Women TechEU’s main objective is to create a targeted programme for female founders, empowering women to grow into technology leaders. The consortium leverages its pan-European network to reach more than 15,000 potential applicants from Europe, including underrepresented regions and sectors. Through specialized outreach, Women TechEU strengthens female leadership and fosters an inclusive, vibrant startup pipeline.
Expected impacts include an increased participation of women in deep tech innovation, improved access to investment, reduced regional and sectoral inequalities, and the creation of sustainable support structures for future generations of women entrepreneurs. The project also integrates social sciences and gender equality actions to ensure broad and fair access to resources.
The project has completed three out of four open calls, attracting 2,685 startup applications and selecting 120 beneficiaries with additional “Badge of Honour” awardees. Fourth and last open call was still open by July 2025. Technical achievements include: streamlined equity-free cascade funding, with staged payments linked to the achievement of key milestones and KPIs, organisation of 170+ expert workshops covering investment readiness, sales strategy, corporate access, environmental impact, and mentoring, to name a few, execution of matchmaking events, delivering over 300 investor meetings for only the first two open calls beneficiaries so far, and active use of open science practices and creation of publicly accessible resources like the Data Hub.
By the end of the project, beneficiaries will have advanced in the areas of fundraising, market validation, or investor engagement. Several startups will be moved on to EIC Accelerator and other major European funding opportunities. The Allies network (with over 100 members) and regional chapters in cities like Barcelona, Dublin, Paris, and Amsterdam are already and will continue helping to build lasting connections and community engagement for female founders.
By the end of the project, beneficiaries will have advanced in the areas of fundraising, market validation, or investor engagement. Several startups will be moved on to EIC Accelerator and other major European funding opportunities. The Allies network (with over 100 members) and regional chapters in cities like Barcelona, Dublin, Paris, and Amsterdam are already and will continue helping to build lasting connections and community engagement for female founders.
Women TechEU has set new standards in supporting women-led innovation in deep tech at the European level. The project achieved the creation of a large and diverse pipeline of female-led startups, covering 42 countries, receiving 2,685 applications in the first three open calls and reaching over 15,000 startups from the European deep-tech ecosystem. Each call recorded high participation and steady improvement in application quality, reflecting both the consortium’s active outreach strategy and its structured programme for continual enhancement of proposals.
The Programme of Services stands out for its flexibility and diversity, delivering over 170 workshops and mentoring sessions that address the scientific and technical needs of women founders from a wide spectrum of deep tech domains. Beneficiaries received support adapted to their specific maturity stage and sector, with continuous adaptation based on experience and feedback, raising the impact and accessibility of the support provided.
Community building extended beyond the traditional grant lifecycle, with regional chapters, frequent peer learning opportunities both onsite and online, and an active alumni network enabling lasting professional connections, knowledge exchange, and innovation community growth. This holistic integration at multiple territorial and sectoral levels contributed to sustained progress well past the initial support period.
Women TechEU also made measurable advances in investment attracted by beneficiaries, participation in major innovation events, and inclusion of startups from widening regions. The project fulfilled its commitments to open science, responsible innovation, and territorial cohesion, with strong focus on ethics compliance, transparency, and open data. These achievements together present a replicable model for achieving excellence and equity in European innovation ecosystems, moving beyond traditional support mechanisms through a holistic, responsive, and community-driven approach.
The Programme of Services stands out for its flexibility and diversity, delivering over 170 workshops and mentoring sessions that address the scientific and technical needs of women founders from a wide spectrum of deep tech domains. Beneficiaries received support adapted to their specific maturity stage and sector, with continuous adaptation based on experience and feedback, raising the impact and accessibility of the support provided.
Community building extended beyond the traditional grant lifecycle, with regional chapters, frequent peer learning opportunities both onsite and online, and an active alumni network enabling lasting professional connections, knowledge exchange, and innovation community growth. This holistic integration at multiple territorial and sectoral levels contributed to sustained progress well past the initial support period.
Women TechEU also made measurable advances in investment attracted by beneficiaries, participation in major innovation events, and inclusion of startups from widening regions. The project fulfilled its commitments to open science, responsible innovation, and territorial cohesion, with strong focus on ethics compliance, transparency, and open data. These achievements together present a replicable model for achieving excellence and equity in European innovation ecosystems, moving beyond traditional support mechanisms through a holistic, responsive, and community-driven approach.