Women TechEU
Share
Women TechEU – supporting female founders and entrepreneurs leading deep tech startups
Women TechEU aims to empower and support women entrepreneurs in the deep tech landscape by providing financial support and mentoring services. With a budget of 12 million EUR in equity-free grants, the project will financially support 160 women-led deep tech companies, together with supplementary support services integrated into an enhanced EIC Business Acceleration Services (BAS) programme. This initiative is designed to foster innovation, drive economic growth, and enable social progress across Europe.
Entrepreneurship stands as a cornerstone of economic growth and societal advancement, yet women remain significantly underrepresented in this domain, comprising less than a third of entrepreneurs across the European Union (EU). This disparity not only underscores gender inequality but also impedes the EU’s ability to effectively address pressing challenges such as the digital transformation, environmental sustainability, resilience building, and post-pandemic recovery efforts. Particularly within deep tech sectors, gender balance is even more skewed, with investment in women-led companies accounting for less than 2% of the total.
In response to this gender gap, the Women TechEU project seeks to foster collaboration between the European Commission and pan-European deep tech women-led startups, aiming to cultivate a more gender-balanced entrepreneurship ecosystem. Building upon the foundation laid by the existing EIC Women TechEU initiative, our consortium is committed to scaling this initiative with a focus on long-term sustainability.
The consortium is comprised of partners boasting diverse expertise and geographic coverage, enabling us to reach over 15,000 women entrepreneurs in deep tech from all corners of Europe. Led by EIT Manufacturing West and strengthened by the involvement of other Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) from EIT, including Health, Food, and Climate, we leverage the expansive network and flagship events of these entities to maximise impact.
The Women TechEU project consortium comprises 13 partners from across Europe: