Women Founders in European Deep Tech Startups (Luxinnovation)

Summary

• Women remain significantly underrepresented in European deep tech startups, with teams having at least one woman founder staying below 25%, rising from 11.3% in 2011 to 24% in 2022.p.9
• Women founders account for only 14% of the total number of founders in deep tech startups as of 2022, doubling from approximately 7% in 2010.p.9
• Deep tech startups founded by women receive only 11.4% of total available funding, lower than their representation of 17.4% among all startups.p.9
• Women-led deep tech startups receive their first funding faster, being funded at an average age of 0.97 years compared to 1.2 years for men-only startups.p.25
• Women founders are highly educated, with women PhD holders representing 14.1% of all deep tech startup founders holding a PhD.p.22
• Women deep tech startups are more reliant on public sources, grants, non-profits, and incubators, but receive less early and late venture capital funding.p.10

Key insights

1. The percentage of deep tech startups in Europe with at least one woman founder grew from 11.3% in 2011 to 24% in 2022.p.9
2. Only 10.4% of solo deep tech startup founders are women, compared to 17.4% of team startups having at least one female founder.p.9
3. The funding share for female-founded startups is highest in Central Europe and the Anglo-Saxon region at around 30%, but drops to 3.6% in Eastern Europe.p.9
4. Women deep tech startups receive lower first valuations and overall lower valuations throughout their lifecycles, making them less likely to reach a €20 million valuation.p.10
5. No significant performance difference exists between women-led and men-only deep tech startups regarding employee, revenue, profit, or EBITDA growth.p.9
6. Grants and support programmes represent almost one-third of total funding accessed by female deep tech startup founders.p.4
7. The percentage of women founders in deep tech with a Master's degree stands at 12.4%, while female founders with PhDs represent 14.1% of all PhD-holding founders.p.22
8. European deep tech startups led by women receive smaller first funding rounds, with a regression coefficient showing a negative impact of -0.34 for women founding teams.p.29