Female entrepreneurship : public and private funding.
Date: 2020-01-08
Institutions: Eurofound
Subjects: corporate finance, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, female work, financing method, gender equality, participation of women, position of women, public financing, research report, woman

RESEARCH REPORT

Industrial relations 
Female entrepreneurship:  
Public and private funding

Female entrepreneurship:  
Public and private funding

When citing this report, please use the following wording: 
Eurofound (2019), Female entrepreneurship: Public and private funding, Publications Office of the European Union, 
Luxembourg. 

Author: Stavroula Demetriades, with support from Catherine Cerf

Research manager: Stavroula Demetriades

Eurofound project: Timely information for Eurofound (Topical updates): Gender funding for women entrepreneurs 
(190302)

Acknowledgements: The author would like to thank the peer reviewers of this report: Christine Aumayr Pintar, Martina 
Bisello and Isabella Biletta (Eurofound), Helena Morais Maceira, Barbara Limanowska and Zivile Macijauskiene (EIGE), and 
the Network of Eurofound Correspondents. Comments were also submitted by colleagues at DG JUST (Fatima Ribeiro Vilas 
Boas).

Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union

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ISBN: 978-92-897-1995-7 
ISBN: 978-92-897-1994-0 

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Contents

Key messages 

Introduction 

Main issues involved 

Policy background 

Objectives of the study 

Methodology 

Structure of the report 

1  Private investment funds 

Introduction 

Overview of the private investment funds 

Funds with no gender focus but investing in women-led enterprises 

Investing in women-led enterprises: Feedback from fund managers 

Summary 

2  Public financial support 

Identifying the problem  

Public financial support initiatives in the EU and Norway 

Types of financial support 

Other state measures supporting female entrepreneurship  

Other initiatives  

Summary 

3  Pathways to accessing funding 

Grouping of countries in terms of support for female entrepreneurship 

Views and opinions of associations and public institutions 

Financial journey of female entrepreneurs 

Feedback from female start-up entrepreneurs  

Summary 

4  Conclusions and policy pointers 

Policy pointers 

Bibliography 

Annex 1: List of contributors 

Annex 2: Glossary of terms 

Annex 3: Coding system used 

Annex 4: Private funds and female entrepreneurs interviewed 

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Key messages

Emergence of private funds with gender 
criteria in their investments
In the last few years, seven European Member States 
(Belgium, Czechia, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, 
Sweden and the United Kingdom (UK)) have seen the 
creation of 11 private funds which direct their investments 
into companies using gender criteria. These funds were 
created out of the need to invest in women-led enterprises 
and provide capital to address a social issue. This can 
contribute to creating a new funding model which may 
suit female entrepreneurs. The creation of ‘gender lens’ 
investment funds may tilt the gender equality playing field 
and support female entrepreneurship. 

Funds investing in female entrepreneurs 
without explicit gender criteria
Investors directing large proportions of their investments 
towards women-led enterprises have been identified in a 
number of countries (such as Belgium, France, Germany, 
the Netherlands) without, however explicitly mentioning 
gender in their investment criteria. Some of these funds 
have clear social impact considerations, such as using 
finance to meet the United Nations (UN) Sustainable 
Development Goals (SDGs), which include gender equality 
as a goal.

Investing in women-led enterprises fills a 
market gap and makes a social impact
To exclude over 10 million female entrepreneurs in 
Europe from investment opportunities does not make 
economic sense, and it is not fair for society. The funds 
with gender considerations in their investments were 
created out of the need to fill a market gap: female 
entrepreneurs are underserved by venture capital, equity 
and angel investors. It is also a business opportunity for 
the funds, and, at the same time, the funds can make 
a social impact by leaving a gender footprint on the 
industry.

Women play a major role in the setting up  
of these funds
The majority of the 11 funds were created by female 
founders. They operate with a team of either solely 
female or diverse fund managers. Their approach to 
investing differs to the approach used by others in 
the industry, as they assess companies with concrete 
gender considerations among their hard criteria (such 
as commercial value, growth orientation, sales and 
profits). 

Cross-border, global reach of the funds
Out of the 11 funds, 6 invest beyond the borders of 
the countries in which they are established and have a 
European (or global) focus. These are small and young 

funds that are well connected with networks and the 
entrepreneurial ecosystem. This presents an opportunity 
for female entrepreneurs to access venture capital, 
equity capital or angel investment, even if their location 
is in another European country. The European single 
market creates opportunities for both investors and 
investees.

Amount of capital raised and sectors targeted
Of the 11 funds, three have already raised €68 million for 
investments in women-led enterprises, with amounts 
invested ranging from €10,000 to €20 million, open to 
all sectors of the economy. However, when targeting 
specific sectors, those tend to be technology sectors, 
information and communications technology (ICT),  
health-tech, education-tech, digital publishing and 
renewable energy.

State support for female entrepreneurship  
in the form of financing
Entrepreneurship programmes supporting female 
entrepreneurs consist of: 

  grants, cash prizes and awards

 

 

 

credit and credit guarantee schemes

tax credits

investment funding and business angel investment

Overall, 36 financial support schemes were identified 
in 16 Member States. The state investment in some 
of these programmes is estimated to be more than 
€300 million. Many countries provide grant and award 
schemes, as well as credit schemes. The largest number 
of such schemes is implemented in Italy, followed by 
Bulgaria, Ireland, France, Lithuania, Spain and Sweden. 
Investment funding and business angel investments are 
also provided by state organisations or in partnership 
with other organisations. 

Other state support for female entrepreneurship 
State authorities (in a broad sense, including regional 
and local authorities) support female entrepreneurship 
through training, mentoring and networking activities. 
The country mapping shows that 19 Member States 
offer such programmes and more than 300,000 women 
have participated in such activities, in particular 
training. However, childcare support is not always 
considered as part of the entrepreneurship policy 
measures.

Eradicating gender stereotypes in 
entrepreneurship
Female entrepreneurship needs to be promoted in the 
European economy and society, and it is important that 
gender stereotypes and socioeconomic barriers (such 

1

as work–life balance for women and men, affordable 
childcare and access to networks) are addressed. Many 
women’s associations in Member States suggest that 
female entrepreneurial models should be promoted and 
the power of finance should be used to positively affect 

gender roles in the economy and society. The latter can 
be done through facilitating better access to investment 
capital for female entrepreneurs and through promoting 
gender diversity in finance institutions where decisions on 
investments are made.

2

Female entrepreneurship: Public and private fundingIntroduction

The European Union needs to develop a strong and vibrant 
economic base, and entrepreneurship can contribute 
to achieving this goal. Entrepreneurship creates new 
companies and new markets, develops skills and has the 
potential to address some of the challenges the European 
economy is faced with. As female entrepreneurs represent 
a small proportion of the total number of entrepreneurs,  
in order to enhance equal opportunities for both women  
and men would require the removal of several obstacles. 
Some of the hurdles female entrepreneurs or would-be  
entrepreneurs are faced with are related to access to  
finance, access to the right networks, and access 
to information and advice. 

Access to finance is an important factor in female 
entrepreneurship. While traditional means of financing 
(Carter and Rosa, 1998; Haines et al, 1999; Coleman, 2000; 
Lee and Denslow, 2005; Constantinidis et al, 2006; Carter 
et al, 2007; Coleman and Robb, 2009) have been previously 
examined, little research has been done on access to 
business angels and venture capital. Angel investment 
and venture capital are becoming increasingly important 
in the provision of not only capital but also mentorship, 
advice, access to the investors’ networks, etc. which are 
critical for start-ups and growing companies. Often female 
entrepreneurship is seen through the prism of the gender 
pay gap, subsidised support to get women into work, 
fairness, gender diversity, access to credit, etc. However, 
investment opportunities through angel investors and 
venture capital in women-led enterprises have not been 
fully researched. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals 
(SDGs) have been an inspiration for gender lens investing 
as part of sustainability investment. Gender lens investing 
incorporates gender-related factors into investment 
decisions.

Women have been traditionally faced with the problem of 
attracting fewer angel and venture capital investments, 
despite running fundable companies. In view of these 
financing difficulties, there is some evidence of private 
investment funds being created in various global regions 
with the intention to invest in female entrepreneurs and 
cover the investment gap. 

In recognising the problem of inadequate financing of 
female entrepreneurs, national strategies and European 
support tools can aid female entrepreneurship.

This report examines the prevalence of private funds 
created for investing in female entrepreneurs in the 
European Union and Norway. Additionally, it investigates 
public finance tools and public support schemes that 
remove barriers and enable women to become competent 
entrepreneurs.

Main issues involved
The growth of economies depends very much on their 
ability to create and sustain enterprises which can add 
value, create jobs and successfully compete at national 
and international levels. Entrepreneurship is supported 
by national government programmes through several 
policy measures that remove barriers, create incentives 
and assist capacity building. Such policy measures are 
promoted as a route to support female entrepreneurs 
to achieve economic independence and equality. These 
measures also contribute to sustainable economic growth. 

Various definitions of entrepreneurship are used in the 
literature and policy documents. An OECD definition 
(OECD, 2008a) refers to entrepreneurship as ‘identifying 
and acting upon (enterprising human activity) 
opportunities that create value (be that economic, cultural 
or social). As a result, entrepreneurs are those persons 
(business owners) who seek to generate value, through the 
creation or expansion of economic activity by identifying 
and exploiting new products, processes or markets.’ The 
European Commission defines entrepreneurs as ‘persons 
aged 15 years and older who work in their own business, 
farm or professional practice to make a profit, and 
spend time on the operation of a business, or are in the 
process of setting up a business’1 (European Commission, 
2014). For the purposes of this study, the Network of 
Eurofound Correspondents was asked to report on female 
entrepreneurship support measures in line with their 
national definitions and policy documents.

Number of female entrepreneurs  
in Europe
It is important to examine the number of female 
entrepreneurs in Europe to have a better appreciation of the 
issue. Studies and statistical data (European Commission, 
2014) show that the proportion of active female 
entrepreneurs in 2012 was 31% (up from 28% in 2008), or 
10.3 million, but with wide variation across countries. 

The proportion of entrepreneurs in the total active labour 
force can be expressed using the entrepreneurship rate 
as an indicator for comparing entrepreneurial activities. 
Female entrepreneurship data (European Commission, 
2014) show that in 2012 the EU28 entrepreneurship rate 
for women stood at 10% while the rate for men was higher 
(19%). The rate varies between countries, with the top 
four being Greece, Portugal, Italy and Poland. The lowest 
rates were noted in Estonia, Denmark, Sweden and Malta. 
Examining the trend in entrepreneurship rates between 
2003 and 2012, the same analytical report notes that there 
has been a slight increase in the female entrepreneurship 
rate, from 10% to 10.4%, and a stagnation in male 
entrepreneurship. 

1 

This definition is also used for self-employed people in Eurostat’s Labour Force Survey (LFS) database.

3

Recent Eurostat data (2019) on self-employed women 
in Europe show that their numbers remained relatively 
steady from 2016 to 2018. In 2018, the female self-
employed figure for Europe stood at 10% (compared to 
10.11% in 2017 and 10.27% in 2016) while the male self-
employed figure was 18% (compared to 18.33% in 2017 
and 18.03% in 2016). The lowest rates of self-employed 
women remain in Denmark (4.71%), Sweden (5.38%), 
Estonia (6.61%) and Germany (6.74%). Norway’s rate was 
the lowest of all EU countries (4.14%). The countries with 
the highest rates were Greece (22.88%), Italy (15.25%), 
Poland (12.66%), the Netherlands (12.56%) and Spain 
(11.36%). 

The boundaries between self-employment (with and 
without employees) and entrepreneurship are not always 
clear (Eurofound, 2017; EIGE, 2014, European Commission, 
2012; OECD, 2017b). There are various studies that 
examine the reasons why the entrepreneurship rate for 
women is low (for example, socioeconomic reasons, 
access to finance and venture capital, inadequate business 
training, lack of self-confidence, lack of access to networks 
and mentors); however, this study focuses on access to 
financial capital.

Is access to investment capital a problem 
for female entrepreneurs?
Attracting capital is important for starting and growing a 
business. A literature review on women-owned companies 
flagged the issue of financing and access to financial 
networks (Brush, 1992). Another literature review covering 
the period 1992–2012 (Coleman and Robb, 2012) showed 
that, despite improvements in entrepreneurship rates, 
female entrepreneurs continue to face financial obstacles. 
The literature review also shows that there are clear issues 
regarding both demand and supply of capital for women-
led enterprises. Compared to their male counterparts, 
female entrepreneurs do not raise enough capital at the 
start-up and the following phases of business growth 
‘even controlling for other firm and other characteristics’ 
(Coleman and Robb, 2012). Moreover, they are often not on 
the radar of venture capital or angel funds. 

Contrary to assertions that women may not have the 
ability or willingness to secure external capital, studies 
revealed that there were many ‘fundable women’ with 
skills and experience that have not been able to attract 
capital (Brush et al, 2004). An analysis of nearly 7,000  US-
based companies backed by venture capital between 2011 
and 2013 found that only 985 had female entrepreneurs on 
their teams (Brush et al, 2018). The researchers found that 
only 3% of venture capital funding was raised by female 
CEOs, or $1.5 billion (€1.37 billion as at 10 October 2019) 
out of $50.8 billion (€46.3 billion). The study demonstrates 
that for the same period, companies with all-men teams 
were four times more likely to receive venture capital than 
companies with even one woman on the team (Brush et al, 
2018, pp. 121–122). Female entrepreneurs were more likely 
to receive later stage funding than early stage funding. 
Furthermore, female recipients of investments were 
more likely to be active in the software, healthcare and 
biotechnology sectors.

4

A lack of access to networks of investors (Brush, Greene 
et al, 2001; Davis et al, 2006), mentors, stereotypes, 
rules and norms of ‘pitching’ (Eagly and Karau, 2002) 
are all factors that can contribute to women receiving 
less venture capital. A lack of financing impedes growth 
opportunities, competitiveness and employment growth. 

A recent European Commission study (European 
Commission, 2018b), based on the PitchBook tech 
companies database (PitchBook, 2017) and Zarya’s report 
on female-founded technology companies (Zarya, 2017), 
reports that women-led start-ups managed to obtain 4.9% 
of all global venture capital deals in 2016 (an increase of 
2% since 2006); however, average investments in women-
led enterprises fell (0.7 points) between 2014 and 2016. 
The same study shows that the percentage of companies 
with at least one female founder that have reached 
venture capital deals in Europe is 16%. Even in countries 
with a large start-up base (such as the UK), women have 
a major disadvantage in getting venture capital funds 
or business angel investment compared to men. More 
specifically, the European Commission study indicates 
that UK-based male entrepreneurs are 86% more likely to 
obtain venture capital funds and 59% more likely to obtain 
angel investment than women are.

Data on the 10 largest rounds of investments in men and 
women-led enterprises (Zarya, 2018) suggest that the top 
male-led enterprise raised $3 billion (€2.7 billion as at  
2 October 2019) while the top woman-led enterprise raised 
$165 million (€151 million as at 2 October 2019). The 
difference continues at the bottom of the list, with male-
led enterprises attracting far more in capital compared 
to women-led enterprises. The type of business female 
founders set up includes a large number of biotechnology 
and medical device companies, which are among the 
sectors investors usually target (in other words, fundable 
businesses). On the other hand, companies with male 
founders attract large amounts of capital even for 
non-technology sectors (for example, WeWork is a real 
estate company). Therefore, the argument that female 
entrepreneurs set up companies in the ‘wrong sectors’ 
does not seem to hold in this case. 

With mainstream private investors not particularly 
motivated to invest in women-led enterprises, a study from 
the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania’s 
Social Impact Initiative called Project Sage (Biegel et al, 
2017) examined funds in the global private equity funds 
landscape with a gender lens. The study found 58 funds 
that raised and deployed $1.3 billion (€1.2 billion) with a 
gender lens, most of them based in the US.

Against this background, it becomes apparent that female 
entrepreneurs are less likely to receive capital from 
investment funds. This hinders growth opportunities at 
a time where the European economies need them most. 
Research suggests that creating dedicated investment 
funds and business angels that include gender criteria 
in their investments is likely to address the problem of 
underfunding; however, studies have not mapped the 
European landscape.

Female entrepreneurship: Public and private fundingPolicy background
Entrepreneurship is promoted by the European 
Commission as a source of employment and economic 
growth. The gender equality legislation, for example, 
Directive 2010/41/EU on the equal treatment of men 
and women in self-employment, is supportive of female 
entrepreneurship. Gender equality is also one of the 
principles supported by the European Pillar of Social 
Rights under Chapter I: Equal opportunities and access to 
the labour market. 

Female entrepreneurship is part of the strategic engagement 
for gender equality 2016–2019 (European Commission, 
2016), which is the framework for the European 
Commission’s work on gender equality. One of the five 
priority areas of the strategy aims to increase female labour 
market participation and the economic independence of 
both women and men. The strategy identifies concrete 
actions in connection with each priority area. The Advisory 
Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men2, in 
its opinion on the future gender equality policy after 2019, 
highlights the role of entrepreneurship, and particularly 
female entrepreneurship. It acknowledges that it can 
improve EU productivity as it is a ‘factor of innovation 
as well as of value and job creation’. More specifically, it 
recommends that the EU and Member States ‘encourage 
women’s entrepreneurship through better access to credit 
and funding, mentoring programs, or the creation of 
networks’ (European Commission, 2018a).

The European Commission Entrepreneurship 2020 Action 
Plan (European Commission, 2013) recognises that 
entrepreneurship makes the economy more competitive 
and innovative, and sets out to support entrepreneurial 
opportunities for all groups (including women) and 
create the right business environment. The action 
plan recognises that women (among other groups) are 
underrepresented within the entrepreneurial population. 
Women represent a large pool of entrepreneurial potential 
in Europe. The action plan acknowledges that female 
entrepreneurs face additional challenges to the ones that 
male entrepreneurs encounter. 

Accessing finance appears to be a critical challenge for 
women (Eurostat, 2007) as it can be a deterrent factor 
for starting up an enterprise or inhibit growth. While the 
Commission leads several initiatives to create Europe-
wide networks for mentoring, business networking 
platforms, and so on, it also invites Member States to 
‘design and implement national strategies for women’s 
entrepreneurship that aim at increasing the share of 
women-led companies’. Member States are also invited to 
produce gender-disaggregated data and annual reports, 
and to expand networks of mentors and encourage 
them to introduce policies to improve work–life balance 
(childcare and elderly care actions) making use of 
available EU funds. 

The action plan acknowledges that there is a need to 
create a new European culture of entrepreneurship 

Introduction

and showcase role models and contributions of 
entrepreneurs to European prosperity. Furthermore, 
female entrepreneurship is supported through the Small 
Business Act with specific actions to improve access to 
finance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in 
general. More targeted actions for female entrepreneurs 
include the European Community of Women Business 
Angels for Women Entrepreneurs and the EU Prize for 
Women Innovators. As documented on the European 
Commission’s web page Entrepreneurship and Small and 
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), a range of support tools 
is also available to facilitate networking and mentoring 
(European Commission, undated-a). 

The European Commission report ‘Women in the digital 
age’ (European Commission, 2018b) reiterates the issue 
of women-led start-ups accessing capital. To increase the 
number of female entrepreneurs active in the ICT and digital 
sector, it is important to address their underfinancing. 

An earlier European Parliament briefing also acknowledges 
that access to capital is crucial for entrepreneurship. It 
is indicative that ‘in 2008, only 20.3% of EU businesses 
started with venture capital were run by women, and 
some analysts suggest women are asked for more financial 
assets as collateral’ (European Parliament, 2013). As the 
briefing explains, some factors related to unequal capital 
may be that: 

  women may have fewer assets

 

 

they operate in sectors that are less capital intensive

the presence of possible bias and the fact that women 
are less well represented in financing networks

Among the good practices to support female 
entrepreneurship, the European Institute for Gender 
Equality (EIGE) suggests developing diversified and 
targeted financial services and instruments for female 
entrepreneurs (EIGE, 2014).  EIGE also recommends 
that authorities should work with banks and financial 
institutions to increase their awareness and understanding 
of female entrepreneurship and provide a more integrated 
approach to funding.

Lastly, one of the aims of the new Horizon Europe 
programme (the EU research and innovation programme 
for the period 2021–2027) is to boost the EU’s innovation, 
competitiveness and jobs, and it emphasises the need to 
become more entrepreneurial. Female entrepreneurship 
activities have already been supported by Horizon 2020 
(the programme’s predecessor) and will be further 
encouraged in the new programming period.

Objectives of the study
The present study aims to accomplish the following: 

 

to investigate the incidence of European private 
investment funds with specific gender criteria

 

to examine public financing initiatives

2 

The Advisory Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men helps the European Commission prepare and implement activities aimed at promoting equal 
opportunities for women and men.

5

 

to identify public support schemes that strengthen the 
capabilities of female entrepreneurs

 

to suggest ways to support female entrepreneurs 

Methodology
The study is based on national contributions from all EU 
Member States and Norway as provided by the Network of 
Eurofound Correspondents.

A questionnaire was circulated to all correspondents 
whose response was provided in the form of a national 
report. The objective of the questionnaire was to capture 
information on: 

 

the incidence of private funds that include gender 
among their investment criteria

  public sector schemes for financing female 

entrepreneurs (public sector is meant in a broad 
sense, covering regional and local authorities as well)

  other public support measures (such as training, 

mentoring, networking, childcare, etc.)

 

views of associations and other stakeholders (for 
instance, public institutions and social partners) and 
relevant national research findings

Additionally, to assist with a better understanding of 
the findings of the study, interviews with private funds 
identified in the national reports and female entrepreneurs 
were conducted in three countries: the Netherlands, 
Sweden and the UK. These countries were selected out 
of the seven Member States with an existing private fund 
in place, based on availability for interview within the 
timeline of the study. 

Interviews were conducted between April and May 2019. 
Overall, three funds were selected for interview: Indecap 
Q30 (Sweden), Karmijn Kapitaal (the Netherlands) and 
Angel Academe (UK). Lastly, four female entrepreneurs 
(founders and co-founders) agreed to be interviewed, 
representing Eatit (Sweden), Doppel (UK), Friendbase 
(Sweden) and Mantelaar (the Netherlands).

The female entrepreneurs were selected through contacts 
with women’s associations and public institutions (for 

example, Vinnova in Sweden) at the national level and 
through private funds identified in the study. Private funds 
and business angels have a list of women-led enterprises 
in their portfolio which was used as an access point. Semi-
structured interviews were carried out with the founders 
or co-founders of three private funds and business angels, 
and four female entrepreneurs. The interview topics 
for the funds included the following: specific gender-
related criteria for investments, reasons for investing 
in women-led enterprises and sectors, amounts raised, 
the proportion of female managers in the fund, industry 
barriers in investing in women-led enterprises (if any), and 
suggestions for improvement. Female entrepreneurs on 
the other hand, were asked questions regarding funding 
barriers, the importance of external financing, the norms 
of pitching and getting feedback from investors, plans 
for the future as a result of funding, amounts raised 
through investment rounds, public support received and 
suggestions for improvement.

Structure of the report
The report consists of four chapters.

  Chapter 1 presents the national findings of the 

situation on private investment funds with gender 
criteria used in their investment decisions. It also 
presents findings based on interviews with founders 
of private funds. 

  Chapter 2 outlines public financing schemes in 

support of female entrepreneurship and other public 
support measures such as training, networking, 
mentoring, childcare, etc.

  Chapter 3 discusses the findings, taking into 
consideration the interviews with female 
entrepreneurs, and the road to accessing finance for 
female entrepreneurs.

  Chapter 4 provides conclusions and policy pointers.

Unless otherwise noted, all figures in the report are the 
author's own calculations based on data from the Network 
of Eurofound Correspondents.

6

Female entrepreneurship: Public and private funding1  Private investment funds

Introduction
Private investors look for opportunities to invest their 
assets in potentially successful and profitable companies 
in the hope of finding the next big founder – the next 
Apple or Amazon – that shapes the market landscape. 
With the media focus on celebrity founders, who in most 
cases are male, there is an unconscious bias towards male 
founders and entrepreneurs. Considering that women are 
also underrepresented as investment managers in private 
funds, this bias may be perpetuated until social and 
economic actors realise the real costs of this. 

In the last few years, some private funds have realised 
that female founders are not always well served and there 
is a market gap when it comes to investing in women-
led enterprises. These may include enterprises founded 
or co-founded by women, or enterprises with a female 
CEO or a gender diverse management team. Often, such 
investors are set up by female fund managers (venture 
capital, private equity, business angels, etc.). While this 
is a positive development, it should be made clear at the 
outset that gender equality is not a women’s issue. Gender 
inequalities are structural and should be addressed by 
private (as well as public) institutions.

This study was launched to investigate the European 
landscape regarding private funds investing in female-run 
enterprises using specific gender-related criteria. Funds 
were included if their approach to gender lens investment 
included any of the following criteria, which is part of the 
coding system used in the study. 

  Quantified Gender Mandate refers to investment 

based on specific female metrics (for instance, a 50/50 
gender balance of founders, a large percentage of 
female founding members or no less than a certain 
percentage).

  Gender Mandate refers to investment based on 
publicly stated criteria on gender (for instance, 
ensuring that founding members include women).

  Gender Consideration is applied in investments (for 
instance, some of the founding members are female).

The above criteria are adapted from the Wharton School 
of the University of Pennsylvania’s Social Impact Initiative, 
Project Sage (Biegel et al, 2017). In their global mapping, 
the Wharton School project identified 58 funds with a 
gender lens (the majority of which are in North America) 
that raised over $1.3 billion (€1.2 billion as at 8 October 
2019). It also identified several gender lens investors 
located in other countries, such as Japan (for example, 
Dreyfus Japan Womenomics Fund), India (IndusInd Bank 
Limited) and Switzerland (the Global Gender Equality 
UCITS Exchange Traded Fund), among others.

3 

As per the coding system above and in Annex 3.

As the focus is on gender lens investing, funds that do not 
fall under this description are reported separately, insofar 
as they have made a significant number of investments 
in women-led enterprises, even without a specific gender 
lens listed on their investment criteria. To get a better 
understanding of their motives, interviews were conducted 
with fund managers who have denoted gender among 
their investment criteria.

Overview of the private 
investment funds

Funds with a gender focus
A first review of the European countries and markets’ 
landscape through the Network of Eurofound 
Correspondents reveals that 11 private investment funds 
were identified with a gender lens operating in seven 
Member States (Belgium, Czechia, the Netherlands, 
Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK), as shown in Figure 1  
below. Spain has a large concentration of such funds 
(three). Regarding the type of investment funds, the 
study identified four equity funds, four venture capital 
and investment funds, two business angels or angel 
investment organisations and one crowd fund. With two 
exceptions, all funds were created in the last five years 
and a large number (five) were created in 2018, which may 
suggest that in a recovering economic environment with 
more investment opportunities, they have emerged as 
a response to a market need or a need to make a social 
impact through the financing of female entrepreneurs.

It is indicative that the fund managers interviewed in the 
context of this study (see section on 'Investing in women-
led enterprises: Feedback from fund managers' on p. 10)
reported that the reason for setting up such a fund is to fill 
a market gap and make a positive impact on the economic 
results of the companies they invest in. Fund managers 
pointed out that investors in venture capital, private equity 
or angels are mostly men who are more likely to invest in 
male-run enterprises. With an increasing number of female 
founders, fund managers considered that ignoring a part 
of the market would not be a good business practice.

Gender approach to investment 
A specific aspect explored in this study is the gender 
approach to investment taken by the private funds. Most 
of the funds have a Quantified Gender Mandate in their 
investment criteria.3 This means that when selecting 
investments, they investigate whether a company has 
a certain proportion of female managers, founders or 
shareholders. Using a more sophisticated algorithm, some 
funds investigate the increase in the number of women 
in leading positions. Some use a much more elaborate 
list of criteria, for instance the proportion of female top 
managers and board members or the proportion of 

7

Figure 1: Countries with private funds investing in female-run enterprises

Belgium – We are Jane

Czechia – ESPIRA Investments

Netherlands – Kamijin Kapitaal,
TheNextWomen Fund

Poland – Black Swan Fund

Spain – Red Ventures Fund I;
Santander Equality Acconies; 
Women Angels for STEAM

Sweden – Indecap Q30

United Kingdom – Allbright,
Angel Academe

Note: While there are several European funds investing in both male and female businesses, the funds presented here explicitly use gender among 
their investment criteria.

intermediate and other female managers and female 
employees. Furthermore, in their assessment criteria some 
take into consideration the company report on the salary 
gap between men and women and the equal opportunities 
policy within the organisation. Many funds apply a gender 
mandate requesting that women are among the founding 
members. Only 2 of the 11 funds apply a generic gender 
consideration (in which some of the founding members 
are women).

Fund size and investment amounts raised
Overall, data on the size of the funds and investment 
amounts raised are patchy. Information on the four funds 
(in Czechia, Poland, Spain and the UK) that did publish 
such data suggests that they collectively target €95 million 
for investments in female-run enterprises. The amount 
raised in such investments by three funds (in Belgium, 
Spain and the UK) that made this information public 
is €68 million. However, the full amount raised by all 
11 funds far exceeds the above figure. Publicly available 
information on the minimum investment shows that this 
can range between €10,000 and €20 million.

Sectors targeted
Sectoral considerations have been frequently raised in 
connection with the financing of female businesses. It has 
been argued that female entrepreneurs tend to be present 
in specific sectors and this may explain their difficulty in 
attracting capital. The funds examined here cover in their 
majority all sectors. A large number shows preference 
for certain sectors with a strong technological focus such 
as information and communication technologies (ICT), 
e-commerce, digital publishing, fintech, health technology 
and education technology. Investments in renewable 
energy are among those favoured, as well as fashion and 
design.

With the rise of social enterprises4 in many Member 
States, and a large proportion of women founding them or 
working in top managerial positions, the study sought to 
investigate whether private funds are open to investments 
in social enterprises. Apart from two cases (the Polish fund 
and one Spanish fund), all the funds could possibly invest 
in social enterprises if they satisfy their investment criteria.

4 

A social enterprise is an operator in social economy whose main objective is to have a social impact rather than make a profit for their owners or shareholders 
(European Commission, 2011; Eurofound, 2019).

8

Female entrepreneurship: Public and private fundingFunds with links or support from the public 
sector and the EU
A total of 6 out of 11 funds saw this as an opportunity 
to invest in a niche market (a part of the market lacking 
access to finance) – women-led enterprises – and this 
consideration played a major role in their decision to set 
up such a business. This confirms the assertion that there 
is a business case (beyond and above the fairness and 
diversity agenda) in setting up funds investing in female 
entrepreneurs. Furthermore, social impact considerations 
were also part of their decision-making process.

Having identified the market need for founding private 
funds, some (four) of them sought public support (for 
instance, the Polish fund obtained support through the 
Polish Development Fund). Others, such as the Belgian, 
Czech and Dutch funds had access to EU support (for 
instance, through the European Investment Fund 
programmes or the Competitiveness and Innovation 
Framework Programme). This finding suggests that public 
and EU policies promoting gender equality and economic 
growth have played a positive role in the creation of funds 
with a gender focus.

Female investors and managers  
in the funds
Research studies (Becker-Blease and Sohl, 2007; Brush et al, 
2014; Dawson et al, 2016; Rock and Grant, 2016; IFC, 2019) 
indicate that female investors and fund managers may apply 
a different approach to assessing applications for financing 
submitted by female entrepreneurs. Female fund managers 
are more likely to appeal to women entrepreneurs and to 
consider sectors that female entrepreneurs set up their 
business (Gompers et al, 2014; Bloomberg, 2018; IFC, 2019). 
Gender-diverse venture capital and equity firms tend to have 
a larger number of women-led enterprises in their portfolio 
(Brush et al, 2014; IFC, 2019). Therefore, this study sought 
to investigate the number or proportion of female fund 
managers in the funds that make investments in female-
run enterprises. The findings are illuminating, showing that 
four funds in Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain, 
operate with teams of entirely female fund managers (100% 
female). Another four funds had mixed teams but with a 
high proportion of female fund managers (between 50% 
and 80% female). Overall, the proportion of female fund 
managers in the funds identified was fairly high, ranging 
between 50% and 100%. This stresses the importance of 
women in decision-making positions in investment funds 
and more broadly in other finance institutions.

Cross-border or born-European 
investment funds
This study found that 6 out of 11 funds are born-
European or global in nature. These funds are in Belgium, 
Czechia, the Netherlands and Spain. Their investments 
cross narrow national borders and cover neighbouring 
countries, all of Europe, or in some cases beyond Europe. 
All three Spanish funds identified in this mapping exercise 
operate across Europe or globally. The nature of these 
businesses and perhaps the geography may have a role 
to play as all six funds are looking for such cross-border 
investments in women-led enterprises or gender-diverse 

Private investment funds

teams. They operate in an area where they have identified 
a clear market need. It is worth mentioning that these 
are small and young companies in a growth phase with a 
vision that goes beyond their national boundaries. This 
vision and orientation may be demand-driven as they may 
not always find suitable investees to comply with their 
gender investment criteria. 

Managers of such funds indicated (see next section) that it 
is not always possible to find enough companies meeting 
their criteria to invest in. It is notable that all these funds 
are well connected, with networks and links with the 
entrepreneurial ecosystem. The founders driving this 
vision are well-educated and experienced professionals 
in the finance industry (as is the case in all of the funds 
examined here). Some use sophisticated technology 
and criteria to assess companies; these are also socially 
innovative companies. The business model for such funds 
appears to match the born-global model (Mandl and 
Patrini, 2017). The creation of such cross-border, European 
funds has great potential to impact on investments in 
women-led enterprises, as experience from one country 
can be shared with others. Such initiatives should be 
encouraged by networks for female entrepreneurs, public 
support agents, and so on.

Funds with no gender focus but  
investing in women-led 
enterprises
Through this initial mapping, it was made clear that there 
are private funds that invest in women-led enterprises 
but do not explicitly mention gender in their investment 
criteria. These were not at the core of this study.

National correspondents have indicated that there are 
private funds without any publicly stated gender-related 
criteria embedded in their investments which have 
nevertheless provided investment capital to many female 
entrepreneurs. Countries with such funds include, France, 
Germany and the Netherlands. 

The top three investors financing women-led enterprises 
in 2018 in France are Bpifrance, Kima Ventures and Angel 
Square. The latter fund was reported to devote 28% of its 
investment to women-led start-ups. In France, some actors 
in the financial sector are reportedly prepared to launch 
new funds with a gender lens within 2019 and 2020, which 
raises expectations for a higher number of deals for female 
entrepreneurs in France.

Two funds in Germany (HV Holtzbrinck Ventures and Acton 
Capital) were found to be the ones investing in the ‘most 
successful female businesses’ (according to the German 
national correspondent). 

The Dutch investment fund UNIIQ has indicated the 
founders’ conviction to be more gender aware in its 
investment options and has been actively seeking 
opportunities to invest in female-run enterprises. Since the 
publication of a study on female entrepreneurs conducted 
by researchers at the Free University of Amsterdam in 
2018 (De Ondernemer, 2018), there has been a widespread 
recognition in the sector that women receive much less 

9

financing on average. This demonstrates the role that 
national studies, data and statistics can play in raising 
awareness in society and economy.

Moreover, three funds (Argos Wityu, Waterland and 
Inventures II) were identified in Belgium as having 
social impact considerations, particularly based on 
the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or the 
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria for 

investing. The funds using SDGs criteria aim to reconcile 
profitability and sustainability considerations when 
making their investment decisions. While gender is not 
explicitly mentioned, gender equality is one of the SDGs 
and this is assessed in conjunction with other criteria. 
ESG criteria are used by funds and investors to make 
investments with impact.5 The above-mentioned funds are 
equity, venture capital funds with operations in Belgium 
and the Netherlands, but also in other EU Member States.

Dutch equity fund: Karmijn Kapitaal

Organisation: Founded in 2010, Karmijn Kapitaal is a small organisation founded by three women. The fund has a 50/50 
split between male and female managers.

Gender approach to investment: The fund invests in SMEs led by a diverse team. The enterprise must have at least 
25% men and 25% women on the leadership team, have been operating for at least five years, and have a turnover of 
at least €5 million. By using management profiling techniques, the fund assesses the gender ratio and diversity in the 
management and leadership teams.

Reasons for gender-focused investment: A market scan by the founders showed that there were no other similar funds 
in existence. Additionally, using research-based evidence (national studies) and market input, they realised that female 
entrepreneurs have difficulties accessing external financing. Female entrepreneurs have been providing pitches to 
predominantly male investors with a different approach to investment than that of female investors.

Capital and investments: The funds under management have a total value of €135 million. The fund invests amounts 
between €2 million and €12.5 million, and has four women-led companies in its portfolio.

Investing in women-led 
enterprises: Feedback from 
fund managers
Investment vehicles such as venture capital, equity funds 
and business angels meet with entrepreneurs, often at 
the beginning of their entrepreneurial activity, but also 
several times during their entrepreneurial journey. In this 
way, investors make a significant impact on the future of 

the enterprise they invest in. By turning their attention 
to female entrepreneurs or gender-diverse management 
teams, investors can change the investment landscape 
and provide essential capital to female entrepreneurs who 
might otherwise lack this support.

To get a better understanding of the reasons some funds 
focus on gender lens investing while seeking profitable 
projects, interviews were conducted with the founders 
of three private investment funds and angel investors. 

Swedish fund: Indecap Q30

Organisation: Set up in 2017, Indecap is a fairly new independent capital provider and the first fund focusing on female 
leadership in the Nordic region. Indecap is a small organisation of 15 people with women co-founders. Half of the 
investment managers are women.

Gender approach to investment: Indecap focuses its investments in companies with a high proportion of female 
leaders. Each company listed on the Stockholm Stock Exchange is rated using an algorithm. The fund only invests in the 
30 companies with the best rates (in terms of female leadership), as assessed through their algorithm.

Reasons for gender-focused investment: According to one of the fund managers interviewed, the private investment 
industry in Sweden has overlooked female leadership when assessing companies for investment; there is more focus on 
sales figures. Creating this tool makes it easier for investors to take gender equality and female leadership into account 
in their investment decisions.

Capital and investments: The total capital raised is €4.7 million. Individuals can invest in this fund through large banks. 
There are always 30 companies in the fund portfolio (those with the best scores as per their investment criteria – see 
main text).

5 

Environmental criteria refer to the company’s environmental impact record while social criteria are used with a view to assess the company’s relationships with 
employees, the supply chain and communities. Lastly, governance criteria are the way investors assess company leadership, executive pay, shareholders’ rights, 
results of audits and internal controls, etc.

10

Female entrepreneurship: Public and private fundingThe funds are located in three countries: the Netherlands 
(Karmijn Kapitaal), Sweden (Indecap Q30) and the UK 
(Angel Academe). Two of the interviewees are female 
founders and one is a male co-founder.

Reasons for investing in women-led 
companies
It is interesting to note that funds invest in women-led 
enterprises with a view to making a positive impact on 
female entrepreneurship. Moreover, and as reported by 
the fund managers, the creation of these funds comes as a 
response to a market need: providing capital to enterprises 
not well served by the market. They make it clear that 
they want to make a positive impact on the revenues and 
profits of the companies they invest in. These investors 
also have an interest in receiving a return on their 
investments. This means that investing in women-led 
enterprises (using different assessment criteria) can be a 
profitable business for investors, and at the same time the 
female entrepreneurs can grow their businesses with the 
injection of much needed capital. Undeniably, not all well-
financed enterprises experience growth, become profitable 
and create employment; however, securing financing can 
tilt the playing field and potentially accelerate change in 
the entrepreneurship landscape. 

‘We think we are great at equality, but there is still a lot 
to accomplish here in Sweden too.’

Indecap fund manager (Sweden)

UK business angel: Angel Academe

Private investment funds

Investing is not a linear process; companies can grow, 
shrink and then grow again. Female entrepreneurs (as well 
as male entrepreneurs) may access several rounds of seed 
or early stage funding. Angel funding can provide relatively 
small amounts at the early stage of an enterprise’s 
existence and, at a later stage, a series of venture capital 
injections can be raised. There are loops in the financing 
process which allow for several rounds of early stage 
financing, which can be a very long journey for the 
companies. Not many female entrepreneurs go through 
this financing process for many reasons, including: 

 

 

 

lack of access to such networks

lack of familiarity with the financing process

risk adversity

  discouragement due to unconscious bias by investors

As all the funds included in the study are rather new, they 
have a small number of women-led enterprises in their 
portfolios (between 4 and 30 women-led companies, 
although they also have others with mixed ownership). 
One fund has set a ceiling to the number of enterprises 
to be invested in (the best 30 companies that are listed 
in the stock exchange). They are all set up either entirely 
by women or co-founded by women and men (a 50/50 
split). Female fund managers have first-hand experience 
of the difficulties female entrepreneurs are faced with 
when seeking financing and this is one of the factors that 
motivates their business decisions.

Organisation: Angel Academe is a new and small organisation with a female and male co-founder.

Gender approach to investment: The chief criterion for investment is that the company must have at least one woman 
as a founder, and preferably operate in the digital technology industry. They organise their own pitching events for 
female entrepreneurs following a pre-screening. They also organise training sessions for potential female investors.

Reasons for gender-focused investment: Before setting up the company, the female founder–investor observed that, 
more often, she was surrounded by male investors. It was also evident that most of the venture capital and angel funding 
goes to male-run companies. The organisation aims to attract more female investors investing their money in female-
run companies (although they have also invested in male-run companies). Own observations show that companies with 
female founders on their list perform very well.

Capital and investments: As this is not a fund, all investments are made by individual investors. Individual angels invest 
between £10,000 (€11,000 as at 4 October 2019) and £100,000 (€112,000), while the group can invest between £150,000 
and £250,000 (€169,000–€281,000).

Barriers to investing in women-led 
enterprises
With a well-established gap in the market for investors, the 
questions that naturally arise are ‘why are there not more 
investors?’ and ‘what are the barriers?’. A variety of reasons 
have been suggested by the respondents, including a lack 
of information on financing options available to female 
entrepreneurs. Attracting well-informed investors to invest 
in female entrepreneurs can also be a challenge. In some 
cases (for instance, in the case of the business angel), efforts 
are concentrated on raising awareness among female 
investors themselves. Women share a part of national 
wealth, which can be invested in women-led enterprises. 

According to the Dutch equity fund, women may not have 
access to networks that can facilitate financing or may not 
be as attentive to its importance. 

Additionally, another barrier to investment identified by 
the Swedish fund is the lack of companies with an equal 
distribution of men and women on boards. This indicates 
that companies do not implement gender equality 
principles.

‘More gender diversity in fund managers is needed’

 Investment manager at Karmijn Kapitaal  
(The Netherlands)

11

Filling the need for fund manager diversity
Having a gender diverse group of fund managers makes 
it easier to reach out to female entrepreneurs and brings 
a more balanced view to the company’s approach 
to investment. In evaluating investment portfolios 
and individual enterprises, both hard metrics (such 
as commercial value, growth orientation, sales and 
profits) and soft metrics (for instance, effectiveness of 
management and well-being of employees, ESG values 
and risk management) are taken into consideration. Each 
enterprise is unique, so each application for funding must 
be assessed individually. By being diverse themselves, the 
funds also set an example to enterprises. It is also noted 
that female entrepreneurs may feel more at ease when 
addressed by women and diverse groups of investors who 
apply a different approach to investment. 

Improving financing opportunities  
for female entrepreneurs
Although very useful, support measures such as training, 
awareness raising, mentoring and networking are 
limited in what they can achieve. To improve financing 
opportunities for female entrepreneurs, it is also necessary 
to target the investors’ side, such as venture capital and 
equity fund providers, and to encourage more female 
fund managers and investors to get involved. More similar 
funds need to be created. It is also strongly advocated 
that more diversity in fund manager teams, from the large 
institutions to smaller investors, would be very beneficial. 

‘All initiatives focus on fostering supply and performance 
of female entrepreneurs, but there should also be a 
focus on finding investors, female investors who would 
invest in those female entrepreneurs.’

Angel Academe founder

Summary
This chapter reviewed the incidence of private investment 
funds with gender among their investment criteria in the 
EU Member States and Norway. As gender considerations 
may be too broad to measure, this study established 

specific measurable criteria for the private funds to be 
included. More specifically, it included funds that, among 
their gender-related investment criteria, had metrics 
requiring a certain number of female founders, publicly 
stated criteria on gender, and gender considerations such 
as some of the founding members being women. 

The study identified both business angel and venture 
capital funds. The mapping exercise shows that seven 
EU Member States (Belgium, Czechia, the Netherlands, 
Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK) have 11 funds with 
a gender focus in place. These are relatively new funds 
that, geographically, cover all of Europe. The funds are 
principally created by women investors or fund managers 
with the intention to invest in female entrepreneurs as well 
as cover the gap in the market. In certain cases, the public 
sector and EU policies played a supporting role in their 
establishment. 

When making investments, these funds apply the usual 
hard criteria (such as sales, revenues, profits and markets), 
but they also look for female CEOs, a certain proportion of 
women in the management team, female founders, and so 
on. Data provided by 3 out of 11 funds indicate that they 
have already raised a total of €68 million. They are open to 
all economic sectors, but there is a preference for the ICT, 
technology and renewable energy sectors. A total of 6 out of 
the 11 funds are investing in cross-border, born-European or 
born-global companies. Founders of these funds see a clear 
business opportunity for investing in female entrepreneurs, 
while at the same time making a social impact. 

A common barrier is that there is a lack of information on 
financing options and lack of investors, and particularly 
female investors. Being an all-female or gender diverse 
fund provides a different approach to investing in 
female entrepreneurs. However, it is important to note 
that gender equality is not just a women’s issue: it is a 
structural problem. Private organisations (as well as public 
ones) have a responsibility to prevent and redress gender-
based discrimination.

12

Female entrepreneurship: Public and private funding2  Public financial support

When the private market fails to provide adequate 
financing to female entrepreneurs, state initiatives (and 
local authorities) often fill the gap. Many countries indicate 
insufficient financial support as an issue for female 
entrepreneurs. Market failures require state intervention 
for providing information, the necessary funding, capacity 
building, etc.

Identifying the problem 
National studies have already identified the problem 
of financing for female entrepreneurs and made 
recommendations for state intervention or other 
institutional and industry support. Below are some 
examples of the findings by country.

Bulgaria: The Ministry of Economy of Bulgaria and the 
non-government sector have been working on a draft 
strategy for promotion of women entrepreneurship (still 
ongoing). The report of the working group of the ministry 
clearly referred to women entrepreneurs having restricted 
access to finance and management training.

Croatia: A Croatian study (European Parliament, 2017) 
denotes that women tend to receive smaller grants 
than men. For example, it mentions that ‘while women 
accounted for 41.1% of the total number of grants, their 
share in the total amount of grants awarded was only 
19.4%’.

Denmark: The Danish Growth Fund (2018), a large fund 
for entrepreneurship in Denmark (a country with no public 
schemes), has looked at how well women are represented 
among companies financed by the fund since 2000. The 
findings indicate that only 4% of the companies have 
been financed with venture capital, but it concludes that 
businesses with women in leading roles generally require 
less funding (for reasons relating to demand). The national 
press (Børsen, 2017; Skovhus, 2017; Schacht, 2018) 
suggests that only a small proportion of venture capital is 
allocated to start-ups with one or more women in the team 
of founders. 

Germany: Accessing angel and venture capital is 
considered an issue by the German Female Founders 
Monitor (Kollmann et al, 2018) which also notes that 
women use bank loans more often than men. Additionally, 
the study found that women generate most of their 
revenue locally. 

Ireland: An OECD study (2016a) observed that women 
account for just one quarter of recipients of Local 
Enterprise Office financial support.

Latvia: A survey on women in business carried out 
by the association LĪDERE found that 77% of female 

entrepreneurs have started their businesses by using 
personal savings, 16% using bank loans, 11% using 
financial assistance from family and friends, and 9% using 
EU funds (Latvijas Fakti, 2017). The microcredit scheme 
run by the Latvian Association of Rural Women (Bauska 
Rural Women’s Club Apvārsnis) for women in rural areas 
provided access to credit and equipped women with more 
business experience. 

Lithuania: Funding problems are flagged in the Lithuanian 
report (Entrepreneurship Promotion Fund, 2018), which 
assesses the performance of the loans granted. Despite the 
extra points awarded to female applicants, only about 30% 
of beneficiaries are women. 

Luxembourg: Female entrepreneurs in Luxembourg (Acket 
et al, 2011) are faced with administrative and institutional 
difficulties when applying for funding and often too many 
guarantees are required for credit to be issued. 

Netherlands: Insufficient private support is indicated 
in the Dutch study (De Ondernemer, 2018), which found 
that while 35% of entrepreneurs are women, the private 
financing rate is disproportionately low, at 1.6%. 

Norway: The Norwegian Directorate for Children, 
Youth and Family Affairs argues that women still carry 
a disproportionate responsibility at home (Bufdir, 
undated). A report conducted for the Norwegian 
government recommends establishing a publicly 
supported female investment fund (Grünfeld et al, 2019). 
Among other proposals, it suggests making the welfare 
system more open to entrepreneurs by establishing 
more comprehensive mentor programmes, removing 
competitive disadvantages in industries usually targeted 
by female entrepreneurs, and so on.

Poland: Survey results in Poland demonstrate that 43% of 
self-employed women in the survey did not have enough 
capital to set up their firms (Misiak, 2015). Polish female 
entrepreneurs tend to receive loans for a shorter period 
than men (Rahman et al, 2017). 

Romania: Limited access to financing in Romania is 
considered a barrier to female entrepreneurship (Dodescu 
et al, 2011). 

Slovakia: In Slovakia, an OECD study (2017b) recommended 
to increase the availability of start-up financing. 

United Kingdom: A UK survey of SME finance (Cosh et 
al, 2008) found that women had difficulties applying for 
equity finance, while another study found that female 
investors are marginally more likely to invest in women-
owned businesses (Harrison and Mason, 2007). Women 
on crowdfunding platforms, including CircleUp and 
Kickstarter, are on average more successful than male-led 
firms (Stengal, 2015).

13

Public financial support initiatives 
in the EU and Norway
The national mapping exercise identified 36 financial 
support initiatives (through different schemes) in 
16 Member States. Public financial support includes 
programmes funded by the state (ministries), regional 
authorities (for instance, in Spain) or local authorities (for 
instance in Sofia, Bulgaria). Additionally, many initiatives 
(for example, policy schemes in Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, 
Ireland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Spain) are co-financed by 
the European Structural and Investment Funds and the EU 
initiative Horizon 2020 or other EU programmes. Most of 
the schemes are specifically addressed to women, while 
some include other groups but explicitly mention women 
among the target groups. Table 1 presents an overview of 
the state support programmes.

Types of financial support
An analysis of these programmes shows that financial 
support falls into four categories: 

  grants, cash prizes and awards

 

 

 

credit (loans) and credit guarantee schemes

tax credits

investment funding and business angel investment

Grants, cash prizes and awards: These are often provided 
to a specific target group, for instance, women with a 
business idea or a start-up. State and local authorities 
may also target would-be entrepreneurs among groups 
such as unemployed women, women with disabilities and 
cooperatives with a prevailing female population (Italy). 
In Ireland, charities and social enterprises run by women 

Table 1: Public financial support programmes in EU Member States and Norway

Type of financial support (equity, grant,  
credit guarantee, loan, etc.)

Grant (priority points for female 
entrepreneurs)

Initiating organisation

Ministry of Economy

Credit guarantee (in cooperation with the 
partnering banks it covers part of the credit 
risk and secures up to 50% of the amount 
of the loan principal or up to BGN 100,000 
(€51,129 as at 7 October 2019))
Credit guarantee

MGFSME 

MGFSME

Grant

Grant (maximum of €70,000 for enterprises 
in manufacturing and €50,000 in all other 
sectors)
Loan with lower interest rate

Credit guarantee covers a maximum of 80% 
of the loan amount, up to a maximum of 
€50,000
Access to finance (credit)

Sofia municipality and the 
MGFSME
Ministry of Energy, Commerce and 
Industry

Croatian Bank for Reconstruction 
and Development (Hrvatska 
banka za obnovu i razvoj, HBOR)
France Active

Nouvelle-Aquitaine region

Investment fund

Bpifrance

Grant

Grant

Federal Ministry for Economic 
Affairs and Energy
State of Baden-Württemberg

Credit and credit guarantee

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Interest rate subsidy for microloans for 
women

BEA

Country

Name of financial support programme 

Bulgaria

Operational Programme ‘Innovation and 
Competitiveness’ 2014–2020 (‘Promotion 
of Entrepreneurship’ grant)
Main warranty scheme of the Municipal 
Guarantee Fund for SMEs (MGFSME)

Financing Innovative Start-ups 
Programme (municipality initiated)
‘Accelerator Start-up Sofia’ programme 
(municipality initiated)
Scheme for the Enhancement of Women 
Entrepreneurship (Σχέδιο Ενίσχυσης της 
Γυναικείας Επιχειρηματικότητας)
Loan Programme for the Financing of 
Female Entrepreneurship (Programi 
kreditiranja poduzetništva žena)
Garantie EGALITE Femmes, formerly 
known as ‘Fonds de garantie à l’initiative 
des femmes’ (co-financed by EU funds)
Regional plan to reduce inequalities in 
the entrepreneurial environment (in 
cooperation with banks)
Bpifrance (joint public–private initiative)

Micromezzanine fund Germany 
(Mikromezzaninfond Deutschland) 
Innovative measures for women in rural 
areas (Innovative Maßnahmen für Frauen 
im Ländlichen Raum) 
Creation of a new financial instrument 
for strengthening the activity of Greek 
businesses in the Balkans and south-
eastern Europe
Budapest Enterprise Agency (BEA) 
microcredit programme (Mikrohitel)

Cyprus

Croatia

France

Germany

Greece

Hungary

14

Female entrepreneurship: Public and private fundingTable 1: (Continued)

Country

Name of financial support programme 

Ireland

Fuelling Ambition Roadshow 

Italy

Competitive Start Fund

Microfinance Ireland 

Women of Ireland Fund (Mná na 
hÉireann) 
New enterprises at zero interest rate 
(Nuove imprese a tasso zero) 
Smart&Start Italia

Call for grants for SMEs with prevailing 
female participation (Bando per 
l’erogazione di contributi alle PMI a 
prevalente partecipazione femminile)
Enterprise creation by young people, 
women and beneficiaries of social 
safety nets (Creazione impresa 
giovanile, femminile e dei destinatari di 
ammortizzatori sociali)
New enterprise initiatives (Nuove 
iniziative d’impresa, NIDI)

Lithuania

The global grant instrument ‘Business 
Start-up Subsidies’ (Visuotinės dotacijos 
priemonė ‘Subsidijos verslo pradžiai’) 

Public financial support

Type of financial support (equity, grant,  
credit guarantee, loan, etc.)

Cash prize (€2,000 for winner of pitch 
competition at each roadshow, as well as 
mentorship classes and membership of 
Network Ireland)
Equity investment (€1 million; up to 
€50,000 investment in equity fund) 
Loans (up to €25,000)

Cash grants (between €50,000 and €100,000 
per year, over three years)
Loan and credit guarantee

Initiating organisation

Enterprise Ireland and Network 
Ireland, in partnership with the 
Entrepreneurs Academy

Enterprise Ireland

Local Enterprise Office; 
Department of Business, 
Enterprise and Innovation; 
Science Foundation Ireland
Government of Ireland and Bank 
of America
Invitalia

Loan and credit guarantee

Grant

Invitalia

Veneto region

Loan (zero-interest loans for investment 
projects between €8,000 and €30,000)

Tuscany region

Grant and loan (for projects between 
€10,000 and €150,000); this covers up to 
100% of expenses up to €50,000, 90% of 
those between €50,000 and €100,000, 
and 80% of those between €100,000 and 
€150,000; it provides a grant covering 50% 
of the eligible investment expenses and a 
loan covering 50% of the expenses at the 
EU reference interest rate
Grant (partial compensation of labour 
costs)

Entrepreneurship Promotion Programme 
2014–2020 (Programa ‘Verslumo 
skatinimas 2014–2020’)
Rural development programme  
2014–2020 (Lietuvos kaimo plėtros 
2014–2020 metų programa) (women  
are the priority group)

Loans (for start-ups and newly established 
enterprises)

Grants

Malta

Micro Invest

Credit scheme (companies benefiting 
from this measure are supported through 
a tax credit calculated as a percentage of 
eligible expenditures and wage costs; the 
maximum eligible tax credits per single 
undertaking was capped at €50,000 but 
women-led enterprises, such as enterprises 
with 50% female ownership, get an 
increase of €20,000)

Puglia region

Investment and Business 
Guarantees (UAB ‘Investicijų ir 
verslo garantijos’, INVEGA) in 
collaboration with the LKU Credit 
Union Group (LKU kredito unijų 
grupė)
INVEGA in collaboration with the 
LKU Credit Union Group

National Paying Agency under 
the Ministry of Agriculture 
of the Republic of Lithuania 
(Nacionalinė mokėjimo agentūra 
prie Žemės ūkio ministerijos)

Malta Enterprise 

(Continued)

15

Table 1: (Continued)

Country

Name of financial support programme 

Poland

Loan fund for women (Fundusz 
pożyczkowy dla kobiet)

Type of financial support (equity, grant,  
credit guarantee, loan, etc.)
Low interest loan (€116,260 in total)

Slovakia

Spain

‘CrossEUWBA’ project (enhancing the 
cross-sector emergence of new women 
business angels across Europe)
Subsidy for establishment as self-
employed (Ayudas para convertirse en 
autónomos)
Women’s Entrepreneurship Support 
Programme (Programa de Apoyo 
Empresarial a las Mujeres, PAEM)

Angel investments

Grants (up to €10,000)

Microcredit (up to €25,000)

Initiating organisation

Polish Ministry of 
Entrepreneurship and Technology 
(Ministerstwo Przedsiębiorczości 
i Technologii) and the 
Polish Agency for Enterprise 
Development (Polska Agencja 
Rozwoju Przedsiębiorczości, 
PARP) (a state agency) 
Slovak Business Agency (SBA)

Ministry of Employment (but 
implemented by regional 
governments)
Institute of Women (Instituto de 
la Mujer y para la Igualdad de 
Oportunidades), an independent 
body attached to the Ministry 
of Health, Social Services and 
Equality, with the support of the 
Chamber of Commerce and co-
financed by the European Social 
Fund (ESF)
Institute of Women (as above)

Support to obtain bank guarantees 
(Ayuda para la obtención de avales) in 
cooperation with the private sector
Norrlandsfonden

Sweden

Almi Invest AB

Vinnova

UK

Women in Innovation Awards

The Aspire Fund

Credit guarantee

Loan and grants

Norrlandsfonden

Almi Företagspartner AB

Vinnova

UK government

British Business Bank (a state-
owned economic development 
bank initiated by the Department 
for Business, Environment and 
Industrial Strategy)

Grant of £50,000, in total £1.2 million (€1.35 
million as at 7 October 2019)

The award offers de minimis aid to eight 
innovative UK businesswomen per year 
who will contribute to solving one of the 
government’s ‘Industrial Strategy Grand 
Challenges’: artificial intelligence and data, 
the ageing society, clean growth, or the 
future of mobility. It also provides bespoke 
mentoring, coaching and business support.
£12.5 million (€14 million) in investments; 
minimum investment of £100,000 
(€112,000) and maximum investment of 
£1 million (€1,122,000); the fund matches 
up to 50% investment for women-led 
businesses in the UK so as to help attract 
investors into SMEs by cutting their risk.

can also be recipients of such grants. In certain cases, they 
can be combined with mentorship, coaching and business 
support programmes (the UK) as well as membership in 
networks (Ireland).

Credit and credit guarantee schemes: State institutions 
(and sometimes relevant institutions of local authorities), 
in partnership with banks, provide microcredit and interest 
rate subsidies (Croatia, Hungary, Poland) or zero interest 
rates (Italy) to female entrepreneurs and women with a 

business idea or start-up, etc. Loan conditions can stipulate 
the type of enterprise targeted more specifically, such 
as microenterprises with fewer than 10 employees and 
an annual turnover of less than €2 million (for example, 
Ireland). Often in conjunction with loan provision, credit 
guarantee schemes secure up to a certain amount of the 
loan (Bulgaria, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy and Spain). 
It is not unusual for credit guarantee schemes to be issued 
in conjunction with a business advice service to support 
entrepreneurs with practical business issues at hand. 

16

Female entrepreneurship: Public and private fundingTax credits: Tax credits are  public support measures 
provided to female entrepreneurs as an incentive to 
innovate, expand and develop their business. Tax credits 
are widely available policy measures, but only one country 
(Malta) was found to have a gender focus on this scheme.

Investment funding and business angel investment: 
This form of state investment in certain types of 
enterprises is applied in only a minority of countries (four). 
The investment can take the form of equity (Ireland), 
angel investment (Slovakia), or other forms of investment 
(France and the UK). In Ireland, the Competitive Start 
Fund targets early start-up female entrepreneurs and 
provides up to €50,000 in equity investment in specific 
sectors (manufacturing and internationally traded 
services sectors: internet, games, apps, mobile, software 
as a service, cloud computing, enterprise software, life 
sciences, food, clean technology and industrial products). 
While not investing specifically in women-led enterprises, 
the French public bank for investment, Bpifrance, is 
known to be among those funds that have invested the 
most in female entrepreneurs.6 Angel investments are 
supported by the Slovak Business Agency in female 
start-ups with innovative business ideas or in innovative 
sectors. The British Aspire Fund matches up to 50% 
of investments into women-led enterprises with the 
objective of attracting investors into women-led SMEs by 
cutting their financing risk.

The largest share of countries (9 out of 16) provides grants/
award schemes as well as credit, while 6 countries offer 
credit guarantees. The largest number of such financial 
support initiatives are implemented by Italy (five), followed 
by Bulgaria and Ireland (each with four), France, Lithuania, 
Spain and Sweden (each with three), Germany and the UK 
(each with two), and the remaining seven countries (Croatia, 
Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, Malta, Poland and Slovakia) with 
one scheme each. Figure 2 shows the distribution of the 
public finance schemes. Figure 3 shows the public finance 
schemes by type, with most schemes covering grants and 
credit (13 each) and credit guarantees (9). It is notable 
that four investment funds and business angel funding 
schemes are in place in four Member States. 

Sectors
Most of the financial support schemes are open to all 
sectors of the economy. When there is a sector focus, 
policy schemes tend to prioritise the following: technology 
sector (games, apps, mobile, cloud computing, etc.); 
life sciences and environment sector, clean technology; 
manufacturing; business services; retail, commerce 
and services as well as personal services; tourism and 
hospitality; and agro-industry. Nearly all the financial 
support initiatives promote innovative ideas and 
proposals. Countries with a sector focus include Bulgaria, 
Cyprus, Ireland and Italy.

In some cases, public policies associate the provision 
of grants and awards with the industrial or innovation 
strategy priorities (UK) or the innovation and 
competitiveness programmes (Bulgaria). This can give 
direction to the market and female entrepreneurs to focus 

Public financial support

on big societal challenges such as artificial intelligence, 
clean growth and the ageing society. This can have a 
double effect, supporting female entrepreneurship 
and directing resources to the desired industrial 
policy priorities. Local authorities (for instance the 
Sofia municipality in Bulgaria) were also found to link 
innovation and smart specialisation with such grants, as 
part of their public–private accelerators.

Target population
The aim of the policy schemes is to assist female-owned 
enterprises, start-ups and potential female entrepreneurs. 
Among the potential entrepreneurs, specific groups, such 
as unemployed or economically inactive women or women 
with a disability, are targeted as a measure to increase 
their participation in the labour market. While most of 
the schemes specifically target women, some of them are 
also designed to include the male population (for instance 
young, unemployed individuals).

Financing support metrics
It appears that there is a lack of gender-disaggregated data 
and metrics to allow meaningful comparisons either at the 
national or cross-border levels. When closely examining 
the financial support provided to women through these 
policy schemes, only 8 countries out of 16 were able to 
provide gender-specific data. Based on the available data, 
female entrepreneurship support schemes are in excess of 
€308 million (Table 2). Data on the number of women-led 
enterprises which have received support are patchy and 
not systematically collected and analysed, as shown in 
Table 2.

A rough estimate of the total amounts earmarked for 
financial support schemes for entrepreneurship (open to 
female entrepreneurs and other groups) in the 16 Member 
States raises the total financial support to over €970 
million. This means that women can potentially access 
part of these financial resources with a view to set up or 
grow their enterprise.

Economic and employment impacts
Where available, reports from national correspondents 
provide figures in terms of economic and employment 
impacts. National reports and figures on economic impacts 
are not available, which makes the assessment of policy 
measures impossible. 

The Swedish authorities have estimated that the total amount 
of loans issued in 2017 would generate investments of 
approximately €230,000,000 in the region (northern Sweden). 

Employment impacts (the number of jobs created) have 
also been investigated; however, data were not gender 
disaggregated and were only publicly available in four 
countries and for a selected number of programmes 
(Cyprus, Ireland, Italy and Lithuania). Official data for 
policy initiatives in these four countries suggest that they 
have a positive employment effect on at least 10,700 jobs 
(accomplished or expected by the end of the programming 
period). The largest employment effects are estimated in 
Ireland (4,969 jobs) and Italy (4,953 jobs). 

6 

 The share of funds raised by Bpifrance on female entrepreneurs is higher than the average, according to the KPMG barometers for 2018 and 2019.

17

Figure 2: Number of public measures financing female entrepreneurship in EU countries

Sweden

Lithuania

Poland

Slovakia

Hungary

Croatia

Ireland

United 
Kingdom

Germany

France

Spain

Italy

Bulgaria

Greece

Malta

Cyprus

Number of public support initiatives

5

4

3

2

1

Other countries do not provide gender disaggregated data 
for their policy initiatives. For instance, although they 
target women among their groups, the grant scheme in 
Germany and the Hungarian credit guarantee scheme 
do not provide gender-specific data. The two initiatives 
provide cumulative employment figures, showing 
more than 4,000 jobs (secured) in Germany and 440 
jobs (created) in Hungary as a result of the two policy 
initiatives. The overall picture calls for more systematic 
efforts for providing gender disaggregated data and 
evaluation studies that assess impacts of policies.

Other state measures supporting 
female entrepreneurship 
Female entrepreneurship is supported by the state 
and other local and regional authorities, not only 
through direct financing but also through training in 
entrepreneurship, mentoring, networking, childcare 
support, etc. 

Challenging stereotypes and perceptions 
A range of national studies and some public websites 
(for example, Luxembourg and Ireland: Acket et al, 2011; 
Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, 

18

Figure 3: Types of state-funded schemes supporting 
female entrepreneurship

4

1

9

13

13

Grants/prizes

Credit guarantee

Credit

Tax credit

Investment fund/Business angels

Female entrepreneurship: Public and private fundingTable 2: Public support programmes financing female entrepreneurship

Country

Name of support scheme

Financial support

Croatia

Loan programme for the financing of female 
entrepreneurship (Programi kreditiranja poduzetništva žena)

€33.6 million

Public financial support

Number of women-led 
enterprises supported

540 (anticipated – 
programme starts in 2019)

Germany Micromezzanine fund (Mikromezzaninfonds Deutschland) 

€75 million

N/A

(grant)

Hungary

BEA microcredit programme

Ireland

Fuelling Ambition Roadshow

Women of Ireland Fund (Mná na hÉireann)

Competitive Start Fund

€1 million

Lithuania

The global grant instrument ‘Business Start-up Subsidies’ 
(Visuotinės dotacijos priemonę ‘Subsidijos verslo pradžiai’)

€0.96 million for women-led 
enterprises

Entrepreneurship promotion 2014–2020 programme 
(Programa ‘Verslumo skatinimas 2014–2020’)

€4.6 million for women-led 
enterprises

Rural development programme 2014–2020  
(Lietuvos kaimo plėtros 2014–2020 metų programa)

€1.6 million (for both  
women and men)

€5,000 (in interest rate subsidies)

10 (estimated)

€2,000 for each Roadshow winner N/A

Cash grants between €50,000 
and €100,000 per year over three 
years (scheme started in 2019)

N/A

N/A

99 women-led 
enterprises

178 women-led 
enterprises

89 (both)

Poland

Loan fund for women (Fundusz pożyczkowy dla kobiet)

€116,260 on loans (2015 data)

15

Sweden

Norrlandsfonden

Loan €8,174,496 (2017)

1,854

Almi Invest AB

Vinnova

UK

Women in Innovation Awards

The Aspire Fund 

Note: N/A = data not available

Loan €76,058,485 (2017)

Grants €93,412,424

£1.2 million (€1.35 million as at  
7 October 2019)

40

£12.5 million (€14 million)

undated) refer to the characteristics of women as being 
risk-averse, having a fear of failure, showing lower levels 
of confidence and technical expertise, etc., which are 
considered challenges female entrepreneurs are faced 
with. Stereotypes are undoubtedly among the obstacles 
mentioned in many countries. The Romanian and Swedish 
studies (Dodescu et al, 2011; Malmström et al, 2017) 
clearly refer to measures tackling such stereotypes rooted 
in people’s minds which may affect women’s ability to 
access funding. Creating female entrepreneurial role 
models through media and communication campaigns in 
schools and in wider society would surely play a big role in 
changing people’s mindsets. Similarly, cultural stereotypes 
and lack of family support are considered barriers to 
female entrepreneurship (working group of the Ministry of 
Economy) in Bulgaria. National studies and associations 
in Croatia (European Parliament, 2017; CEPOR, 2017), 
Estonia (ENUT, 2013), Luxembourg (Acket et al, 2011), 
Poland (Entrepreneurial Women Network) and Sweden 
(Malmström  et al, 2017) clearly refer to the detrimental 
role of stereotypes.

Addressing childcare and family 
commitments
Specifically, addressing issues such as childcare and 
maternity entitlements for female entrepreneurs 
are flagged up as factors that can facilitate female 
entrepreneurship. These issues are mentioned in a 
Romanian study and in the Irish Joint Committee 

recommendations (Houses of the Oireachtas, 2015; 
Ceptureanu, 2016). The latter recommended a childcare 
incentive as part of the overall financial package provided 
to female entrepreneurs targeting external markets 
(exports). Both reports raise the issue of geographical 
barriers and question the ability of women located outside 
capital cities to access information, training, mentoring 
and funding. More efforts should be made to make such 
public support available to all regions. 

Capacity-building entrepreneurial 
support programmes
National studies strongly recommend training courses, 
support for networking, events, mentoring, creating 
and maintaining incubators and accelerators for female 
entrepreneurs. Below are examples of the findings by 
country. 

Cyprus: A Cypriot study (Nearchou-Ellinas and Kountouris, 
2004) suggests a need for the upgrading of women’s 
entrepreneurial skills and providing access to mentoring 
and information which is crucial for accessing funding 
sources. 

Ireland: In a list of 12 recommendations (Houses of the 
Oireachtas, 2015), the Irish Joint Committee on Jobs, 
Enterprise and Innovation specifically refers to creating 
a national female mentoring network, extending the 
business network to cities outside the capital and 
promoting proficiency in technology.

19

Lithuania: The Amway Global Entrepreneurship report 
(Amway Europe, 2018) shows that women in Lithuania 
indicate that they would need support in dealing with 
finances, taxes and regulations and how to raise money for 
their company.

Luxembourg: A study conducted for the Luxembourg 
Ministry of Equality suggested a need for improving 
entrepreneurial skills (Acket et al, 2011).

Norway: Large and persistent gender differentials 
should be addressed, and more comprehensive mentor 
programmes should be established in Norway (Grünfeld 
et al, 2019).

Slovakia: Increasing the availability of financial literacy 
training courses would immensely benefit Slovakian 
female entrepreneurs, an OECD (2017b) report suggests. 

United Kingdom: A UK Survey of SME finance (2007) found 
that female business leaders did not know how to access 
capital and recommended that information and support 
should be provided by SME associations and public 
organisations. 

Type A and Type B programmes
For the purposes of this study, the programmes are 
differentiated by classifying them as type A and type 
B programmes (Table 3). Type A programmes are 
usually large programmes, initiated, run and funded 
by state authorities. Type B programmes include 
those that are supported by the state (central, regional 
or local authorities) but not necessarily initiated 
by the state authorities. The latter can also include 
partnerships with women’s networks, associations and 
other actors. 

Most of the programmes (Table 3) are type B initiatives 
(state-supported), while four countries (France, Greece, 
Spain and UK) are running both type A and type B 
programmes. Type A-only programmes are only present 
in central and eastern European countries (Croatia, 
Czechia, Romania and Slovenia). These include a strategy 
for female entrepreneurship (Croatia), support for 
female entrepreneurship through training, mentoring, 
networking (Romania and Slovenia) and activities as 
part of the operational programme for employment 
(Czechia).

Table 3: Public capacity-building support measures across selected countries

Type A state-funded programmes

Croatia

Czechia

France

Greece

Romania

Slovenia

Spain

UK

Strategy for the development of female entrepreneurship in the republic of Croatia (2014–2020).

Operational programme for employment with entrepreneurship activities.

Plan interministériel en faveur de l’égalité professionnelle 2016–2020 and 25 regional action plans (Plan d’action 
regional – PAR) for female entrepreneurs have been launched since 2010 (including regional authorities such as the 
Conseil régional, the state, the public group Caisse des Dépôts and some private banks).

The public programme for the creation of a new financial instrument for strengthening the activity of Greek 
Businesses in the Balkans and Southern Europe, run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is a plan with very broad scope 
covering different activities including networking and mentoring activities for female entrepreneurs.

The ‘Woman Entrepreneur’ programme launched by the Romanian Ministry for Business Environment, Commerce and 
Entrepreneurship.

Entrepreneurial training programme for unemployed women with tertiary education who want to start an 
independent entrepreneurial activity run by the Public Agency for Entrepreneurship, Internationalisation, Foreign 
Investment and Technology with financial support from the Ministry of Economic Development and Technology 
(MGRT), and in collaboration with the Employment Office and the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal 
Opportunities.

‘Aids and subsidies for unemployed people who want to become self-employed’ targets three groups which includes 
women; Shock Plan for Youth Employment 2019–2021 Aids for unemployed women to create their own company (run 
by the public employment service); Rural women development run by local governments and public employment 
services.

Meet a mentor programme (Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy); Tax-Free Childcare; Scottish 
Framework and Action Plan for Women in Enterprise (run by the Economic Development Directorate).

Type B state-supported programmes (including those supported by regional and local authorities)

Austria

Belgium

Projects funded by the Federal Economic Chamber, the province of Salzburg and Vienna Business Agency. The 
province of Salzburg and Vienna Business Agency received support from the European Regional Development Fund.

Several projects are supported by the Brussels region (‘Wonderful women’, and ‘100,000 entrepreneurs’ with co-
founding by the Walloon government); Flemish government (Markant VZW–Artemis project; Artemis Women’s 
Entrepreneurship, Artemis #SheDIDIT); Walloon government (Diane project). These are all implemented through 
associations (for instance, women’s associations, SME organisations and public–private cooperation projects such as 
Google Digital Workshops).

Germany

Berufswegplanung (planning occupational paths) financed by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs; Qualification 
in setting up a business for immigrant women financed by the German department of the Senate; Female Founders 
Cup in Baden-Württemberg financed by the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg.

20

Female entrepreneurship: Public and private fundingPublic financial support

Table 3: (Continued)

Finland

France

Greece

Hungary

Ireland

Oona – Osaamista ja onnistumisen tukea yrittäjänaisille (‘Knowledge and success support for female entrepreneurs’) 
run by the Metropolia University of Applied Sciences and Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and European Social 
Fund (ESF) support; LIEKKI (‘Growth path for female entrepreneurs’) run by the Women Entrepreneurs of Finland (ESF-
project); VENLA – Koulutusta verkossa ja langattomasti (‘Training online’) ESF-funded project by Häme University of 
Applied Sciences and Lahti University of Applied Science. There are several publicly funded programmes and schemes 
supporting female entrepreneurship in Finland. Many of them are launched at a regional level, often partly funded by 
the ESF.

Several projects initiated by regional organisations, associations and networks: Regional organisations plan on 
equality; Les Premières; Actionelles; Force Femmes; Willa, etc.

European network to promote women’s entrepreneurship (WES); Gender equality promotion actions: 
Entrepreneurship workshop (Crete Regional Authority and University of Crete); New financial instrument for Greek 
businesses in the Balkans and southeast Europe; NSFR (Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Municipality of 
Drama); Circle of Women Aged 50+ (Municipality of Galatsi).

StartupHer – Hiventures (MFB Group), an incubator programme sponsored by the Hungarian Development Bank, 
National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH) and EU funds; Women Business Angels receives ‘a 
small amount’ of subsidy from the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office, the Ministry of Human Capacities (EMMI), the 
National Cooperation Fund (NEA) – a government body within EMMI and EEA and Norway Grants.

Local Enterprise Office, Women in Business Networks organised by county; Female Entrepreneurship Support, 
Women’s Rural Entrepreneurial Network (WREN), formerly called Cumas, Cork and Limerick; Rubicon Exxcel 
programme, funded by Enterprise Ireland; Female High Fliers, supported by Enterprise Ireland; Going for Growth, 
supported by Enterprise Ireland and private actors; Illuminate, sponsored by M1 Drogheda Chamber Skillnet, Meath 
and Lough Local Enterprise Offices, a bank and private actors; ACORNS, funded by the Department of Agriculture, 
Food and the Marine, through the Rural Innovation and Development Fund; ‘Empower Start’ co-funded by the Irish 
Government and the ESF as part of the Programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning 2014–2020); Empower 
Growth (‘Empower’ co-funded by the Irish Government and the ESF as part of the Programme for Employability, 
Inclusion and Learning 2014–2020).

Lithuania

Lithuanian Business Women’s Network launched by Vilnius Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Crafts (funded 
by state institutions (regional municipalities) and others ); Women Entrepreneurship Academy launched by Vilnius 
University, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Different Me, LLC training experts, the US Embassy in Lithuania 
(2015–2016) and state support.

Luxembourg

Business Mentoring Programme run by the Chamber of Commerce in partnership with the Ministry of Economy, the 
Ministry for Equality and other organisations.

Poland

Slovakia

Spain

Cross-EU women Business Angels in cooperation with other Member States, the Polish Agency Development (state 
agency) and women’s networks.

Businesswoman of Slovakia Competition, organised by the Slovak Business Agency.

Innovatia 8.3 project a collaboration between the University of Santiago and the institute for women and equal 
opportunities.

Sweden

‘FemTech Bootcamp’ Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional Growth and Wellstreet (at a regional level).

UK

The Women Adding Value to the Economy (WAVE) project (funded by the ESF through the Welsh Government –  
Wales only).

The country mapping of activities shows that, in total, 
19 Member States offer 57 programmes supporting female 
entrepreneurship (Figure 4). The programmes differ in 
nature and scope.

Nearly half of the total number of support programmes 
(46%) are provided by four countries: Ireland (nine 
programmes), Belgium and France (six each), and 
Spain (five). 

Activities supported
A closer look into the type of activities initiated through 
the policy programmes demonstrates that overall, 
there is an equal spread of activities across training, 
mentoring and networking, with a slight prioritisation of 
training (Figure 5). However, entrepreneurship support 
programmes do not make a connection with childcare 
activities. Many policy initiatives introduced in the last 

few years promote childcare support for working parents, 
however, when it comes to female entrepreneurship 
programmes, childcare takes second or even third priority. 

Among the 19 Member States with female 
entrepreneurship programmes, only three countries 
(Croatia, France and the UK) dedicate resources and 
activities to childcare support. The Croatian Strategy of 
Women Entrepreneurship Development in the Republic 
of Croatia for the period 2014–2020, covers all activities, 
including childcare, with just one (quite sizeable) 
programme. The French large cross-ministry plan in 
support of professional equality (Plan interministériel en 
faveur de l’égalité professionnelle 2016–2020, an extension 
of the ‘Entreprendre au féminin’ programme) covers 
an impressively large number of activities, including 
childcare. The Tax-Free Childcare scheme, introduced 
in 2014 by the UK government, was made available 

21

Figure 4: Countries with state-funded female entrepreneurship programmes (including those funded  
by local authorities)

Sweden (1)

Finland (3)

Ireland (9)

United 
Kingdom (4)

Lithuania (2)

Belgium 
(6)

Germany (3)

Poland (1) 

Luxembourg (2)

Czechia (1)

France (6)

Slovakia (1)

Austria (3)

Hungary (2)

Slovenia (1)

Croatia (1)

Romania (1)

Spain (5)

Greece (5)

Number of programmes

1

9

to all working parents, regardless of whether they are 
self-employed. The Tax-Free Childcare scheme has the 
potential to support women to explore opportunities they 
may have previously considered beyond their reach due 
to pre-existing family commitments, such as starting a 
business. 

Other forms of support include reduced social 
contributions for the self-employed, the possibility to 
capitalise unemployment benefits, access to microfunding 
(Spanish programme). Opportunities to match investors 
and female entrepreneurs can be offered through pitching 
events (Polish programmes).

Benefits to women from the programmes
With the number of programmes and activities presented 
above, it is important to identify the female population 
accessing and benefiting from these activities (Figure 6). 
Available data generated in 11 out of 19 Member 
States, suggest that there are at least 377,000 women 
who participated in training activities related to 
entrepreneurship and nearly equal numbers participating 

in mentoring and networking activities (207,489 and 
182,944 respectively).7 It should be noted that many of 
the programmes are still running and assessment reports 
do not necessarily exist, but it is also the case that some 
countries have not made their data publicly available 
yet. For this reason, the numbers released in the country 
reports may be underrepresented. Most of the countries 
have an equal spread of women across two activities (for 
instance, women availing of training activities also have 
access to mentoring or networks).

Sectors targeted
Female entrepreneurs (or potential entrepreneurs) active 
in any economic sector can avail of the state support 
programmes in each of the 19 Member States. However, 
six countries dedicate one or more of their programmes 
to a specific sector, which in most cases is the digital and 
technology sector, and in the case of Finland, the sectors 
covering health and social care (welfare sector), travel and 
creative industries.

7 

The numbers do not add up as the same women can participate in training, mentoring and networking activities.

22

Female entrepreneurship: Public and private fundingFigure 5: Activities covered by the public initiatives (EU Member States)

Public financial support

16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0

Training

Mentoring

Networking

Figure 6: Distribution of women benefiting from the programmes, per activity and per country  
(in EU countries with data)

Austria

Finland

France

Greece

Hungary

Ireland

48

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Romania

Slovakia

Slovenia

170000

400

24000

400

24000

80

35

400

702

200

640

150

1352

32

500

10

640

1352

550

10

640

1352

Training Mentoring

Networking

Assessing the impact
Very few countries have assessment reports on the 
impact of their programmes, and this is an issue with 
some public policies. It should be noted, however, that 
many of the programmes are still running; therefore, 
their impact would need to be assessed only at their 
end. Publicly available reports and testimonials in seven 
countries (Belgium, Croatia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, 
Lithuania and Spain) suggest a positive impact. 

A recent evaluation of the Irish programme ‘Growing 
for Growth’ notes that, for 2018, the 66 participants 
who successfully completed the cycle have registered a 
turnover of €66.8 million. They hired an additional 90 full-
time and 20 part-time staff and there were four first-time 
exporters among the participants. 

Similarly, the Spanish national report indicates that in 
2018 there were 10,668 users of the PAEM (Women’s 
Entrepreneurship Support Programme) in Spain, which 
led to the creation of 2,217 companies. 

A report released in 2014 (Keser, 2014) on the 
implementation of the Strategy of Women 
Entrepreneurship Development in the Republic of 
Croatia shows that systematic support for female 
entrepreneurship development has a positive and 
significant impact on women’s entrepreneurship  
capacity, such as employment impacts, self-reliance,  
and so on. The report suggests a need to coordinate  
state activities (various authorities) with a view to  
remove gender imbalance in different aspects  
of public life.

23

Among the other programmes, the positive impacts 
created as a result of policy support include the following:

  greater self-confidence and self-reliance, 

encouragement and networking (Belgium, Croatia, 
Finland and Lithuania)

 

increased knowledge supporting company growth and 
encouragement through networking opportunities as 
reported by participants (Finland) 

  new approach to investment and opportunities for 

accessing funds (Hungary)

  better management skills, greater awareness of 

development opportunities and improved access to 
relevant business information (Lithuania)

Other initiatives 
While public financing and capacity-building activities 
may not be widely available in all countries, some public–
private cooperation projects as well as activities of other 
organisations, such as NGOs, women’s associations, 
industry associations and social impact organisations may 
be offered to complement or cover the gap. The activities 

include networking, workshops, skills development, 
woman-to-woman mentoring, providing fora for 
crowdfunding, offering advice on how to access funding, 
and so on. Some selected examples of such activities are 
presented in the box below.

Summary
This chapter investigated public policies in support of 
female entrepreneurship. The overall picture shows 
that the public sector continues to support female 
entrepreneurs and address market failure. Public finance 
initiatives in support of female entrepreneurship are in 
place in 16 countries. Such support is provided through 
typical public measures such as grants, credit and credit 
guarantee schemes, tax credits but also investment 
funding and business angel funding. The latter are often 
provided in cooperation with banks, investment funds and 
other investors following strict criteria. 

Available data in seven Member States show that 
public support measures have supported female 
entrepreneurship with public money in excess of 
€308 million. All economic sectors are fundable, but 

Examples of other initiatives in support of female entrepreneurship

  Denmark: Initiatives of various organisations (such as networks, associations, private organisations) come 

in the form of events with a focus on entrepreneurship and networking, for example, Girls Are Awesome and 
#IamRemarkable. These types of events are intended to assist and inspire women to launch their business and 
network with each other.

  Estonia: The Federation of Business and Professional Women (BPW) organises networking activities, events and 
training programmes (for example, how to start and run your own business). They also organise various projects, 
such as a joint initiative with Coca Cola Estonia and the Estonian Business School, whose purpose is to increase the 
number of female entrepreneurs and their capacity to run successful businesses.

  Finland: Some networks promote the position of women in the labour market by providing opportunities for skills 
development, networking, mentoring, supporting work–life balance, and thus, indirectly, entrepreneurship. For 
example: Mothers in Business (a network that supports educated and career-oriented mothers in balancing work 
and family); the Women Leaders Program, run by the Finland Chamber of Commerce, which promotes women’s 
access to top positions; Aalto Women in Business, which offers a forum for discussion and peer support for like-
minded women and organises events with opportunities for networking. 

  Lithuania: Women’s NGOs provide a wide range of training, events and counselling funded by the EU, for example: 
the Women’s Information Centre (Moterų Informacijos Centras); the Lithuanian Innovation Centre (EMPOWA) whose 
mission is to boost the participation of female entrepreneurs in the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument programme; and 
the Lithuanian Women’s Lobby (Lietuvos Moterų Lobistinė Organizacija), which is made up of NGOs working on 
promoting gender equality and women’s entrepreneurship. 

  Slovakia: The Businesswoman of Slovakia contest (Podnikatel’ka Slovenska) started in 1999 and is organised by 

the Slovak Business Agency. It aims at ‘rewarding successful women in business and their ability to establish their 
companies firmly in the market’. The competition is designed for start-ups (women who have been running their 
business for a minimum of 12 months and a maximum of 3 years), for well-established companies (those that have 
been in operation for more than 3 years), as well as for self-employed women. To take part, female entrepreneurs 
have to be the sole owner of a company or have a share in the company representing at least 50%.

24

Female entrepreneurship: Public and private fundingPublic financial support

there is a focus on innovative ideas and businesses. 
Many policy support schemes tend to prioritise certain 
sectors, such as ICT, digital products, cloud computers, 
mobile applications, life sciences, clean technology and 
the environmental sector. However, women active in 
manufacturing, service industries, tourism and  
agro-industry are also eligible for state funding. 

Public support in the form of training programmes, 
networking events and mentoring are present in 
19 Member States, and many women have benefited 

from them. On the other hand, childcare support and 
its link to female entrepreneurship was only identified 
in 3 out of 19 Member States. Data collected from eight 
countries suggest that there are at least 377,000 women 
who have participated in training activities. Accelerators 
and incubators are particularly useful, as they provide 
a nurturing space for developing business ideas and 
networking with potential investors. Policy support should 
be provided as bundled services rather than ad hoc 
initiatives.

25

3  Pathways to accessing funding

The mapping exercise described in this report shows that 
there have been some interesting developments in the last 
few years in the EU Member States and Norway regarding 
the financing of female entrepreneurs. New funds have 
been created, with gender becoming part of their industry 
investment criteria. Some of the female entrepreneurs 
interviewed for the purposes of this study have already 
benefited from these funds (see section below). Innovative 
financing approaches have been taken by some of the 
state organisations who also provide other types of 
support. 

This chapter attempts to group countries according to their 
financial support and other types of support to female 
entrepreneurs, describes their financial journey and 
provides the views of female entrepreneurs themselves.

Grouping of countries in 
terms of support for female 
entrepreneurship
Examining the types of financial support and private 
investment funds with gender criteria in the EU28 and 
Norway, countries have been distributed in four categories. 
Three countries (Spain, Poland and the UK) were found to 
provide all types of financial support, private investment 
through dedicated funds, public financing and other 
support measures.

Group 1: The ‘investment funds with gender criteria’ 
group consists of countries that have in place private 
funds that include gender criteria in their investment 
decisions. Seven countries (Belgium, Czechia, the 
Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK) have 
seen 11 such funds established, which can potentially 
tilt the investment field in support of gender diversity. 
This constitutes a remarkable change in the investment 
landscape for female entrepreneurs. 

It is notable that, in five out of seven countries in this 
group, the number of self-employed women is above the 
EU average (10%). This may partially explain the interest in 
setting up investment funds with gender criteria. 

Group 2: The ‘public finance’ group includes 16 countries 
with dedicated female entrepreneurship finance schemes. 
It is indicative that only three countries in this group 
(Spain, Poland and the UK) have private funds in place, 
which shows the need for the state to provide public 
support and address market failure. As it is much harder 
to acquire funding in the starting phase of the company, 
providing public financial support to companies ready for 
investment increases their chances of accessing capital. 

Grants, credit, credit guarantee schemes and investment 
funding have all been found to benefit female 
entrepreneurs, particularly at the beginning of their 
financial journey. This is supported by evidence in the 
literature, but also by the views expressed by female 
entrepreneurs (see interviews with funds in Chapter 1 and 
with female entrepreneurs in the next section).

Group 3: The ‘capacity-building public schemes’ 
group includes a larger number of countries (19). The 
support schemes are implemented either through large 
state-run programmes or through financial support to 
organisations running programmes that promote female 
entrepreneurship. Training, mentoring, networking and 
childcare support can increase business performance 
and enable female entrepreneurs to set up and grow their 
businesses. 

Group 4: The ‘quiet’ group of countries has no active state 
support measures for female entrepreneurs (apart from 
information and dissemination campaigns and awareness 
raising measures) and no dedicated private funds. 
The group consists of two Nordic countries, two Baltic 
countries and one southern European country (Denmark, 
Norway, Estonia, Latvia and Portugal).8 

Interestingly, national studies in some of the countries 
in the group suggest a gender imbalance regarding 
entrepreneurship (for example, Denmark, Estonia and 
Norway) and difficulties in accessing venture capital faced 
by female entrepreneurs. 

All the countries in this group, except for Portugal, have a 
low share of self-employed women. Denmark and Norway 
are considered to have highly egalitarian societies with 
a high proportion of female participation in the labour 
market and a well-developed welfare state linked to 
employment status. However, female entrepreneurship 
is not well developed. Self-employed people (including 
women) in Norway must insure themselves for sickness, 
loss of income, etc., which can make entrepreneurship 
riskier for women than men (Grünfeld et al, 2019). 
Overall, the reasons often quoted for non-gender-specific 
entrepreneurship measures are: 

  entrepreneurship policies are considered gender-

neutral

 

 

financing barriers to entrepreneurship are the same 
for women and men

information campaigns can be adequate tools for 
attracting potential female entrepreneurs

Overall, public institutions in these countries view 
entrepreneurship policies as gender-neutral.

8 

Portuguese authorities plan to introduce a number of new policy support initiatives as part of the Operational Support Programme, but these were not initiated at 
the time of writing.

27

Figure 7 shows the grouping of countries into four 
categories. On the lower end of the spectrum are the 
‘quiet’ countries with no public initiatives or dedicated 
investment funds. On the top end (on the right) is the 
group with the newly created private funds investing in 
women-owned or co-founded enterprises. Next to that is 
the group of countries providing public support (financing) 
and the group with capacity-building public support 
programmes. It should be noted that some countries are in 
more than one group as the figure shows. 

Associations, NGOs, social impact organisations and 
other private organisations complement the picture by 
organising information and networking events, training 
sessions, competitions, etc. 

Regarding sectoral approach to investment, both groups 
(private and public) are, in principle, open to all sectors. 
They both have a technological focus; however, the group 
with the public financial support tends to be broader in 
scope and covers different service industries, tourism, agro-
industry as well as manufacturing. This suggests a more 
balanced approach, covering a wider range of economic 
sectors. Table 4 presents the sectoral focus of the private 
investment funds and public financial support groups.

Views and opinions of associations 
and public institutions
National correspondents were asked to report on the 
views of women and women’s business associations, 
as well as the public institutions regarding financing for 
female entrepreneurship. The views reflect the national 
situation and include the following suggestions: 

 

 

 

increase financing opportunities for female 
entrepreneurs

create or maintain public support schemes

increase the number of capacity-building public 
support schemes

  eradicate stereotypes and create role models in female 

entrepreneurship

  promote gender diversity measures

Table 4: Sectoral focus of the investment funds and 
public financial support groups

Investment funds group

Public financial support group

ICT

ICT (Internet, games, apps, 
mobile phones, cloud computers)

Health technology

Life sciences

Renewable energy

Education technology

Environmental sector, clean 
technology

Business services, retail, 
commerce, personal services

Digital publishing

Manufacturing

Fintech

Tourism, hospitality

Fashion and design

Agro-industry

Increase financing opportunities for female 
entrepreneurs
Overall, many national organisations are in favour of 
increasing opportunities for women to access capital. The 
opinion that female entrepreneurs are still struggling to 
access bank loans and other forms of financing has been 
held by women’s associations and some public institutions 
in many countries (Estonia, Finland, France, Malta, the 
Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and 
the UK). 

Some associations in countries which have seen increases 
in female entrepreneurship in the last years, such as 
Poland and Spain, are concerned that the trend may not 
be sustained in the future due to financial problems. 
Maltese associations (for example, the Foundation for 
Women Entrepreneurs and the Malta Association of 
Women in Business) have also advocated for the increase 
of private sector financing. The organisations maintain 
that female founders would not be willing to mortgage the 
family house as a collateral for a large loan; therefore, they 
suggest the creation of a guarantee fund to help women. 

The national correspondents in France, Poland, Spain, 
Sweden and the UK reported a lack of adequate investments 
by existing generic private funds/finance institutions. As 
many of these funds are predominantly owned and managed 

Figure 7: Grouping of EU countries and Norway based on financing support

Public ﬁnance group

Investment funds
with gender criteria

‘Quiet’ group of 
countries (no 
initiatives, no 
investments)

Capacity building of public 
schemes group (e.g. training,
networking)

Denmark, 
Estonia, 
Latvia, 
Norway, 
Portugal 

Austria, Belgium, Croatia, 
Czechia, Finland, France, 
Germany, Greece, Hungary, 
Ireland, Lithuania, 
Luxembourg, Poland, 
Romania, Slovakia, 
Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, 
UK

Bulgaria, Croatia, 
Cyprus, France, 
Germany, Greece, 
Hungary, Ireland, 
Italy, Lithuania, 
Malta, Poland, 
Slovakia, Spain, 
Sweden, UK

Belgium, Czechia, Poland, 
Netherlands, Spain, 
Sweden, UK

(-)

Source: Author’s elaboration

28

(+)

Female entrepreneurship: Public and private fundingby men, they do not use a gender lens in their investments. 
UK and Polish associations suggested that funds should 
become more gender diverse themselves, so that they have a 
more gender-balanced team of fund managers and invest in 
female-run businesses. 

Associations suggested that research and industry 
progress reports should be published on a regular basis. 
An increased number of female business angels could 
also contribute towards addressing the challenge. The 
British Business Bank suggested directing the €2.8 billion 
(£2.5 billion) British Patient Capital Programme so that it 
becomes a ‘Catalyst and Champion’ for UK venture capital 
by leading on diversity and inclusion.

Increase public financial support for 
female entrepreneurs
Many associations argue in favour of active public financial 
support. Continuous public support is needed due to 
the uneven playing field as reported by associations in 
Estonia, Finland, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, 
Slovenia and Spain. 

A tendency of the private funds to invest in large 
companies and not in female companies, and a tendency 
of the public sector to favour investments in the ICT sector 
is seen as an issue by the Spanish association. The Spanish 
association also argues  that banks tend to prioritise 
investments with high economic returns rather than 
considering social criteria. 

Many women in Finland operate locally and do not 
always apply for large funds (venture capital, equity, 
etc.) and therefore public financial support would be 
more suitable. In Finland, some consolidation of the 
financing schemes offered by the public authorities 
would allow a better appreciation of the services offered. 
Based on communication with associations (such as 
the Slovenian Community of female entrepreneurs, or 
Femmes Sans Frontières), state bodies and the chamber of 
Commerce of Slovenia, discontinuation of the only female 
entrepreneurship support programme in Slovenia means 
that there will be a need to find funding opportunities for 
women entrepreneurs.

Increasing the availability of start-up financing is 
recommended in the OECD report for Slovakia (2017b), 
while increasing the number of accelerators has been 
recommended in the Netherlands. In the case of Romania, 
it has been suggested that more significant monetary 
contributions should be made available through public 
support. In Estonia, it has been argued that assigning 
extra points to women applying for public programmes 
(as is currently being done in other countries such as 
Bulgaria) would be helpful. Additionally, providing gender 
disaggregated statistics would assist stakeholders to better 
appreciate the situation rather than relying on opinions. 

According to the Malta Association of Women in Business 
(MAWB), tax credits are not very beneficial for small start-
ups, because these companies have low cash flow so their 
return on investment is very low. A guarantee fund could 
potentially reduce the risk in credit. The Austrian employer 
organisation, on the other hand, is in favour of tax benefits. 

Pathways to accessing funding

Associations like the Estonian Association of SMEs 
(EVEA) emphasise that the gender-neutral approach to 
entrepreneurship and financial support fails to consider 
that women and men have different starting points when 
planning to start a company and are, therefore, unequal. 
Additionally, the Estonian Women’s Studies and Resource 
Centre (ENUT) argues that it is important for the state to 
turn its attention to support for female entrepreneurship. 
EVEA argues that the ‘Estonian Entrepreneurship Growth 
Strategy 2020’ prioritises technology and ICT traditionally 
led by men. Also, women are mostly solo entrepreneurs 
leading microenterprises with little intention to grow them, 
while most state support measures are aimed at growth and 
competitiveness. The gender pay gap is very high in Estonia, 
which suggests that women have lower wages and thus less 
capital or finances to start a business (ENUT, 2013).

Expand capacity-building public 
support schemes
Capacity-building schemes such as training, mentoring 
and networking are appreciated and welcomed by 
many countries, but they are particularly emphasised in 
Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, the Netherlands and Slovakia. 
Connecting with other female entrepreneurs and inspiring 
others are important initiatives, particularly when they 
target women in the same economic sector. 

Improving presentation skills for pitching events (the 
Netherlands), guidance, training of women in rural areas 
and childcare (Austria and Cyprus) and financial literacy 
training (Hungary and Slovakia) are among the public 
capacity-building initiatives that can support potential 
and existing female entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship 
education in schools is supported by the Austrian 
employer organisation.

Eradicate stereotypes and create  
role models
Many organisations interviewed in the context of this 
mapping exercise suggested actions to address gender 
stereotypes against female entrepreneurship and women 
as entrepreneurs. Such stereotypes may refer to the (lack 
of) capabilities of female investors and fund managers 
or the capacity of female start-up founders to manage 
their companies (Estonia, Hungary and Poland). The 
Entrepreneurial Women Network in Poland referred to 
deeply rooted stereotypes whereby women are believed 
to be neither successful entrepreneurs nor good investors, 
which may lead to the conclusion that there is no need for 
further support – hence perpetuating gender inequalities.

Promote broader gender diversity  
measures
Promoting gender diversity measures more widely in the 
business community and in society can produce a positive 
direct or indirect effect. Public research results on gender 
diversity effects in the society and economy can also be 
promoted. 

A recent study by the International Finance Corporation (IFC, 
2019) recommends gender diversity among the mainstream 
investment funds. Through a questionnaire addressed to 
female and male fund partners, the study sought to capture 

29

views of general partners on low gender diversity. The views 
of each gender were reported separately to allow for better 
analysis. There were three possible answers to choose from 
regarding low gender diversity in the finance sector: 

  difficulty finding qualified female talent

 

 

low female interest in private equity

local norms reducing female leadership

What makes this interesting is the way female and male 
general partners responded: 52% of male general partners 
reported difficulty finding qualified female talent, while 
only 21% of female general partners agreed with this. 
Low female interest in private equity was confirmed 
by 46% of male general partners, but only 14% of 
female respondents. This clearly shows that there are 
gender stereotypes in identifying and addressing the 

problem of low gender diversity, and the lack of female 
representation can be a barrier to making the finance 
sector and workplace gender balanced. This, in turn, can 
affect decisions as to how investments are made and how 
investees are chosen. 

The IFC report suggests that certain barriers, such as 
closed networks, unconscious bias, or a lack of gender 
diversity commitments, require efforts from several 
stakeholders. The suggested recommendations to 
promote gender balance include gender-disaggregated 
data on women in funds and portfolio companies, 
strategies for gender balance in investments, strategies for 
gender-balanced human resources policies within funds 
(for example, equal paternity leave, supporting flexible 
work initiatives, actively pursuing gender-diverse talent), 
and assessment of implementation of strategies.

Case study: Doppel (UK)

Fotini Markopoulou is the CEO and co-founder of this young technology company producing hardware and wearables. 
The London-based company has four co-founders (two female and two male) and a small workforce of six people. Based 
on scientific research, their product is a wearable wristband that reduces stress and increases focus by generating a 
sensation of the heartbeat. As an academic in theoretical physics, Dr Markopoulou is well accustomed to working in a 
male-dominated environment.

Dr Markopoulou’s financing journey to get the company off the ground started with small contributions from family and 
friends (£40,000 or €44,000). After that, the company secured a grant from Deutsche Bank, followed by a Horizon 2020 
grant and another grant from Innovate UK. This amount of funding enabled the company to run for the first year with just 
four co-founders. In the next level of financing, they launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter. From that point 
on, and while promoting their product more widely, contacts through San Francisco technology entrepreneurs led the 
co-founders to a Chinese manufacturer who secured a financing deal for them. This was a significant private investment 
for an early stage company. Different connections led the company to two financing networks, the Cambridge Angels 
and Angel Academe (female investors), who made investments in their company. The CEO confirms that it all started 
with personal connections which led to the next connection. The company is not a member of any business networks; 
however, one of the co-founders is an enterprise fellow at the Royal Academy of Engineering, which has been a very useful 
connection. Additionally, Cambridge Angels and the Angel Academe have a background in technology. It is harder to 
secure funding at an early stage, and this is critical for the success of the company as competition in the industry is fierce.

When asked about her experience with investors, Dr Markopoulou said, ‘people assess me rather than the company.’ The 
CEO feels comfortable pitching before a line-up of mostly male investors but she finds that ‘you have to prove yourself 
more.’ She comes across as a strong female leader. ‘As a woman I usually talk to older men who are happy to give advice to 
a younger woman. I am asking for advice obviously and they run large businesses and I do not, but I also know my business 
very well,’ she commented. Through mentoring from a female entrepreneur, Dr Markopoulou received valuable advice that 
she would not have received from a man as, according to her, men and women need to present themselves differently.

Selling hardware in London is not as easy as in San Francisco. It appears that investors in the country are interested, but they 
are not always confident in assessing this type of business as they have never invested in businesses of this kind. Investors 
not only invest with money, but they also provide valuable advice to early stage companies. Being unfamiliar with this type 
of technology business, investors cannot provide advice or access to networks. Ultimately, the investors have to choose 
between business proposals that they are familiar with and other investment propositions which they are less familiar with.

Dr Markopoulou and her team have raised a significant amount so far (£2 million, or €2.2 million) with the aim to raise £3 
million (€3.3 million) by February 2020, which will be used to expand production and grow their workforce from 6 people 
to 40 people by 2021.

When considering financing in support of female entrepreneurs, Dr Markopoulou thinks that grants are very useful, 
but they should be more flexible. For early stage technology companies, using a grant to try to prioritise research and 
development may inhibit them from delivering to their timeline. 

She also feels that women-specific programmes and some dedicated funding to women-led enterprises (with at least one 
female co-founder) could be publicly supported. Networking initiatives are also of great assistance. Currently, there are 
no organised networks for female CEOs in the tech industry, and there is a lot to be learnt. Dr Markopoulou commented, 
‘the people I find more useful are the ones that are ahead of me, but not too far to have forgotten what it is like to be here’.

30

Female entrepreneurship: Public and private fundingPathways to accessing funding

Financial journey of female 
entrepreneurs
Female start-up entrepreneurs very often start with their 
own money and money from friends and family (Verheul 
and Thurik, 2001; Coleman and Robb, 2012). Some may 
then seek a small loan (microcredit) which is relatively 
easy to access, particularly while interest rates are low, 
and loans are often provided with public credit guarantee 
schemes. Many women have availed of microcredit offers, 
particularly women in rural areas and areas far away from 
large cities with certain geographical disadvantages. 

There is much at stake with credit and finance expansion, 
and for many women, unfortunately, the financial journey 
may stop here due to lack of information, attitude 
towards risk, investors’ bias and a lack of targeted support 
availability. However, a distinction should be made 
between high-growth and low-growth entrepreneurs, 
as the former are more likely to seek alternative finance 
sources (Gundry and Welsch, 2001). 

Small business grants are very popular instruments 
initiated by state authorities (business support and 
development agencies, innovation funds, etc.) with female 
start-up entrepreneurs or would-be female entrepreneurs 
in mind. Grants are often connected with accelerators and 
incubators that provide the space and small ecosystem for 
developing and growing ideas into businesses. 

Small amounts of angel funding can mark the beginning 
of a more confident request for financial capital. In 
this respect, business angels with a gender lens play a 
significant role in supporting female entrepreneurs. Often 
created by female investors, gender lens investments are 

an example of social impact entrepreneurship. Female 
gender lens investors are aware of the difficulties female 
entrepreneurs face within the world of investment and 
can possibly shape the industry. This can be achieved 
by bringing more diversity in investments. Female 
entrepreneurs can request several rounds of angel funding 
before they access venture capital. Again, funds with a 
gender lens in their investment portfolio can help direct 
capital from limited and general partners, so that they 
can serve a part of the market not reached by mainstream 
investors.

Learning the tricks of the game, how to prepare the 
business case and how to pitch in front of investors are 
necessary steps that are often learned while in accelerators 
and incubators or through participation in networking 
and investors’ events. Many public innovation agencies 
(for example, the Swedish agency Vinnova) target 
innovative companies and seek ways to connect them 
with universities and knowledge centres, entrepreneurial 
ecosystems in their own and other countries, and other 
organisations. Research has shown that innovative 
companies are well connected with universities, research 
organisations, other companies, customers, supply chains, 
and so on (Eurofound, 2017). 

Lastly, this study finds that state investment funds in 
collaboration with banks and private funds provide capital 
to female entrepreneurs. A simplified form of the financial 
journey of female entrepreneurs is shown in Figure 8. The 
journey continues with some of the start-ups going public, 
but this takes time and the revenues required for this are 
quite high (hundreds of millions of euro). This is outside 
the scope of this study.

Figure 8: The financial journey of female entrepreneurs (with emerging gender lens funds depicted)

Own 
money

Family 
and  
friends

Microcredit

Public/private

Grant

Start 

Discover 

Getting started

Gender lens funds

Other 
investors

Several rounds
Angels with 
gender lens

Supported funds

Several rounds
IPO, stock exchange 

Grow

Source: Author’s elaboration

31

Case study: Eatit (Sweden)

Theresia Silander Hagström is the co-founder of the young Swedish health technology and food technology company 
Eatit. The company collects health data from their customers (blood samples, information on their dietary habits, 
lifestyle, etc.) and then provides tailor-made recommendations on how they can  improve their diet (through 
dieticians) and lifestyle. Various algorithms have been developed to drive the company’s decisions and provide 
customer advice. 

Ms Silander Hagström’s financing journey started with grants from Vinnova (Sweden’s innovation agency) and funding 
for legal advice through other public organisations. In the next stage, her company received funding from a venture 
capital fund (Almi Invest), as well as through an incubator (KTH Innovation). Contacts with Vinnova and other beneficiary 
companies led Ms Silander Hagström to the accelerator programme TINC. The month-long programme took place 
in Silicon Valley and Vinnova financed two-thirds of the programme fees. Ms Silander Hagström said, ‘Without this 
funding we would not have been able to afford to participate in the programme... you learn a lot there, the programme 
development [coaching] saved [me] half a year to one year.’

Ms Silander Hagström is in the process of launching the full version of the company’s product and will then start seeking 
capital from investors (once they have met certain growth milestones, otherwise investors would not be prepared to 
invest in them). ‘There are many investors who are established in Stockholm and it is easy to just meet up and have 
coffee,’ she says.

Ms Silander Hagström established contacts with investors through H2 Health Hub (a co-working space), start-up events 
and personal contacts. As the company is at the start-up phase, they do not yet have experience in accessing finance and 
funding barriers. Investors are keen to come to pitching events, but the question remains: How many of them are willing 
to invest? Ms Silander Hagström thinks that investors may have an unconscious bias against women-led enterprises. She 
also understands that some private funds and business angels have started assessing the gender diversity of companies 
in their portfolios, while others are actively seeking companies with female founders. 

Her experience with investors is limited, but she is working towards getting the company ready for investment. She 
is preparing herself for pitching events and is looking forward to receiving feedback; however, she admits that she is 
‘slightly concerned that [she] may be stereotyped in the future’ when the first series of investment is launched. The local 
ecosystem (accelerator) is quite favourable: ‘We sit in a place with companies that work with similar things [to us], and 
we have learned a lot from them’ says Ms Silander Hagström. 

Cooperating with other start-ups and learning from other larger, more established companies is an invaluable 
experience and the key to success. In Silicon Valley, start-ups are seen by other companies as a tool for solving their 
problems, so they are open to cooperation and the entire process from the first meeting to the product launch is 
very quick. In contrast, the process in Sweden is much longer, and large companies may be hesitant to cooperate 
with start-ups. ‘As a small start-up it can be very difficult to reach out to large companies,’ Ms Silander Hagström 
explains.

Feedback from female start-up 
entrepreneurs 
The present study has dealt with private investment funds, 
the reasons for their creation and public schemes. To 
complement the picture, women-led start-ups have been 
approached with a view to hear their own experience of 
the early steps of their company’s development. Four 
entrepreneurs from the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK 
were interviewed to discuss their financing journey and 
capital barriers. The companies were selected through 
contacts with national women’s associations and the 
private investment funds included in this study (the study 
team selected one of their investees). The small number of 
interviewees was therefore not random and does not allow 
for generalisation. The young companies selected are in 
the technology (two companies, wearables and gaming), 
health and food technology (one company) and home 
healthcare (one company) sectors. An overrepresentation 
of the technology sector may also skew the findings as 

these sectors are more likely to attract the attention 
of investors. The information provided through the 
interviews is used to better explain some of the findings of 
the mapping work.

Three out of four female entrepreneurs have accessed 
private investment capital, including some through 
different rounds. They all consider external funding critical 
or very important. The cases presented here suggest that 
the technology companies have more difficulties accessing 
capital than the social care company. So, the argument 
that female entrepreneurs do not attract investments 
because they start companies in traditional ‘female’ 
sectors (which may not be appealing to investors) does not 
seem to hold in this case. 

The two interviewees in the technology sector indicate 
that female entrepreneurs may be faced with gender 
stereotyping from investors but have learned how to move 
around in a male-dominated investor environment. These 
well-educated entrepreneurs need funding to expand their 

32

Female entrepreneurship: Public and private fundingPathways to accessing funding

business, not more training. Their financing journey shows 
that they are more likely to encounter a male investor 
than a female one. Two of them have already received 
investment from female-owned funds that apply gender 
criteria in their investments (for instance, TheNextWoman 
Fund and Angel Academe). 

Additionally, all the female entrepreneurs have made 
use of public support schemes and EU funds, in the form 
of grants, accelerators, incubators, loans, networking 
events, training, etc. Accelerators are the breeding place 
for many business ideas and create an ecosystem that 
brings together entrepreneurs and investors. Some of 
the business ideas developed were first tested there 
before reaching the wider market. This local ecosystem 
is very beneficial to all participants, as entrepreneurs can 
share and exchange views with each other. Networking 
events for start-ups are also a good place for budding 
entrepreneurs to develop personal contacts with both 
investors and other entrepreneurs. Nearly all female 

interviewees used them as a stepping stone for their next 
financing round: in the words of one of the interviewees, 
‘connections lead to connections’. Grants and loans 
made product development (prototypes) and concept 
development possible before business plans were fully 
advanced. Those schemes were particularly useful when 
the entrepreneurs took their first steps into the business 
world which confirms the relevance and plethora of such 
schemes found in the 19 countries. Tapping on personal 
contacts and networks opened doors to the investors’ 
community. Female networks are considered of high 
value.

The experience of all four companies confirms research 
findings that networks and collaboration with universities 
and other companies are critical to a company’s success. 
Innovative companies rely heavily on collaboration with 
universities and research centres; they access large and 
diverse networks for knowledge creation and tap into 
external ideas to create value for their company.

Case study: Friendbase (Sweden)

Friendbase is a small social gaming company with three co-founders, located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Deborah Lygonis 
is one of the co-founders who works with a team of three people (developers and a community manager), while the 
other two co-founders are not engaged in operational business. It is a mixed group with a 50/50 split in men and 
women. A board, of which one of the members is an investor, oversees the company. The chat rooms and games are 
played by many young people who, in the future, will also have access to learning-oriented quizzes developed by the 
company. 

If the next round of financing is successful, it will be possible for the company to expand to Middle Eastern and Asian 
markets. The capital required is mainly for research and development and has a twofold objective: ensuring a safe and 
friendly online environment using gamification and artificial intelligence and creating a digital mentor, again through 
artificial intelligence to support young people experiencing difficulties in online situations (for instance, abusive 
language). They have not yet acquired patents, but they are developing their own software tools. Research cooperation 
with universities is underway but has not yet come to fruition.

Ms Lygonis is familiar with the financing rules and actively participates in all start-up events for accessing venture capital. 
She also subscribes to European calls and Vinnova’s newsletters. Friendbase have received investment from business 
angels and will continue doing so in the future. It also had support from an accelerator programme (TINC) which allowed 
it to acquire experience through a visit to Silicon Valley. Running a small business and at the same time networking and 
searching for events and investors is quite demanding and at times frustrating. In particular, Ms Lygonis gets frustrated 
by the ‘huge difference in amounts raised by [male] and [female] entrepreneurs.’ Most of the time, Ms Lygonis has faced 
young, male investors. Ms Lygonis explains that she has received ‘recommendations to bring in a young guy as a CEO 
to act as front figure,’ in order to appeal to certain types of investors. The company board did not consider this credible 
or acceptable, so they decided to look for capital in other investment circles. Other financing streams have also been 
sought in collaboration with other companies.

Ms Lygonis has first-hand experience of being stereotyped while seeking capital. ‘I was sitting at a meeting in Stockholm 
where the investor said straight out that the most common companies they invest in are those with 25-year-old guys 
hanging [around] SUP46* playing billiards and [going] for beers. I told him that there was nothing I could [possibly] do to 
change my age, gender and looks’ she said. Ms Lygonis points out that her company was one of 100 companies selected 
from a list of 90,000 applications to pitch at the start-up event Startup Istanbul. To her delight, the company came first in 
the pitching competition.

What’s next for Ms Lygonis? She thinks that going global is the way forward and plans to turn her attention to the Middle 
East and Asia.

Following her experience as a beneficiary of public programmes (such as Vinnova, TINC, etc.) Ms Lygonis suggests that 
applications for public funds should not require the gender and name of the applicant. 

Note: *SUP46 = A hub for start-ups in Stockholm

33

Case study: Mantelaar (the Netherlands)

Mantelaar connects elderly people and people requiring care at home with care providers. In the Netherlands 
mantelzorg is a term which refers to care provided by a family member, friend, or through another informal, private 
route. Mantelaar aims to support older people and mantelzorgers (carers) by connecting people in need of home care 
with students (and volunteers) in the medical or healthcare field. Mantelaar is a small company with eight people in 
managerial roles, including one woman. Barbara Groeneveld is a co-founder and former owner of Mantelaar, and since 
stepping down she remains a shareholder in the company. 

Ms Groeneveld reflects on how women in other sectors provided advice and support for free, which she says was really 
valuable during the company’s first steps. Being a member of different networks provided inputs other than financing 
during the initial stages of the company. Cooperation with universities (to make contact with medical students and a 
pool of social carers), the Lansingerland municipality (with whom they established a service contract), health insurers 
and others was vital for the success of the company.

Ms Groeneveld’s financial journey started in 2014 with a crowdfunding initiative that brought in €170,000. Her company 
was also supported by a business incubator when they started pitching their idea at start-up events for social economy 
enterprises. At the same time, the co-founders approached the Royal Heidema Foundation (Koninklijke Nederlandse 
Heidemamatschappij, KNHM) which provides advice and support to social and civil action projects. KNHM provided seed 
capital (€160,000) to Mantelaar and gained a stake in the company, becoming the majority investor. This was followed 
by another investment by TheNextWoman Fund (one of the funds included in this study) which provided 10% of the 
capital during that investment round. TheNextWoman Fund is a large network of female business angels and investors 
which provided Ms Groeneveld with useful business contacts, formal and informal advice, and support. Being part of the 
incubator allowed Mantelaar access to both KNHM and TheNextWoman Fund. Currently, they are looking for scale-up 
capital in order to grow and move the company to the next level.

Overall, Ms Groeneveld confirms that she ‘never felt too much of a barrier when getting external financing’, but she 
realises that other women do. She thinks that a possible explanation is that her company is small and ‘has always 
requested small amounts from investors.’ She also found it troubling at one pitching event for female start-ups that her 
male co-founder was not given the space to pitch as the event was only meant for women. 

Ms Groeneveld has used public support through different means. For instance, she has participated in networking events 
for SMEs organised by the Municipality of Amsterdam. The company also received a gift of €15,000 from the Dutch bank 
Rabobank as part of their initiative to support social economy enterprises. 

When asked how the entrepreneurial ecosystem for female entrepreneurs could be improved, Ms Groeneveld suggested 
that more female networking events should be organised. These events may be perceived as ‘soft’ measures, but in 
practice they are very useful. Her experience was very positive as she received extra support and advice from other 
female entrepreneurs, even if it was not necessarily connected to or leading to financing. Women’s networks are less 
common than networks intended for male entrepreneurs, which tend to spring up more organically. Ms Groeneveld also 
makes it clear that excluding men is not the way to encourage female entrepreneurship.

Summary
This chapter showed how countries are grouped in terms 
of their financial support to female entrepreneurs. Only 
three countries (Poland, Spain and the UK) were found to 
provide all types of financial support, private investment 
through dedicated funds, public financing and capacity 
building, and other support measures. The group of seven 
countries with existing private funds with a gender lens 
consists of countries located in north-west, central and 
southern Europe. This group has grown in the last few 
years.

Most countries support capacity-building measures. 
Out of 28 Member States, 16 provide financing to female 
entrepreneurs, while some of them have supplementary 
measures in place. With the emergence of private funds 

with gender criteria, the financial journey of women 
in some countries is becoming more interesting and 
hopefully more rewarding. The cross-border reach of these 
funds presents an interesting development with great 
potential for investments. 

The views of female start-up entrepreneurs shed some 
light on the type of difficulties they encounter while 
seeking capital. They are well educated (and therefore 
do not require training), they are in the right industry 
(meaning they are fundable), yet they must fight harder 
than their male counterparts to get access to capital. 
Investors have an affinity for certain products or services, 
and often have expectations about the ideal profile of an 
entrepreneur. Eradicating stereotypes, promoting gender 
diversity within the finance sector and supporting gender 
lens investing could address some of the challenges.

34

Female entrepreneurship: Public and private funding4  Conclusions and policy pointers

Much research on female entrepreneurship and the 
constraints in starting up and growing companies has 
been carried out in the last 20 years. Several studies 
(Constantinides et al, 2006; Carter et al, 2007;  Coleman 
and Robb, 2009) have investigated women’s access to 
debt capital; however, there are fewer studies on women’s 
access to venture capital and equity. Some studies suggest 
that women have difficulties raising angel investment, 
venture capital or equity capital, and when they do, they 
raise less than male entrepreneurs. Some of the barriers to 
financing which are frequently mentioned include: 

  women do not have access (as users) to angel 

investment and venture capital

  women are significantly underrepresented among the 
decision-makers in private equity and venture capital 
companies (a strongly male-dominated sector)

  women tend to concentrate on service sectors which 

are less appealing to investors

While there are articles and studies referring to the 
creation of angel investment and venture capital in the 
US and other global regions deliberately including gender 
among their investment criteria, very little evidence 
exists in Europe on the incidence of such financing and 
its characteristics. This study was more focused on the 
‘supply’ side, the angel investment and venture capital 
industry (and the reasons behind the setting up of such 
funds) and public financing and support, rather than the 
‘demand’ side.

National studies in EU Member States confirm the 
difficulties female entrepreneurs face in accessing finance. 
Private financing, angel funding and venture capital were 
found to be disproportionately low in many EU Member 
States. Some women and women’s business associations 
mentioned that female and male entrepreneurs have 
different starting points in their entrepreneurial journey 
and are, therefore, unequal. Often, society’s views 
towards the division of roles in the home and in public 
spheres may not be positively inclined towards female 
entrepreneurship. Sociocultural factors, such as societal 
views about the entrepreneurial model being considered 
as predominantly male, may deter women from starting 
their own businesses and finance institutions from 
investing in female entrepreneurs. Other factors such 
as women’s educational choices (influenced by family 
and societal stereotypes), an unequal share of family 
responsibilities, the types of businesses women start and 
personal wealth play a major role.

Continuous public support is still required. Many national 
associations take the view that eradicating gender 
stereotypes in society and creating role models for female 
entrepreneurs should be among the actions supported 
by the public sector, women’s associations and industry 
associations (for example, SME associations).

Data collected from EU Member States and Norway 
reveal that there has been an emerging body of business 
angels and venture capital funds created to invest in 
women-led or gender diverse companies (with women 
among their founders or represented on their boards, 
management team or in their workforce). In the last few 
years, 11 funds have been set up in 7 countries in Europe 
(Belgium, Czechia, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, 
Sweden and the UK). Some countries have more than 
one fund (the Netherlands, Spain and the UK). Despite 
the small number of funds created, this may produce a 
remarkable change in the financing landscape regarding 
funding opportunities for female entrepreneurs. Through 
their investments, these ventures are also making a social 
impact. The full impact of their investments cannot yet be 
fully appreciated, as nearly all of the funds are very young 
(most were created in the last five years and therefore 
are start-ups themselves). However, three of them have 
already raised €68 million. 

It is also noteworthy that many of the funds (6 out of 11) 
operate across national borders, applying their gender 
lens investment criteria at the European level. This can 
contribute to the proliferation of such angels and funds 
as well as enlarging the pool of women-led companies 
eligible for investment (investees).

With regard to the underrepresentation of women in the 
decision-making mechanisms of investment funds, a 
major financing obstacle for female entrepreneurs, this 
study sought to explore the gender diversity of the funds 
themselves and determine whether it makes a difference 
to their decision to invest in women-led enterprises. Data 
collected from the national reports and more in-depth 
interviews with three managers of investment funds bring 
to light the gender composition of the funds.

It is remarkable that all funds analysed are gender diverse 
(at least 50% of the founding members are women) while 
some (four) are fully women owned. This may explain the 
inclusion of gender criteria in their investment decisions 
and the selection of companies for their portfolio 
investment. This supports the point made in the literature 
and research (for instance, the International Finance 
Corporation) suggesting that more efforts should be 
concentrated on achieving gender diverse teams in finance 
companies. Such a move will impact the finance firms 
themselves (as gender diverse teams are more likely to 
make better decisions), as well as ‘entrepreneurs receiving 
capital to grow their businesses’ (IFC, 2019). 

With limited presence of private gender lens investing 
in EU Member States and Norway, the public sector has 
been providing financing through traditional means 
such as grants, credit and credit guarantee schemes, tax 
credits and other stronger measures such as investment 
funds. With investments in excess of €310 million, 16 
Member States support female entrepreneurs or would-
be entrepreneurs with capital essential for starting 

35

up a business, accessing credit, developing a product 
(for instance, essential research and development for 
new products), direct investment, etc. Additionally, 
public support is accessible to a large share of female 
entrepreneurs in 19 countries. More than 370,000 women 
have participated in training activities. The public support 
schemes assist female entrepreneurs to prepare a 
business plan, access legal advice, get access to investors 
through networking and investment events, network 
with other women, get access to mentoring services, 
and so on. Other organisations such as voluntary and 
social impact organisations and women’s associations 
appear to support female entrepreneurship initiatives, for 
example, information sharing, training and networking 
opportunities. 

Both private funds and public organisations are in 
principle open to all economic sectors; however there is 
a preference for certain sectors, such as high technology, 
ICT, environment and renewables, health technology, 
digital publishing, and so on. The public sector support 
tends to be slightly more open to other sectors, such as 
personal services, manufacturing (in general), tourism 
and hospitality, and agro-industry. Evidence from the 
female entrepreneurs in this study shows that, even in the 
technology industry, which appeals to many investors, 
there are still financing barriers and gender bias. 

The female start-up business owners interviewed 
for this study are well educated, they run innovative 
businesses with research and business awards, they 
operate in a fundable economic sector, and yet they must 
fight hard to access the funding required. There is an 
enormous potential for private funds created with gender 
considerations in their mission to fill the gap. However, it 
is also a responsibility for the entire private investment 
industry to achieve a gender balance within its decision-
making mechanisms and attract and appoint more female 
fund managers.

Overall, underinvestment in female entrepreneurs means 
that there is underutilised capacity in the economy which 
inhibits growth and job opportunities and hampers 
equal opportunities for women and men. Policymakers 
should ensure that enterprise policies work well for both 
women and men (as well as other more specific groups in 
society).

Policy pointers
The findings of this study show that financing for female 
entrepreneurs remains an issue in most European 
countries. Many women’s associations confirmed the 
need for more positive action. The perceived market gap 
for investments in female entrepreneurs and the male-
dominated finance industry have been the motivation for 
the creation of funds with a gender focus. 

Support gender lens investing
Gender lens investments started as a niche initiative, but 
considering the amounts raised so far by some gender 
lens investors, they can become a significant vehicle for 
supporting capital funding for female entrepreneurs. 
Female and male investors who are keen to use their 

36

investment capital to both achieve financial return and 
have a positive impact on female entrepreneurs should be 
informed of the existing opportunities. Women and men 
have taken initiatives in several countries to form business 
angels and venture capital funds investing in female 
entrepreneurs. They have intentionally developed gender 
criteria and incorporated them into their investment 
decisions. 

Supporting gender lens investing increases awareness 
among female entrepreneurs about the available capital 
sources and their potential use. It also raises awareness 
among private investors and investment funds about the 
potential of such investments that can create profits as 
well as have a social impact. The whole finance sector 
should be encouraged to endorse and actively promote 
gender lens investing. Disregarding 10.3 million female 
entrepreneurs in Europe (30% of all entrepreneurs) is 
neither a sound financial decision nor a socially acceptable 
option. 

Supporting private funds which invest in companies that 
perform well and have female leaders as well as women in 
other senior management positions may encourage other 
companies to genuinely embrace gender diversity so that 
they have better access to capital.

It is advisable to regularly monitor trends in gender lens 
investing and map the incidence of such funds in Europe 
and their contribution to female entrepreneurship. 
European organisations such as the European 
Commission’s Directorate-General for Internal Market, 
Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) or the 
Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers (DG JUST); 
the European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE); and 
Eurofound could potentially drive and support such a 
monitoring tool.

Initiatives like the ones suggested above should be 
supported by public organisations, women’s associations, 
finance sector associations, investors, and private and 
social impact organisations. As these funds are often 
international or European in nature, they should be 
encouraged to make investments beyond their national 
borders to enlarge the pool of investees and the reach 
of these funds. Some of the newer funds already do this. 
Support from European funds,  European bodies (such 
as the EIB) and  other EU initiatives should be further 
fostered; as this study shows, they are already making a 
significant contribution.

Promote gender diversity within 
mainstream finance institutions
The underrepresentation of women in fund management 
and decision-making mechanisms in the venture 
capital, equity and business angel sector could reduce 
opportunities for female entrepreneurs to access finance. 
Measures to increase gender diversity in the sector should 
be strongly encouraged. In addition, goals should be set 
as to how to achieve gender balance. Indeed, bringing 
more women into venture capital firms and institutional 
investors could reduce bias in decision-making, help 
investors to better understand women-led businesses and 
the markets they serve, and widen the pool of potential 
investees. 

Female entrepreneurship: Public and private fundingTo address some of the problems that female fund 
managers face, human resources policies should set 
measurable gender diversity and talent management 
goals, introduce work–life balance for both women and 
men, make management accountable for gender diversity 
practices, and introduce annual reports showing progress 
towards gender diversity. The finance sector should 
encourage the design of investment plans with gender 
considerations and annual accounts that show progress 
supported by gender disaggregated data. 

Attracting more female investors and fund managers in 
the conventional business angels and venture capital firms 
can potentially improve women’s access to such capital. 
International finance organisations (such as the IFC) and 
studies demonstrate the economic benefits (for example, 
stability within banking institutions and improved 
investment decisions) of gender-balanced management 
teams and boards. A number of different organisations 
can take on the role of promoting gender diversity within 
financial institutions: finance sector associations, SME 
organisations, industry organisations, state pension funds, 
enterprise support agencies, development agencies, 
women’s associations, and so on.

Continue to target public financial  
support
Public investments in female entrepreneurs should be 
continued through policy schemes that are proven to 
work well with users. Grants, accelerators, incubators, 
credit schemes and credit guarantee schemes are widely 
used in many countries. They can play a significant role in 
preparing and testing business ideas before approaching 
private investors, linking budding entrepreneurs with the 
finance ecosystem and providing credit. Raising awareness 
campaigns on the financing options available to women 
entrepreneurs could close the information gap for both 
women and potential investors.

Some countries have taken an even stronger position by 
setting up and co-creating state-funded angel and venture 
capital funds (for instance, France, Ireland, Slovakia and 
the UK). Additionally, public female entrepreneurship 
support programmes could be directed towards seed and 
early stage investments, where there is a clear market 
failure. Venture capital companies investing in women-led 
companies should be invited to participate in competitive 
calls that direct investments in key sectors identified in the 
national entrepreneurship strategy. Public support can, 
additionally, invest a proportion of the investment made 
by the funds to increase the value of the total investment. 
In that way, the public sector can influence the finance 
sector, showing support for a more gender-balanced 
investment model. 

Geography is an important factor in economic and 
finance decisions. Rural areas in Europe may be 
underserved by private and public schemes and tailor-
made credit schemes could be of great assistance to 
female entrepreneurs. Microcredit could be a starting 
point for women in rural or remote areas so that they 
can move from being home-based business owners to 
microenterprise or small company owners. Subsequent 

Conclusions and policy pointers

financing rounds can follow once the companies reach a 
stage where they are likely to attract investment.

Capacity-building support measures for female 
entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs are very 
beneficial. Training on business matters combined with 
finance literacy and mentoring can have a positive impact 
on entrepreneurs. Organising networking activities and 
events where early stage female entrepreneurs can 
meet with other female entrepreneurs and investors 
can enlarge their collaboration opportunities. Women 
who receive financial support, advice and training 
can benefit significantly from the combined package 
offered. Other European resources such as the European 
Commission’s initiative WEgate (European Gateway for 
Women’s Entrepreneurship) should be utilised by national 
level organisations for strengthening capacity-building 
initiatives.

Furthermore, promoting female entrepreneurial role 
models and reducing gender segregation in education and 
employment (gender-based occupational segregation 
affects access to economic resources) can contribute to 
reducing gender inequality. This should be a priority at 
national and European levels. It is of utmost importance 
to eradicate gender stereotypes and gendered perceptions. 
Stereotypes and perceptions can impede social and 
economic progress. Biases and assumptions about female 
entrepreneurs’ capabilities should be challenged at all 
levels, from family and school to work levels. This type 
of activity should be supported by public authorities, 
women’s associations, business organisations and other 
groups. Other policy measures that address socioeconomic 
barriers include those that promote work–life balance for 
women and men and provide affordable childcare services 
(these are essential during the business start-up phase). It 
is striking that only a minority of national policy initiatives 
targeting female entrepreneurship include access to 
childcare services.

Investing more in gender statistics and female 
entrepreneurship data would allow better comparisons of 
the financial support provided to women, as well as good 
quality impact assessments of public policies in aid of 
female entrepreneurship. 

National initiatives are encouraged to make use of the 
EU funds in support of female entrepreneurship, as some 
countries have already successfully done. It is important 
that any policy initiatives taken are closely aligned with 
other core enterprise support programmes (for instance, 
mentoring, networking, training and childcare).

Promote innovation policies and female 
entrepreneurship 
Government policies on innovation can be shaped to 
have a gender dimension and a positive impact on 
gender equality. National innovation policies aiming at 
addressing substantial industrial and societal challenges 
could introduce a strand for female entrepreneurs with 
innovative ideas that meet the innovation and industrial 
policies’ objectives. For instance, innovation policies with 
clear priorities – either sectoral or thematic – such as clean 

37

growth, artificial intelligence, health and care services, 
ageing population and demographics can encourage 
female scientists, researchers and women with a business 
idea to participate in competitive calls. A large share of 
students in sciences, technological sectors, life science and 
other fields are women and, through innovation policies, 
they should be encouraged to try new business ideas. 
Also, other women with less technological entrepreneurial 
activities should be assisted to adapt to digitalisation. 

Additionally, regional and local authorities with a mandate 
on innovation and industrial policy implementation can 
put in place a gender dimension for such initiatives. This 
approach provides a policy framework in which this policy 
priority (female entrepreneurship) can be more concretely 
supported. The EU Prize for Women Innovators is a good 
example and provides stimulation for adopting similar 
schemes at the national level.

38

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42

Female entrepreneurship: Public and private fundingAnnex 1: List of contributors

Network of Eurofound Correspondents

Country

Contributor(s)

Affiliation

Austria

Belgium

Bulgaria

Croatia

Cyprus

Czechia

Denmark

Estonia

Finland

France

Germany

Greece

Ireland

Italy

Hungary

Latvia

Lithuania

Bernadette Allinger

Miet Lamberts

Violeta Ivanova

FORBA

Katholieke Universiteit (KU) Leuven

Institute for Social and Trade Union Research (ISTUR)

Predrag Bejaković and Irena Klemenčič

Institute of Public Finance

Loucas Antoniou

Sona Veverkova

Anders Randrup 

Ingel Kadarik

Rasmus Firon

Frédéric Turlan

Cyprus Labour Institute (INEK-PEO)

Research Institute for Labour and Social Affairs (VUPSV)

Oxford Research

Praxis Centre for Policy Studies

Oxford Research AB

IR Share

Marc Breitenbroich and Sandra Vogel

German Economic Institute (IW)

Elena Kousta

Andy Prendergast

Roberto Pedersini

Nora Krokovay

Raita Karnite

Inga Blaziene

Luxembourg

Franz Clément

Malta

Manwel Debono

Labour Institute of the General Confederation of Greek Workers 
(INE-GSEE)

IRN Publishing

University of Milan

Kopint-Tárki Institute for Economic Research

EPC Ltd

Labour Market Research Institute (DRTI)

Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER)

University of Malta (UoM)

Netherlands

Amber van der Graaf

Panteia B.V.

Norway

Poland

Portugal

Romania

Slovakia

Slovenia

Sweden

Spain

UK

Johannes Oldervoll

Marta Trawinska

Fafo Research Foundation

Institute of Public Affairs (ISP) 

Paula Carrilho and Heloísa Perista

Centre for Studies for Social Intervention (CESIS)

Valentina Vasile and Simona Ghita

European Institute of Romania (EIR)

Ludovit Cziria

Institute for Labour and Family Research (IVPR)

Aleksandra Kanjuo Mrčela

Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana

Sirin Celik

Oscar Molina

Claire Evans

Oxford Research AB

Universitat Autonòma de Barcelona (UAB)

University of Warwick

43

Annex 2: Glossary of terms

Angel investor/business angel: A high-net-worth 
individual, acting alone or in a formal or informal 
syndicate, who invests his or her own money directly in an 
unquoted business in which there is no family connection 
and who, after making the investment, generally takes 
an active involvement in the business, for example, as an 
advisor or member of the board of directors (Mason, 2016; 
Mason and Harrison, 2008).

Crowdfunding: An alternative form of financing where 
businesses reach out to members of the public and the 
wider community, who donate funds online to projects 
they choose (Startups, undated).

Gender lens investing: The term is used in different ways 
to refer to a way to (intentionally) direct capital towards 
gender equality or make capital accessible to women. 
The Wharton School’s Project Sage included all aspects 
of gender lens investing: ‘gender lens investing is the 
deliberate incorporation of gender factors into investment 
analysis and decisions. It is also the deliberate use of 
capital to improve the lives of women and girls and/or to 
get capital to companies, funds, and investment vehicles 
with a focus on women throughout value chains, products 
and services, or leadership’ (Biegel et al, 2017, p. 3).

General partners: These include venture capital, growth 
equity, buyout, real estate and infrastructure private equity 
firms (IFC, 2019, p. 22).

Limited partners: These include sovereign wealth funds, 
pension funds, multilateral development banks, funds of 
funds, development finance institutions (IFC, 2019, p. 22).

Incubators/accelerators: There is no agreement on the 
definition of incubators in the literature, but some scholars 
(Hannon and Chaplin, 2003) refer to their characteristics, 
such as shared services, space, business support services, 
supporting environment.

Business incubators are support structures that support 
entrepreneurs in business creation and development. 
The broad objective of a business incubator is to create 
and develop firms and improve their chances for success 
(Bruneel et al, 2012). 

Business accelerators (BAPs) have some similarities with 
business incubators, but BAPs ‘have a more explicit focus 
on accelerating the growth of firms. There are two types 
of BAPs, virtual and location-based BAPs. Virtual BAPs 
most often target gazelles that want to make the transition 
toward high-growth firms, while location-based BAPs most 
often target ambitious entrepreneurs that aim to develop 
their (nascent) business into a gazelle' (Stam and Bosma, 
2015). 

Start-up: There is no agreed definition of a start-up. 
According to the OECD (2016a), start-ups are enterprises 
that are up to two years old. In the European Startup 
Monitor, start-ups are defined by three characteristics. 
They must be younger than 10 years, feature (highly) 
innovative technologies and/or business models, and 
have or strive for significant employee and/or sales 
growth (Kollmann et al, 2016, p. 5). On the other hand, 
the multidisciplinary scientific journal Nature defines 
a start-up as ‘a small company in its first few years of 
business that aims to solve a problem for customers with 
its products or services’ (Dance, 2019).

Venture capital: Definitions differ across continents 
and times. ‘Venture capital (VC) refers to investments 
provided to early-stage, innovative, and high-growth 
start-up companies. … Private equity typically includes 
investments in venture capital or growth investment, as 
well as late-stage, mezzanine, turnaround (distressed), and 
buyout investments’ (Cumming, 2012). ‘Venture capital 
investment consists in the purchase of shares of young, 
privately held companies by outsiders for the primary 
purpose of capital gain’ (Cressy, 2008).

44

Annex 3: Coding system used

To allow for analysis on the role of gender in investment 
decisions made by private funds, a coding system was 
applied. National correspondents were asked to use the 

codes set out in the table below for each identified private 
fund with a gender lens investing approach. 

Table A3.1: Coding system for role of gender in investment decisions by private funds

Coding

Description 

Example 

Quantified Gender Mandate (QGM)

Investment based on specific female 
metrics

50/50 gender balance of founders, large 
percentage of female founding members or 
no less than a certain percentage of female 
founding members

Gender Mandate (GM)

Gender Consideration (GC)

Investment based on publicly stated 
criteria on gender

Ensuring that founding members include 
women

Investment based on gender 
considerations

Some of the founding members are female

Source: Adapted from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania’s Social Impact Initiative, Project Sage (Biegel et al, 2017) 

45

Annex 4: Private funds and female 
entrepreneurs interviewed

Table A4.1: Private funds with a gender lens investment approach 

Country

Name of fund 

Belgium

Czechia

Netherlands

Poland

Spain

Sweden

UK

We Are Jane

Espira Investments 

Karmijn Kapitaal

TheNextWoman Fund

Black Swan Fund

RED Ventures Fund I 

Santander Equality Acciones, FI

Women Angels for STEAM

Indecap Q30

AllBright

Angel Academe

Table A4.2: Private funds interviewed for the purpose of the study

Country

Name of company

Interviewee

Netherlands

Sweden

UK

Karmijn Kapitaal

Indecap Q30

Angel Academe

Anne Nijenhuis, Investment Manager

Elena Herrero, Manager

Simon Hopkins, Co-Founder

Table A4.3: Female entrepreneurs interviewed for the purpose of the study

Country

Name of company

Interviewee

Netherlands

Sweden

Sweden

UK

Mantelaar

Eatit

Friendbase

Doppel

Barbara Groeneveld, Co-Founder

Theresia Silander Haström, Founder

Deborah Lygonis, Founder

Fotini Markopoulou, CEO

46

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EF/19/031/EN

Female entrepreneurs represent just a small 
proportion of the total number of entrepreneurs 
in the European Union today. Some of the 
hurdles facing female entrepreneurs – or 
would-be entrepreneurs – are related to getting 
adequate funding, access to the right networks, 
and finding the right information and advice. 
In the last few years, some private funds have 
realised that female founders are not always 
well served and there is a market gap when it 
comes to investing in women-led enterprises. 
This report examines the use of private funds to 
invest in female entrepreneurs in the European 
Union and Norway. In addition, it investigates 
the prevalence of public finance tools and 
public support schemes that effectively 
remove barriers and enable women to become 
competent entrepreneurs.

The European Foundation for the 
Improvement of Living and Working 
Conditions (Eurofound) is a tripartite European 
Union Agency established in 1975. Its role is 
to provide knowledge in the area of social, 
employment and work-related policies 
according to Regulation (EU) 2019/127.

ISBN: 978-92-897-1994-0
doi:10.2806/17117