C 100/18
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
16.3.2023
2.3.
According to the European Commission, women represent roughly 52 % of the overall population in Europe, but constitute 34,4 % of the self-employed and 30 % of start-up entrepreneurs (3).
2.4.
All-male founded teams receive almost 92 % of all venture capital invested in Europe.
As regards funding, in early stages only 1 % of funding goes to female-led companies, and it never rises to more than 30 % in later stages, even though teams with female founders and mixed-gender teams are found to outperform their male counterparts (4) (5) (6) (7).
2.5.
In March 2017, the OECD reported that women are less likely than men to report that they can access the financing needed to start a business in all countries except for the United States, Mexico, Greece and Indonesia.
This gender gap can be associated with women having lower levels of experience, operating in highly competitive and low-growth sectors, as well as gender-biased credit scoring and gender stereotyping in investment evaluations.
Women are also often hindered by less access to basic financial services (e.g. checking and savings accounts) (8).
Furthermore, self-employed women are more likely than self-employed men to be discouraged borrowers.
2.6.
According to the European Commission’s Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, only one in ten decision-makers at venture capital (VC) and private equity firms are female, even though some private funds identified as operating with a gender focus have 72 % female partners.
Findings indicated that, on average, 85 % of VC general partners are men and just 15 % are women.
If women are partners, they tend to be partners of smaller funds.
2.7.
The COVID-19 pandemic has widened gender and economic inequalities.
In social and economic aspects, there is a clear distinction on how the coronavirus has had an impact on different genders.
The COVID-19 pandemic has also had an impact on women’s access to finance.
While European figures are missing, the United States even faced a widening of the already existing gender gap in venture capital funding for women-led start-ups (9).
2.8.
Globally, awareness of gender lens investing continues to gain momentum.
The European investment ecosystem for women entrepreneurs and founders is however still fragmented and lacks a systemic and strategic gender focus (10).
Specific gender equality funds are scarce, and these initiatives fail to attract more women entrepreneurs.
Around 50 % of funding in the European Union consists of taxpayers’ money.
A collective effort on an EU level creating a more gender-nuanced and equal financing ecosystem, along with accompaniment throughout the entire process of creating a business, can bring consensus and help overcome the obstacles towards change.
2.9.
When we talk about gender lens investing, we need to be aware of all the intersections with other inequalities that influence access to finance even further, like women with a disability, women with low socioeconomic status, young women, women with a migration background, or the intersection with sexual orientation, race, etc.
(3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10)
https://www.eib.org/attachments/thematic/why_are_women_entrepreneurs_missing_out_on_funding_en.pdf.
Eurostat and European Commission.
The State of European Tech 2020; Atomico (2020).
Why are women entrepreneurs missing out on funding?
Reflections and considerations — Executive summary (eib.org).
Funding women entrepreneurs: How to empower growth, 2020.
https://europeanwomeninvc.idcinteractive.net/8/.
COSME Programme Call for Proposals Encouraging community building around the issue of women entrepreneurship — Management and running of the WEgate platform.
Women-Led Startups Received Just 2,3% of VC Funding in 2020 (hbr.org).
UN Women (2021) Investment with a gender lens in Europe.