📋 Tender Overview
The European Commission launched a new EU funding program to support deep-tech start-ups that are run by women and that aims to promote the development of women into future deep-tech champions. Women TechEU is part of the new EU research program Horizon Europe area Innovation Ecosystems which is supported by the European Innovation Council EIC.Data shows that only 15 percent of innovative startups are founded or co-founded by women and only 6 percent have exclusively female founding teams. These women-run companies raise less venture capital than their male-only counterparts even for critical early-stage investments and the amounts they raise tend to be lower. Across Europe only around 5 percent of venture capital goes to mixed teams and only 2 percent to all-women teams.Women TechEU addresses this gender innovation gap by supporting women-led deep-tech startups in the early riskiest stages. The program offers financial support for women-led start-ups with grants of 75000 euros and first-class coaching and mentoring through the EIC Women Leadership program .The EIC Accelerator program also targets women-led startups but the new Women TechEU program provides support in the earlier formative stage of businesses to increase the number of women starting their own startups.Up to 50 promising deep-tech start-ups from EU member states and associated countries will be funded as part of the first Women TechEU pilot call which ends on November 10 2021.
