With its start-up initiative, the Federal Government would like to strengthen female founders in a more targeted way and has established a newly developed funding line under the name "Exist Women" for this purpose. The Hamburg Senate already decided in the summer to further develop existing formats with regard to female founders and to establish its own Female Founders Programme.
Women as a target group still offer a lot of potential in start-ups: Although the share of female founders and co-founders has risen in recent years to around 20 percent, women are still rather underrepresented in the start-up ecosystem. Therefore, one of the goals of the German government’s start-up strategy, which was further developed this year, is to strengthen female founders. The Federal Government wants to provide them with even more targeted support in the future.
To this end, the newly developed funding line under the name “Exist Women” is now being established and, following a decision by the Budget Committee in the Bundestag, will in future be funded with its own focus and to the tune of 6.5 million euros. Under the umbrella of EXIST, established funding instruments have already existed for many years, which in particular also make start-ups from science and higher education possible. According to their own surveys, the EXIST funding programmes are already showing a slight upward trend in the female start-up rate compared to the national average. These initial successes are based on measures that have contributed to raising awareness, networking and promoting female founders.
In the Hanseatic City, too, Hamburg’s female founders will be supported even more intensively in the future: As an example, the Hamburg Senate already decided in the summer to further develop already existing formats with regard to female founders and to establish its own Female Founders Programme, with a focus on start-up financing.
Background information:
EXIST-WOMEN: https://www.exist.de/EXIST/Navigation/DE/Gruendungsfoerderung/EXIST-WOMEN/Start-up-Strategie/exist-women.html
Report on the Female Founders Programme in Hamburg:
https://www.hamburg-news.hamburg/standort/female-founders-senat-will-gruenderinnen-hamburg-staerken
Female Founders Monitor 2022: Zahl der Gründerinnen steigt
