According to the startup association, the investment landscape is male-dominated and so are the projects into which the money flows. And: the larger the financing rounds, the smaller the proportion of women.
In 2023, only a fraction of the capital invested in young companies in Germany went to start-ups with all-female founding teams. This is shown by a study by the auditing company EY, which is available to the dpa news agency.
Accordingly, two percent of the venture capital went to start-ups that only had female founders. Specifically, they collected 102 million euros. 87 percent of the capital, which corresponds to 4.9 billion euros, went to start-ups that were only founded by men. The rest – 608 million euros – went to companies in which both men and women make up the founding team. The “Funke Mediengruppe” had previously reported on it.
“Men tend to invest more in men”
“The proportion of female founders in Germany is still too low,” said the chairwoman of the startup association, Verena Pausder, to the “Funke Mediengruppe”. This is also due to the investment landscape being too male-dominated. “Men tend to invest more in men.” This means that the economy is losing enormous amounts of added value. “Women see different trends, customer needs and business models – that’s why their topics have to find funding just like all-male teams.”
When large sums of money are involved, the imbalance in investments between the sexes becomes greater. According to EY, the proportion of women in all start-ups that received money in 2023 was 12.2 percent. However, among the start-ups that received financing of at least 50 million euros, the proportion of women in founding teams was only 1.8 percent.
In addition to the male-dominated investor landscape, EY also sees the topics on which female founders focus as a reason for the low funding. The proportion of female founders was highest in the healthcare industry. But there, among other things, the money is less loose with investors. In contrast, women are clearly underrepresented in founding teams at technology start-ups. The German start-up industry has been far from gender parity for a long time. According to the startup association, the proportion of women in all start-ups in 2022 was around a fifth.
Source: Stern
