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Female founders in figures
How many are we?
How big are our companies?
What sectors are we active in (or not)?
How do we finance our businesses?
How many female entrepreneurs are there?
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Women have been establishing businesses at a slightly higher average rate than men. The share of women founders has doubled in the past five years. Some portion of this rise includes necessity founders (meaning women who became self-employed because of job scarcity).
(Source: Global Gender Gap Report 2022 / LinkedIn data from 22 countries)
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In Belgium, the number of female entrepreneurs rose to 35% in 2020, up from 33.7% in 2007. (Source: Unizo)
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How many are we in tech?
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In 2020, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) had the largest amount of female tech start-up founders in Europe. CEE led the ranking with 919 reported female founders. The Benelux region came in fifth with 286 startups led by women. (Source: Statista)
ACCESS TO FUNDING
How do we finance our businesses?
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The proportion of funding raised by women-only teams in Europe has dropped from 3% to 1% since 2018
(Source: Atomico’s State of European Tech Report 2022)
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In the US, VC funding for female-(co-)founded companies has been trending up in recent years (in absolute (not relative) numbers). 2021 saw the creation of several female-led funds and incubators for female founders.
(Source: Pitchbook)
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Over the past 5 years, the number of women-led funds in the US has nearly quadrupled.
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How much return on investment do we generate?
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The number of unicorn companies owned by women increased nearly five-fold, from 18 in 2020 tot 83 in 2021. This represents 14% of the 595 companies that joined the Crunchbase Unicorn Board in 2021.
(Source: Global Gender Gap Report 2022)
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Businesses founded by women deliver higher returns - more than twice as much per dollar invested - than those founded by men, making women-owned companies better investments for financial backers.
(Source: Mass Challenge and Boston Consulting Group)
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VC firms that increased their number of female partners by 10%, experienced a 1.5% increase in fund returns each year, plus 9.7% more profitable exits. (Source: Harvard Business Review)
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Women-only and mixed-gender fund teams outperformed all-male portfolio management teams in the US in 2020.
(Source: Goldman Sachs / FT)
Female founders in figures | Sources