General context
• Severe underrepresentation of women in tech industry
• Very limited VC funding offered to women-led companies
Expected outcome:
• Support deep tech innovation as a basis for a modern, knowledge-driven, resource-efficient and competitive economy
• Promote female leadership in the deep tech industry to build fairer, more inclusive, and more prosperous innovation ecosystems in Europe.
Who can apply?
• Early-stage deep tech start-ups,
• Founded, or co-founded by women, holding a top management position (CEO, CTO or equivalent) in the company at the time of submission,
• Registered and established in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe Associated Country for at least six months at the time of the submission.
Support offered - grant
• Financial support to the company as an individual grant of EUR 75 000 to support the initial steps in the innovation process, and the growth of the company,
• Applicants are free to decide and indicate which activities needed to grow-up their business they want to fund,
• Examples: business model upgrade, certifications, IP strategy, market analysis, prototyping and developing a product.
Support offered - WLP
• Mentoring and coaching provided by the EIC Business Acceleration Services (BAS), under the new “Women Leadership Programme”.
• Each participant will work with mentors and coaches.
• Mentors:
-To share knowledge, experience and give overall support.
-To help define the career path, overcome the existing challenges and set the next steps.
• Coaches:
E.g. to help improve business plan, implementation strategies, market entry
• A set of trainings:
– Negotiation skills & Access to finance; Board members: learn to select and work with them; Pitching/ How to present to investors; Developing your Personal Leadership and Decision-making style – are just a few examples of the sessions that can be offered.
• Dedicated networking and pitching events,
• Possibility to participate in dedicated activities organized by InvestEU and the Entreprise Europe Network.
Women TechEU - 2022 edition
• Budget – €10 million
• Call launched – June 2022
• Deadline to apply – 04 October 2022 Up to 130 beneficiaries to be funded
• Up to 130 beneficiaries to be founded
The application
10 pages of an application form structured around 3 criteria:
> Excellence
e.g. questions on deep-tech innovation, its development, its feasibility etc.
> Impact
e.g. questions on business strategy, business plan, business model etc.
>Implementation
Questions on the woman founder, the team and planned activities
• An inspirational video:
-A short teaser pitch
-A non-exhaustive list of questions
• Annexes:
-Executive summary of the business plan
-Financial and corporate information
-Documents, proving eligibility
-CVs of the woman founder and the team
Deadline to apply: 04 October 2022
Women TechEU in numbers (2021)
• 391 applications coming from 37 Member States and Associated Countries
• Top submitting countries:
- Spain -55
- Germany – 48
- France – 39
- The Netherlands – 29
- Norway – 28
Women TechEU in numbers - selected projects
• 50 beneficiaries funded under the Women TechEU pilot
• Deep tech areas:
Health (19), engineering (11), clean-tech (7), ICT/AI (4), biotech (4), food (1), Space (1), transport (1), chemicals (1), raw materials (1)
Some examples of projects
• An earplug for industrial and noisy environments
• Invisible window film to save billions of birds worldwide
• Medical device based on Artificial Intelligence, capable of detecting breast cancer using urine samples, with 95% accuracy
• Sustainable menstrual products
• A new antibacterial nanotechology to reduce the number of infection related amputations by 20%
• loT and Blockchain start-up for data ownership and monetization
• A technology treating deep wound infections
• Drones for infrastructure inspections
Reasons for applying
• Updating the business plan and growth strategy
• Market validation
• Finding commercial, clinical partners and investors
• Certifications, patents
• Product Optimization
• Machinability tests
• Coaching in negotiation and technical sales
Schedule
