Only one in five German start-ups founded by women

A new study shows the deficits and differences in the start-up scene.

The German Start-up Association published the Female Founders Monitor 2022 on Tuesday, which shows little change in the German start-up market, as the Handelsblatt reports. Start-ups founded by women still have fewer employees, receive less funding and generally exist less than start-ups founded by men. Overall, the proportion is only one fifth.

This represents an increase of four percentage points since 2020. The study also shows that female founders raise less venture capital and less frequently. Women rely more heavily on equity and bank loans. Their start-ups thus achieve an average financing volume of 1.1 million euros. The figure for men is 9.7 million.

The Female Founders Monitor also states that four out of five women surveyed believe that they are scrutinized more critically than male founders when making investment decisions. Fewer women are also active on the investor side. 16 percent of men are active as business angels, while only six percent of female founders invest in start-ups themselves.