Female founders can find the right support for their startup here

Whether it's money from venture capitalists or award sponsors, networks or events - there are more and more funding programs specifically for female founders. An overview of the best-known programs - and for whom they are suitable.

Grace

The Grace Accelerator is aimed at future female entrepreneurs. It is designed to help them develop their idea to the point where their desire to found a company becomes a concrete plan. A two-and-a-half-week summer camp is held every year for this purpose. There are various workshops on topics such as design thinking, legal, marketing, finance and investment. Coaches and mentors train the prospective female founders in the development of start-up concepts and business plans. Participation is possible for women or mixed teams.

Grace also runs a green women's loft in Berlin-Kreuzberg. This is intended to be a space for ideas, creativity and entrepreneurship and an opportunity to expand your network. Grace digital is also currently in the works. This is intended to be a platform for female founders that accompanies them step by step.

Female Founders

Female Founders is a Europe-wide community of female founders with around 5,500 members and over 80 mentors. Anyone can become a member, from entrepreneurs to employees to investors. One of the programs offered is Grow F, an online accelerator for women-led start-ups.

Grow F

The Viennese accelerator GROW F is aimed at start-ups from all over Europe. To take part, at least one of the founders must be female. The three-month program is also aimed at early-stage start-ups, but at those that already have a product and are now preparing for their first round of investment. Each start-up is assigned a mentor. Examples include N26 Germany CEO Georg Hauer, investor Elisabeth Löwenbourg-Brzezinski and Deeptech investor Namratha Kothapalli.

The Female Founders Community is all about empowering women through entrepreneurship. Our community, which consists of a diverse group of entrepreneurial women, exists to empower women and equip them with an entrepreneurial mindset as well as a powerful network.

-Female Founders

F-Lane

F-LANE is a five-week virtual accelerator program for young entrepreneurs with the ambition to drive global change by empowering women. It is implemented by the Vodafone Institute in cooperation with Yunus Social Business. The Institute is particularly looking for women-led technology start-ups that solve a social problem in an entrepreneurial way. Through the cooperation with Yunus Social Business, which was founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, there is a close network of over 300 international mentors. With the programme launched in 2016, the institute has set itself the goal of minimizing gender inequality in the tech industry. Three core objectives are being pursued. The first is to increase female representation in the tech world. The second is to use technology as a force for social change. Finally, the Vodafone Institute also wants to close the gender-specific innovation gap.

The program provides the founders with mentors and subject matter experts and also gives them access to a community for cross-industry exchange. In addition, the founders gain access to the Impact Hub Community, which comprises over 15,000 social innovators, as well as the Social Entrepreneurship Academy and the YSB Global Impact Community. The program also provides access to business partners and investors, to whom the founders are also introduced personally.

All start-ups that are either led by women or empower women in their roles can apply for F-Lane. The start-ups must also have a social mission and a scalable business model. What is particularly important here is the entrepreneurial, technology-based solution to a social problem. All teams that have already developed an initial prototype and are ready to launch operations are eligible to apply.

FemGems Club

The FemGems Club online accelerator connects female founders with mentors. It doesn't matter what stage of development your company is currently in. FemGems Club is aimed at female founders in the early stages, solo female founders, co-founders, founding mothers and anyone else who is interested. At the beginning, the founders receive a mentor, a progress partner and a mastermind group.

We have participated in various startup programs, incubators and accelerators ourselves and were always sad when they were over. Entrepreneurship is one of the most challenging paths you can take in life and we believe that every female founder needs continuous support and guidance, not just an intensive, one-off program. That's why the FemGems Club is a subscription-based membership.

FemGems Club

The assigned mentors change every two weeks, depending on the current topic. Female founders exchange ideas with the so-called Progress Partner on a weekly basis in order to drive their work forward. The meetings with the Masterminds group take place every two weeks and serve to exchange challenges, ideas, specialist knowledge and perspectives with other female founders.

Women Tech Founders

The initiative of "Startup Mannheim" and "gig7" aims to offer female tech founders a platform and a network for exchange. The aim is to get women excited about tech topics and their own companies and thus increase the number of female founders in the tech sector. In addition, a sustainable and innovative start-up scene is to be created in Mannheim.

To this end, "Women Tech Founders" offers various projects and events. For example, they have created a platform for inspiring women from the tech sector with their "Role Model" interview series. So-called role models tell their stories there and want to inspire other talents to use their skills and pursue their ideas.

In addition, "Women Tech Founders" is organizing the "FEMALE'S FAVOUR(IT)E CONFERENCE" together with "Hackerstolz Women", which offers women of all ages and professional backgrounds the opportunity to exchange ideas and network on tech topics. The one-day conference offers exciting talks, workshops and networking opportunities to learn about technology and entrepreneurship and become part of a community.

In addition to networking, which is driven by numerous events such as a start-up lunch, another aim of the initiative is to create a female tech talent pool. In order to diversify tech start-ups and companies, the initiative aims to unite and network all talented female students, budding entrepreneurs and young professionals in a talent pool.

Global Digital Women

The Global Digital Women organization, which began as a small network meeting in Berlin, has now developed into a Europe-wide network. Founder and Managing Director Tijen Onaran 's main aim with GDW is to promote the networking and visibility of digital minds. The aim of the organization is to accelerate gender equality and make women visible across industries with a focus on digital projects.

There are numerous events for this purpose. The "Diversity Events", for example, cover all topics relating to diversity, financing and inclusion and are also open to non-members.

With the "Female Empowerment Day", the GDW organizes keynotes, workshops and panel discussions together with its partners, where participants are given content for their professional development.

"Recruiting events" also serve to support GDW's partners who are looking for female talent and a more diverse workforce. At these events, companies and potential female applicants can get to know each other, exchange ideas and, ideally, come together. Global Digital Women also offers workshops on the topics of diversity, equality, personal branding, employer branding and social media. The GDW also presents the Digital Female Leader Award and FemBiz SwissAward.

TWIN-TwoWomenWin

The Käte Ahlmann Foundation offers TWIN-TwoWomenWin for all female founders who are looking for a free mentoring program. The mentoring program was created in 2004 together with the Gesellschaft für innovative Beschäftigungsförderung mbH (G.I.B.) in Bottrop.

The program now offers nationwide support for aspiring female entrepreneurs. To this end, the foundation brings successful female entrepreneurs from a wide range of sectors together with young female entrepreneurs. Over the course of a year, discussions take place in which the founders can learn from experienced female entrepreneurs about all aspects of everyday business life. In order to provide the mentors with further training, the foundation's own working groups on self-marketing, communication, sales techniques and rhetoric are held on a constant basis. At the Foundation's weekend seminars, up to 25 young and experienced female entrepreneurs from a wide range of sectors meet to learn from each other.

The Käte Ahlmann Foundation is available as a point of contact throughout the entire process. All female founders who have been self-employed for at least one year and whose company is at a growth threshold or in the process of change can take part in the program.

Women.start.up!

The Women.start.up! initiative of the VC Unternehmertum of the Technical University of Munich aims to motivate women for the topics of start-ups and technology. To this end, it offers workshops on various topics, including prototyping, leadership and venture financing. The female founders are also provided with trainers and mentors and there are networking events. In addition, the Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Technical University of Munich supports all prospective female founders in finding the right program for them. The Women.start.up! initiative is not limited to female students at the Technical University, but is aimed at all interested female founders.

Push up

In addition to advice for female founders, the Berliner Gründerinnenzentrale also offers the opportunity to network. With initiatives such as the Gründerinennfrühstück, the Gründerinnestammtisch or networking evenings, the support center aims to build a strong community. In addition, the Gründerinnenzentrale offers a mentoring program. The "Push up" program is aimed at female business founders. All Berlin women who have a concrete start-up idea or have founded a business in the last two years can apply to the program. Push up then provides them with a mentor to support them in assuming their role as founder and manager. To this end, the female founders are supported for at least six months. A particular focus is placed on the challenges that women in particular face when setting up a business, such as the compatibility of setting up a business and being a mother or difficulties in progressing due to outdated roles.

bga nationwide agency for female founders

The bga is a nationwide competence and service center for the entrepreneurial independence of women and has been bundling the activities available in Germany for female founders, entrepreneurs, female start-ups and business successors since 2004. The bga offers cross-industry information, advisory services, further training, networking opportunities and facts and figures on all phases of business start-ups, expansion and succession.

Under the umbrella of the bga, advisory services for initial and orientation advice, experts for in-depth specialist advice and Germany-wide networks for female founders, female start-ups and female entrepreneurs are brought together for an exchange of expertise at eye level.

Among other projects, the bga coordinates the 'Succession is female' campaign with its annual national action days and the task force on business succession by women. The roadshow 'Meine Zukunft: Chefin im Handwerk' tours Germany under the direction of the bga and with Kite - the AI THinktank Female Entrepreneurship, the bga focuses on combating discrimination against female founders using artificial intelligence.

Female Founders Week 2021

This article is part of our special on female entrepreneurship in Germany.

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