This is where female founders can find the right funding for their startup

Whether it's money from venture capitalists or prize donors, networks or events - there are more and more funding opportunities 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 aims to help them develop their idea to the point where their desire to start up becomes a concrete plan. For this purpose, a two-and-a-half-week summer camp is held every year. There are various workshops on topics such as design thinking, legal, marketing, finance and investment. Coaches and mentors train the aspiring female founders in the development of start-up concepts and business plans. Participation is open to women or mixed teams.

In addition, Grace also operates a Grünnnderinnen loft in Berlin-Kreuzberg. This is meant to be a space for ideas, creativity and entrepreneurship and an opportunity to expand one's network. In addition, Grace digital is currently in the works. This is intended to be a platform for female founders that accompanies them step by step.

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Female Founders

FemaleFounders 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 startups.

Grow F

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

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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 collaboration with Yunus Social Business. For this purpose, the institute is particularly looking for women-led technology startups 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 to over 300 international mentors. With the program launched in 2016, the institute aims to minimize gender inequality in the tech industry. To this end, it pursues three core goals. One 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 innovation gap in this way.

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

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

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FemGems Club

The online accelerator FemGems Club connects female founders with mentors. It does not matter in which development phase the own company is currently in. FemGems Club is aimed at female founders in the early stages, solo founders, co-founders, founding mothers and all other interested parties. At the beginning, female founders receive a mentor, a progress partner, and a masterminds 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-time 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. With the so-called Progress Partner, female founders exchange ideas on a weekly basis in order to advance their work. The meetings with the Masterminds group take place every two weeks and serve to exchange challenges, ideas, expertise and perspectives with other female founders.

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Women Tech Founders

The initiative of "Startup Mannheim" and "gig7" wants to offer female tech founders a platform and a network for exchange. The goal is to inspire women for tech topics and their own company 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 industry with their interview series "Role Model". So-called Role Models tell their stories there and want to inspire other talents to use their skills and pursue their ideas.

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

Another goal of the initiative, in addition to networking, which is driven by numerous events such as a Founders' Lunch, is to create a female tech talent pool. In order to diversify tech startups and companies, the initiative wants to unite and network all capable minds, be they female students, budding entrepreneurs or young professionals, in one talent pool.

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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 Executive Director Tijen Onaran 's main goal with GDW is to advance the networking and visibility of digital minds. The organization's goal is to accelerate equality and make women visible across industries with a focus on digital projects.

There are numerous events to this end. The so-called "Diversity Events," for example, deal with all topics related to diversity, funding, and inclusion and are also open to non-members.

With the "Female Empowerment Day", GDW organizes keynotes, workshops or panel discussions together with its partners, where participants are provided with 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. There, companies and potential female applicants can get to know each other, exchange ideas and, in the best case, come together. Global Digital Women also offers workshops on diversity, equality, personal branding, employer branding and social media. In addition, GDW presents the Digital Female Leader Award and FemBiz SwissAward.

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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 established in 2004 together with the Gesellschaft für innovative Beschäftigungsförderung mbH (G.I.B.) in Bottrop.

In the meantime, the program offers nationwide support for aspiring female entrepreneurs. To this end, the foundation brings together successful female entrepreneurs from a wide range of industries 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 train the mentors as well, the foundation's own workshops on self-marketing, communication, sales techniques and rhetoric are held constantly. At the foundation's weekend seminars, up to 25 young and experienced female entrepreneurs from a wide range of industries meet to learn from each other.

Throughout the process, the Käte-Ahlmann Foundation is available as a point of contact. 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 participate in the program.

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women.start.up!

The initiative Women.start.up! of the VC Unternehmertum of the TU Munich aims at motivating women for the topics start-up 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 Startup at the TU Munich supports all aspiring female founders in finding the right program for them. The Women.start.up! initiative is not limited to students at the Technical University, but is open to all interested female founders.

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Push up

In addition to consulting services for female founders, the Berlin center for female founders also offers networking opportunities. With initiatives such as the founders' breakfast, the founders' regulars' table or networking evenings, the support center wants to build a strong community. In addition, the incubator offers a mentoring program. With the program "Push up" it addresses itself to existence foundresses. All Berlin women who have a concrete start-up idea or have founded a company within the past two years can apply. Push up then provides them with a mentor to support them in assuming their role as founders and managers. To this end, the female founders are accompanied for at least six months. A special focus is placed on the challenges that women in particular face when founding a company, such as reconciling business start-up and the role of mother, or difficulties in advancing due to outdated role attributions.

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bga nationwide agency for female entrepreneurs

The bga is a nationwide competence and service center for women's entrepreneurial self-employment. Since 2004, it has been bundling the activities available in Germany for women founders, entrepreneurs, female start-ups and business successors. The bga offers cross-industry information, consulting services, continuing education, networking opportunities, and facts & figures on all phases of business start-up, expansion, and succession.

Under the umbrella of the bga, consulting institutions for initial and orientation consulting, experts for in-depth technical consulting as well as Germany-wide networks for female founders, female start-ups and female entrepreneurs are brought together for professional exchange at eye level.

In terms of projects, the bga coordinates, among others, the campaign 'Succession is female!' with its annual national action days and the task force on business succession by women. The roadshow 'Meine Zukunft: Chefin im Handwerk' ('My future: female boss in the skilled trades') is touring Germany under the direction of the bga, and with Kite - the KI THinktank Female Entrepreneurship, the bga is focusing on combating discrimination against female founders by means of artificial intelligence.