Venture capital fund launched for women only

Women are underrepresented in the founding teams of start-ups. Now two business angels have set up a new fund with Auxxo to change this.

Business angels Gesa Miczaika and Bettine Schmitz have set up a new venture capital fund at Auxxo exclusively for women. The Female Catalyst Fund invests in pre-seed and seed financing rounds for start-ups founded by women. Mixed start-up teams are also supported if at least 20 percent of the shares are owned by women.

Among others, Verena Pausder, Tina Müller, Emma Tracey and Simone Menne have invested in the fund. "It was important to us to attract many women as investors. Only when there are more female investors in the VC business will female founders also receive sufficient capital," says Gesa Miczaika. There are still few women in German start-up teams: In 2020, the proportion of female founders was 17.7 percent according to the German Start-up Monitor

The fund has a total volume of 15 million US dollars. Between 100,000 and 600,000 euros are to be invested per start-up.