INNOVATORS
10
The fact that women
are less involved in
entrepreneurial activities
is well known, as is the fact
that women are less likely to
take up technical education,
which feeds much of our
entrepreneurship and
innovation.
A wide range of policy
actions have been
developed and deployed
over the years to address
the inequality: in the form
of awareness campaigns,
community building,
networking, highlighting
role models, nominating
ambassadors, as well
as direct facilitation and
support. Some of these
initiatives have been more
effective than others, but
what is worrying is that it
seems to always come in
spurts, when a continuous
and consistent action is
needed. It is telling that the
most recent large statistical
studies date back to before
2016.
While the broader topic of
women entrepreneurship
is on the radar, the blatant
inequality in investment in
women led startups and
scaleups is much less so.
It took a talk show on Dutch
national tv in 2018 to make
me aware of the extremely
low levels of investment in
women lead startups and
scaleups. Much quoted
is the 2% venture capital
Women innovators
being short-changed
investment allocated to
women led companies. It
was a shocking eye opener,
and after doing some
research, I began engaging
in more discussions on
the topic. The first push for
sustained action came
at the K4I AI and Big data
summit at the end of 2019,
which was followed up
by an excellent debate at
the European Innovation
Summit in February 2020,
which mobilised strong
political support in the
European Parliament.
The more the topic was
discussed the more the
complexity became clear,
and at the same time the
lack of general awareness
as well as the limited
and highly fragmented
information and knowledge
were painfully prominent.
These are the main reasons
why we founded the
Wominvest platform and
its observatory, together
with Jara Pascual and
Carol Tarr. The main goal
is very ambitious: to start
a movement for cultural
change leading to equal
opportunity for investment.
The main activities are to
build a cross stakeholder
community – entrepreneurs,
teachers, investors, policy
makers – to boost broad
awareness, and reduce
fragmentation by bringing
together ongoing activities
and policies, mobilise
decision makers to foster
change, and develop a
comprehensive knowledge
base. At the moment the
work is done entirely pro
bono, with the help of
volunteers. We hope to
attract sufficient sponsoring
to scale and further
professionalise our activities.
It is good to see that we
are certainly not the only
ones actively engaged in
addressing the investment
inequality. Across the
board in Europe, change
is happening. In terms
of policy, the European
Commission is making
headway; while in politics,
the European Parliament is
doing likewise; and within
finance, the EIF and EIB
are taking much needed
action. So we are seeing
this increased attention,
with concrete actions and
studies appearing, and
the momentum definitely
picking up. Most activities
are what I would call
downstream, developing