Women TechEU - Call 3, January 2025

Women TechEU is a two-year EU-funded project funding and supporting women leading deep tech startup companies from Europe. Across the two years, the consortium will launch a total of four calls for applications. Applicant startups will undergo a rigorous evaluation and a total of 160 winner startups will receive €75k in non-dilutive grants as well as a personalised business development programme including mentoring, coaching and training.

Aims

The Women TechEU project is on a mission to ignite the potential of women-led early-stage start-ups in deep tech. 160 talented women entrepreneurs from across the European Union and Horizon Europe associated countries will be receiving direct support. With 75k€ grant (non-diluting finance) and a personalised business development programme, the project will be paving the way for these innovators to shine as leaders in deep tech innovation across Europe.

This project is a continuation of the Women TechEU scheme that was managed before by the EISMEA (European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency) during 2021 and 2022, and it has now become a fully-fledged cascade funding project that is run by an EU-wide consortium made up of different innovation ecosystem players, representatives of women entrepreneurs and also investors.

Prizes and support

During 2 years, the project will give out a total of 12 M€ in non-diluting finance over 4 different competitive calls. Each cohort of successful entrepreneurs will then be also invited to use the menu of business development services that will be provided over a period of 6 months. Constant contacts and checkups of the KPIs that will be jointly developed by the entrepreneurs and their coaches will ensure that there is a smooth ongoing scaleup of their businesses, in order to prepare the winners to eventually also apply for the EIC Accelerator scheme.

Eligibility

Entrants must be an early-stage, start-up in deep tech, raised less than 1M€ in equity, not at Minimum Viable Product phase, founded or co-founded by women who hold a CEO, CTO, CSO or equivalent position. Women must hold at least 25% of the shares, and the proposal must be unique and not previously funded in the Women TechEU or other similar EU initiatives / projects.

The applicant must be established in an EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country. (This includes the UK.)

Deep tech definition

Deep tech innovation aims to provide concrete solutions to our societal problems by finding its source in a deep interaction with the most recent scientific and technological advances and by seeking to produce a profound impact in the targeted application areas. Sectors, which are most fertile for deep tech applications are life-science, computing, food and agri-tech, aerospace, energy and clean-tech, industrial technologies, telecom, new materials, or chemistry. However deep tech also includes, among other, artificial intelligence, deep learning and machine learning. Women TechEU welcomes applications from all deep tech fields of activity.

For a full definition of eligibility, please see the guidelines at the link below.