Women TechEU: Open Call #1

For our Pledgers and the Talents following the EIT Deep Tech Talent Initiative we would like to draw your attention to the Women TechEU’s open call.

Women TechEU is a 2-year EU-funded project supporting women leading deep tech start-up companies from Europe, and will give out a total of €12M in non-diluting finance over 4 different competitive calls to 160 talented women entrepreneurs.

Each successful application will receive €75k grants (non-diluting finance) and a personalised business development programme which includes mentoring, coaching and targeted training.

This project is a continuation of the Women TechEU scheme, previously managed during 2021 and by the EISMEA (European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency), and 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 investors.

The Women TechEU project aims to create a more gender-balanced entrepreneurship ecosystem and believes that diversity drives innovation. This targeted programme of support will help women founders and entrepreneurs leading deep tech start-ups from Europe to grow into tomorrow’s tech leaders and to put women at the forefront of deep tech in Europe.

Applicants will undergo a rigorous, 2-step evaluation process before selected proposals are invited to sign a sub-grantee agreement and participate in the programme.

Women TechEU will implement selection criteria for participants that prioritise green, digital and social transitions in line with European objectives, and will support successful applicants in defining a social innovation strategy. The project will also target less advanced innovation territories (widening areas) to reduce territorial inequalities in access to innovation support.