Open Call: Women TechEU Project to support Deep-tech Startups

Deadline: 30-Sep-24

The European Commission is seeking applications for its Women TechEU project to ignite the potential of women-led early-stage start-ups in deep tech.

160 talented women entrepreneurs from all over the European Union and Horizon Europe associated countries will be receiving direct support.

Each cohort of successful entrepreneurs will then also be 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.

Programme of Services

This unique Women TechEU Service offers a 6-month package where the beneficiaries can select from:

• Female mentors (one meeting per month during 6 months): As part of the programme, they will offer women entrepreneurs access to carefully selected, and experienced women mentors who will provide guidance, support, and valuable insights tailored to each founder and designed to help them succeed in their business ventures. Through the Sploro platform, they will enable specific matchmaking of and connections and mentorship sessions between women, fostering a supportive network that can help overcome the unique challenges women entrepreneurs often face. Research has shown that positive influence from successful women can play a crucial role in the success of other women-led businesses.
• Investor outreach and pitch preparation: They will open doors and make introductions to investor entities (business angels, VCs, funds) in their networks who are positively welcoming women entrepreneurs. Their experts will provide pitch presentation review and rehearsal support providing guidance and feedback to improve confidence in delivery. This will help the start-ups overcome the challenge of raising early investment that women founders often face.
• Investor and Export Readiness Check: Using a structured approach with questions on the core business areas, the start-ups will be assessed on team, product, market, finance, operations and IP in order to determine if they are ready to pitch in front of investors, or present to potential clients. Women entrepreneurs tend to doubt themselves a million times more than male counterparts so practising with one of their experts will build confidence, and if there are areas that need attention, they will be helped to address those before pitching. Connections with EIT Food programme in internationalization RocketUp will be sought, when possible.
• Soft Skills Training: Since the Women TechEU start-ups are at the beginning of their entrepreneurial journey, the women entrepreneurs will be offered development content on soft skills areas like public speaking, presentation, leadership skills, improve productivity by using AI, and more. Given that they come from the deep tech sector, their hard skills will be top-notch, but they want to train them to become an all-rounder with their blended courses (mix of in-person and recorded sessions).
• Sales Strategy & Execution: The go-to-market strategy is the area where most companies fail. They see this in front of investors as well as in pitches to competition or awards juries. Here at Women TechEU they expect the companies to be even more embryonic in their understanding of how to find leads, how to fill their pipeline, when and what to say upon follow up and even how to tune the pricing models to the right target group of clients. Women entrepreneurs tend to be less aggressive in their sales strategy and they want to instil in them the knowledge and confidence that it is ok to ask for money for services and products.
• Environmental Impact Assessment: The environmental impact of technology and business models from entrepreneurs is a growing area of interest to investors. Women TechEU will offer the service of climate impact projections to support women entrepreneurs to understand the environmental impact of their innovations and help them design sustainable and impactful business models from the outset. The service leverages an online tool designed for start-ups, based on the benchmark Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method. Users can explore new options to make a positive climate impact reducing CO2eq emissions of their business model and deep tech innovation. It can also measure health, ecotoxicity, and resource depletion like rare earth minerals.
• Corporate Access: Leveraging the large network of corporates provided by EIT KICs, this service provides a platform for women-led start-ups to connect with potential partners and customers. As women are underrepresented in the corporate world, this service offers a great opportunity for women-led start-ups in Europe to expand their reach, showcase their innovative solutions, and secure valuable partnerships that can help them achieve their business goals. At the moment of submission, the applicant will select her top three services that she would like to get from Women TechEU project. During the execution of the Programme of Services selected services from the EIC Business Accelerator Service will also be offered.

Funding Information

• This first call boasts a total budget of €3,000,000. Beyond the grant of €75,000 per start-up, Women TechEU extends support through a Programme of service.

Eligibility Criteria 

• To be eligible as an applicant at Women TechEU, it is essential to understand certain key criteria that define the profile of a qualified beneficiary. Here are the key definitions that guide the selection of beneficiaries:
  • Established country: the applicant must be established in a EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country.
  • Early-stage start-up:
    • The applying legal entity must be registered and established in an EU Member State or a Horizon Europe Associated Country for at least six months at the time of the submission.
    • The ‘start-up’ should be compliant with the definition of SME, according to the EU definition of SMEs according to the EU recommendation 2003/361.
    • Early-stage refers to the phase of start-up development generally preceding the rapid growth phase. As an indication, the following criteria will be considered, amongst other to define an early-stage start-up:
  • Startups that have been established and operating for not more than 8 years counting backwards from deadline of the call date and,
  • Startups that have raised limited funding (up to 1 M € in equity),
  • Before reaching high fidelity Minimum Viable Product.
  • Women leadership: Women legally recognized as founders or co-founders of the company. The founder or co-founder of the company must also currently hold a top management position (CEO, CTO or equivalent) within the same company. It will be also required that women hold at least 25% of the shares in the CAP table (capitalization table) of the company at the moment of submission.

For more information, visit European Commission.