Women TechEU Open Call #3

Women TechEU will bridge collaboration between the European Commission and pan-European deep tech women-led startups to create a more gender-balanced entrepreneurship ecosystem. Built on the exisisting foundations of the EIC Women TechEU initiative, our consortium will scale this iniatiative with a clear perspective towards long-term sustainability. The consortium is comprised by partners covering all the expertise and geographies needed to reach over 15000 women entrepreneurs in deep tech from all over Europe. Led by EIT Manufacturing, it is strengthened with the participation of other KICs from EIT like Health, Food and Climate, leveraging the power of their network and landmark events. We also count with the expertise from Sploro in cascade funding programmes. Across Limits will guide the communication and dissemination activities as well as link in the service delivery with Awaken Hub, who will coordinate an effort to evaluate over 1500 experts in 4 different open calls. The consortium is complemented by major networks of investors and women entrepreneurs like EBAN, AFAEMME, WA4STEAM or FI.

Entité de financement

Commission Européenne - Horizon Europe

Clôture de l'appel

17 mars 2025

Zone géographique

eur

Thématiques

Advanced Engineering & Computing

Cyber security

Data Science & Artificial Intelligence

Digital Infrastructure

Drones

Industrie & Services

One Health

Open Source

Optics & Photonics

Territoires

Accéder à l'appel à projets

Objectif

The main objective is to create a targeted programme of support for 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.

Critères d'éligibilité

Here are the key definitions that guide the selection of beneficiaries:
1. Established country: the applicant must be established in a EU Member State or Horizon Europe Associated Country
2. Early-stage start-up: The legal entity should be established at least six months prior to the deadline of the submission date
3. Women leadership: Women legally recognized as founders or co-founder of the company. The founder or co-founder of the company must also currently hold a top management position (CEO, CTO, CSO 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.
4. Deep tech: 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.

Technologies clés

Deep technologies : life-science, computing (AI, DL, ML), food and agri-tech, aerospace, energy and clean-tech, industrial technologies, telecom, new materials, or chemistry.

Typologie de consortium

Applicant startups will undergo a rigorous evaluation and winner startups will receive €75k in non-dilutive grants as well as a personalised business development programme including mentoring, coaching and training.

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.

This unique Women TechEU Programme offers:
• Service 1 Women mentors (one meeting per month during 6 months): 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.
• Service 2 Investor outreach and pitch preparation: open doors and make introductions to investor entities (business angels, VCs, funds) in our networks who are positively welcoming women entrepreneurs.
• Service 3 Investor and Export Readiness Check: assessment 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.
• Service 4 - Soft Skills Training: content on soft skills areas like public speaking, presentation, leadership skills, improve productivity by using AI, and more.
• Service 5 - Sales Strategy & Execution: advice on the go-to-market strategy
• Service 6 - Environmental Impact Assessment: support women entrepreneurs to understand the environmental impact of their innovations and help them design sustainable
and impactful business models from the outset.
• Service 7 - Corporate Access: platform for women-led start-ups to connect with potential partners and customers.