What we have done so far

The state of diversity in European Venture with Kinga Stanislawska, founder of EWVC and co-founder of Experior VC, and Juliet Rogan, a key contributor to the investor coverage team at HSBC Innovation Banking.

This report examines gender diversity in AI-focused venture capital over the past decade. It highlights the persistent challenge women face in accessing venture capital funding, despite the growth in women-led businesses.

This quarter's research highlights and news with Kinga Stanislawska, Founder at European Women in VC, as the main guest.

The growth and development of European VC hubs are on the rise, yet there's uncertainty about the level of cohesion and inclusivity within this expansion. These hubs are closely linked and have a substantial impact on each other. This growing interconnectivity may serve as the catalyst for achieving more unified and comprehensive growth.

The main events at this year's WVC:E Summit featured panel discussions and presentations with experienced female operators and founders, a networking lunch and a Deal Day, providing opportunities for both female and male investors to connect.

GITEX 2023 highlighted the pervasive influence of AI and the critical role of impact investing in shaping a better future. A panel discussion underscored the vital contribution of women in addressing global challenges.

We discussed the importance of having diverse voices at the decision-making table, particularly when it comes to shaping the emerging economy.

A third of Europe’s female VC partners have MBAs. Far fewer have actually worked at startups.

Official launch of the Report took center stage at Tech BBQ, a premier conference with 8,000 attendees in Copenhagen. The launch featured a keynote speech and a panel discussion with industry leaders from the European Investment Fund, LGT Partners and EIFO who not only highlighted our findings but also illuminated the industry's future.

Connecting over 100 exceptional women fund managers with limited partners. A practical step towards reshaping the future of venture capital and amplifying diversity and inclusion in the industry.

“Memorandum of Understanding” with EIT Digital to empower diversity in Venture Capital and foster innovation and our growth as society.

Despite significant imbalances in venture capital diversity, there are some promising trends and developments on the horizon.

Report 2023 highlights the positive financial and societal impact of diverse investment teams in the growth and venture space. Pointing out the gender-performance correlation serves as a catalyst for environmental adjustment in the venture capital landscape. It reinforces the notion that diversity is not just a checkbox but a strategic imperative.

We're happy to welcome Agate Freimane, Founding Partner of Norrsken, whose fund is dedicated to investing in early-stage startups focusing on climate tech.

Private equity firms and institutional investors have intensified their focus on gender and ethnic diversity, but the road ahead remains long.

A deep dive on diversity investing, raising funds in this space and the importance of finding anchor LPs and advisors with true impact. An inspiring interview with Simone Brummelhuis produced by our partner EU.VC.

Reports published by the European Commission provide insight into a wide assortment of relevant topics and are updated regularly.

Laura González-Estéfanii - the founder and CEO of TheVentureCity, a venture accelerator designed to make the global entrepreneurial ecosystem more diverse, international and accessible to fair capital.

The IFC/CDC report covers the topic of gender-smart investing and how it can affect the emerging markets.

This time we are hosting Francesca Werner. She is a Founding Partner in Ada Ventures, focused on discovering and building the possibility of bold Investment for overlooked founders and markets.

Research shows that stereotypes and network play an important role in the decision making process of VC investors.

Fatou Diagne is a Managing Partner and co-founder at Bootstrap Europe, technology fund with a focus on life sciences sectors from Zurich, a Founding Partner of The Real Economy Effect (TREE), an inevitably inspirational female investor in tech sector.

We have great pleasure to introduce you to another amazing podcast in our series - Woman in VC Briefing led by Kinga Stanislawska from Experior VC.

This report explores the nuances of female partners and women-led funds - the reality, the opportunities available to us, and the actions we need to take in order to move the conversation forward.

We are happy to invite you to watch our latest Women in VC Briefing led by Kinga Stanisławska (Experior VC) with Irina Haivas!

Project Sage 3.0: Tracking Venture Capital, Private Equity, and Private Debt with a Gender Lens

A great interview with an amazing "Woman in VC" who brought her entrepreneurial experience into the VC ecosystem. Sonia Fernandez is currently a Partner at Kibo Ventures, a digital technology early stage venture capital firm from Madrid, if you wish to know how does Kibo invest having Sonia on board you must watch this podcast.

Talk about the report on Gender Diversity in the Nordic Startup Ecosystem with Thea Messel - founder of Unconventional Ventures investing in purpose driven early stage tech startups founded by underrepresented founders in the Nordics.

Analysing the role and importance of women as cheque writers and start-up founders.

The untapped potential in the world's most gender equal region

The inaugural pan-European report on the venture capital ecosystem from a gender perspective.

About the idea of equitable venture based on the example of Kindred Capital VC - Kinga Stanislawska (Experior VC) in an interview with Leila Rastegar Zegna the Founding Partner at Kindred from London.

Ten women investors who recognize the potential of synthetic biology & McKinsey's article about opportunity from diversity.

The Women Tech EU programme by European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA) is finally in action!

Rebecca joined the Ventures team in 2012, and focuses on the assessment of investment opportunities, deal origination and ongoing portfolio management within the Consumer pod. Rebecca has experience of working with a number of early stage businesses across a range of different sectors and has led investments into and served on the boards of a number of investee companies including Elliptic, Trouva, Uniplaces, Outfittery, Tails.com and AppearHere amongst others.

Carmen Alfonso Rico Partner at Blossom Capital, prior to Blossom launched and led the pan-European strategy of Samaipata VC, a €100m AUM seed fund investing in digital platforms and marketplaces with offices in London, Paris and Madrid.

About women in venture capital, VC business ran just by women and taking a stage as the top Nordic VC promoting diversity investment. How to connect the Nordics with Central and Easter Europe all in the conversation between Jenny Ruth Hrafnsdottir, founding partner of Crowberry Capital and Kinga Stanisławska from Experior Venture Fund.

Beatrice Aliprandi is a Principal at Talis Capital. She joined Talis in 2018 after spending three years working at Jefferies in their Investment Banking division, where she has been involved in several transactions primarily in the Technology

An engineer, entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Itxaso del Palacio, PhD a Partner at Notion Capital - a leading European B2B SaaS focused VC which has invested in companies such as GoCardless, Currencycloud, Tradeshift and Unbabel among others. Prior to that, Itxaso was the Investment Partner for M12 - Microsoft's Venture Fund in Europe.

In 2016 Veronika won the Central European Startup Awards Most Influential Woman category. In 2019 she was listed in Forbes Hungary among the 50 Most Influential Women.

Remember, every Women in VC Briefing is another opportunity to learn about venture capital investing, get hints on how to approach the funds in your region and globally. That is why you shouldn’t miss this one. Kinga Stanislawska (Experior VC) invited Amelia Townsend, Principal in London Burda Principal Investments.

Recap of our trip to Berlin where we attended European in VC Summit

A short recap of our Study Visit to Israel

We are happy to announce that European Women in VC has joined forces with WStartupC, building the next generation of female-founded tech startups vc.

Elina is a co-founder and Managing Partner at BrightCap Ventures with a background in investment banking, private equity and new business ventures in New York, London and Sofia. Prior to establishing BrightCap, she was part of the early management team of a B2B procurement platform where she drove the expansion into more than 50 industry sectors.

Janneke Niessen is a co-founder of CapitalT, a VC fund that invests in technology companies using proprietary technology to evaluate entrepreneurial teams, with a focus on Northern Europe and UK.

Tatjana Zabasu Mikuž, a Managing Partner in South Central Ventures, early stage VC fund primarily active in the Balkans. She has been a venture capital investor since 2007 and has been actively involved in over 40 investments.

Dr. Gosia Karas is an Investment Vice President at SoftBank Group, where she leads investments into Memphis Meats , Fetch, Konfio, AlphaCredit, and Loggi. Prior to joining SoftBank

Take part in our survey for European Women in VC Annual Report on Diversity in VC space

We have a great pleasure to invite all female founders and fellow colleagues from VC to our next Briefing with Myrto Papathanou, a Founding Partner at Metavallon.vc

This time Kinga Stanislawska (Experior VC) hosted Evgenia Plotnikova from Dawn Capital. As a Partner Evgenia covers exciting B2B companies in software and fintech across Europe.

Summary of our meetup organized in Google Campus in Warsaw.

Leesa Soulodre is a General Partner at R3i Ventures living in Singapore, supporting many of the world's most promising early-stage deep tech companies in accelerating their growth is actively engaged in pioneering artificial intelligence, robotics, Healthtech, cybersecurity, fintech, cleantech smart city, and IoT technologies. She advises as an Entrepreneur in Residence/Mentor for Government High Commissions and Accelerators soft landing high growth deep tech and MedTech companies into the Asia Pacific and European Union. And most of all she is a champion for responsible investment.

Cecile is the Head of Impact & Sustainability at Pitango Venture Capital, Israel’s largest VC, where she is responsible for adapting the worlds of ESG and the SDGs to the framework of mainstream venture capital. Cecile has extensive experience in the combination between the impact and technology worlds for almost 20 years. Previously, Cecile was the Founder and Managing Partner of Impact First Investments, Israel's first impact investing company.

Katya is a General Partner at OpenOcean, early-stage venture capital firm operating across Europe. Beside this she is also on board of IQM, the European leader for superconducting quantum computers, as well as several other companies.

After the first successful online meeting of the Group with Mariya Gabriel, the #European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, it is time to invite the ecosystem to a very first: Handover Ceremony

Hear from experts Ekaterina Almasque and Manjari Chandran-Ramesh on why Europe struggles to scale its deep-tech startups.

Diversity in initiating and funding startups continues to increase, yet the influence of the ecosystem still weighs it down. The report is written in French.

This report serves to discuss this gap and aims at calling to action all those who have the ability to drive change across the VC and tech ecosystem. Only by discussing facts, figures and taking a real leadership role can we drive change for the benefit of the whole society.