For anyone working in the European innovation ecosystem, the underrepresentation of women in deep-tech entrepreneurship is a well-known challenge.

The EmpoWomen project (a Horizon Europe-funded initiative and sister programme to Open Horizons) published a whitepaper attempting to analyse this challenge, find out what works and how it can be improved. The research draws on a structured empirical study comparing funded and unfunded cohorts of women-led deep-tech startups across revenue, team growth, equity dilution, and market traction.

The main finding? EU public funding helps women-led deep-tech startups to transform and grow.