Constantly staring at numbers leads to discouragement and uncreativeness in the long run. female founders in Germany is still languishing at a pitiful 19 percent and simply refuses to rise. The situation is similarly bleak for female business angels: only around 15 percent of investors who support startups in their sensitive early stages with capital and expertise are women – a drop in the ocean in the male-dominated investment world. And precisely because this imbalance is so obvious and persistent, female founders, networks, and associations continue to fight tirelessly.
In the wake of this rigid gap, they are drawing attention loudly and clearly to structural problems: a lack of capital, stereotypical investment patterns, and unfair funding mechanisms. The path to Equality The road ahead in the startup ecosystem remains rocky – but the pressure is growing. Everyone has long known that. We at Encourage Ventures are also following this leadAnd we have launched a corresponding position paper in which we highlight the most urgent areas for action in the startup ecosystem when it comes to gender equality. For example, we show how more venture capital can be mobilized for female founders or how it can be made easier for them to have systematic access to Venture capital sources to get.
Tentative progress: More capital and first political signals
In fact, despite overwhelming venture capital structures, some progress has already been made in the right direction: Since 2017, for example, the number of venture capital financings for female-led startups has almost doubled, and the invested capital has even quadrupled. A glimmer of hope, albeit at a low level.
Politically, things are also moving: The current coalition agreement promises generous capital injections for growth financing and announces ambitious measures to reduce bureaucracy with the "Start-up in a Day" program – at least on paper. However, it remains to be seen how quickly these well-sounding promises will translate into concrete relief in the funding jungle.
Mental Fit instead of just money: What really makes startups strong
Despite this promise, the huge amount of capital and funding available to female founders in all industries shouldn't obscure the real, often invisible, reason why their entrepreneurial ambitions are being thwarted. Many still don't realize: healthy growth doesn't depend on capital alone. Mental strength is the indispensable foundation for growth and innovation – this applies not only to female founders, but to all startups. After all, what good is the most convincing pitch story if the founder stumbles – or, in the worst case, stubbornly clings to an idea despite all the red flags? Founders often invest enormous energy in their external image in order to shine with their progressive business model and the corresponding tech stack. They tinker with digital solutions and use cases that can be scaled as quickly as possible, but often display a certain naivety and overly optimistic planning. With such a large investment of time and money, critical feedback is often not welcome. What is easily overlooked here: Without mental fit, even the most brilliant vision remains a risky gamble – real innovation requires inner strength and resilience.
No growth without resilience
To ensure that female founders, in particular, don't let mental blocks slow them down during such phases, they need sparring with experienced investors who can easily empathize with their situation, understand their motivations and approaches on a one-to-one basis, and provide situational support. This is precisely where we at Encourage Ventures come in.
We see paving the way for female founders into entrepreneurship as a collective effort. Every investor and every mentor contributes to this—it's a central component of our mission. While men often hand out big deals to each other in intimate circles, we build the foundation—organizational, financial, and personal—on which sustainable business models can take off.
And because a lack of mindset often hampers healthy growth, we value networks and mentoring just as much as deal flow, due diligence, or direct investments. In other words: innovation and investment go hand in hand with cooperation, transparency, and connection. Because by constantly focusing on the bigger picture, many people overlook themselves and their own impact in the funding process. Our network of over 700 female business angels – including those in France and Austria – understands networking as anything but a pleasant coffee chat between founder and investor.
Critical dialogue in the initial phase pays off strategically
What counts is genuine, peer-to-peer exchange. And: There are no stupid questions. Especially in the early stages, founders need reliable connections that pay off not only on a personal level, but also strategically. Whether through clever sparring or honest mentoring, the right input at the right time can make all the difference. But that can only be achieved with open, unvarnished dialogue—including on personal topics like acceptance, credibility, and self-worth. Because anyone who wants to lead a company not only has to support a business model, but also themselves.
Such or similar aspects usually play a rather minor role in fundraising processes and are therefore neglected. However, they are often the reason why the capital increase fails or why founders even have to abandon their dream of owning their own company altogether. Close mentoring also has many advantages, especially in the initial phase, when founders are often still very uncertain.
Trust as the basis for healthy growth
At its core, it's about building a genuine relationship of trust – free from misconceptions or unspoken reservations. This trust is the foundation for any successful collaboration. This requires openness on both sides: a willingness to truly engage with each other, to bring critical success factors to the table early on, to exchange different perspectives on the market and possible solutions – and, above all, to listen and learn from each other.
Whether as a mentor or investor: The better we understand the expectations, goals, and mindsets of our mentees and founders, the more effectively we can apply our insider knowledge. This opens doors – to follow-on financing from VCs or family offices, to initial lighthouse projects, to strategic partnerships. And we can help rigorously test business models and their profitability – before the market does.
It is also about the social impact
This intensive exchange not only gives business angels a sense of the potential of the idea – and whether an investment is feasible. It also allows for a deeper assessment: Are professional expertise and personal strength sufficient to support one's project with conviction and self-confidence? This attitude makes the decisive difference in every financing round. Founders benefit twice over – because experienced investors bring not only capital but also motivation: economic, but also often driven by hedonistic or altruistic motives. It's about business – and increasingly also about social impact.
Female Invests as a community task
Startups with a recognizable social impact have particularly good opportunities here. What we need is genuine connection – between all actors in the startup ecosystem. Intensive collaboration sparks motivation, creates creative spaces in which ideas, minimum viable products (MVPs), and business models can emerge – and sometimes even be discarded.
Large-scale projects and sustainable change only succeed when like-minded people work together and bring others along. Whether it's building mental strength to combat the female investment gap or finally making capital allocation to female founders a matter of course, this type of collaboration makes all the difference. For Encourage Ventures, it's one of the key factors: strengthening innovation in times of crisis and promoting true team diversity in the ecosystem.
