The path of women entrepreneurs is bumpier—this is the basic idea behind the launch of the Design Terminal’s new program in Budapest.
Women entrepreneurs are underrepresented in the innovation scene across Europe. While research shows that female CEOs and founders are essential to success—for example, McKinsey & Co found that businesses with both male and female leaders are 21% more likely to be profitable—the European figures are tellingly depressing.
Four innovation agencies—Hungarian Design Terminal, German SPINLAB, Estonian Tehnopol, and Czech DEX Innovation Center—launched a joint pan-European initiative to change this on International Women’s Day on 8 March. Following its own program specifically to support female founders, this year Design Terminal will lead a consortium to develop a European network of female entrepreneurs as part of an EU initiative.
The Womenture program, which runs until January 2025, would strengthen female entrepreneurship on two fronts. On the one hand, from October 2023, women from any country in Europe who want to start a business or develop an existing one can apply. Womenture experts will empower them through targeted professional mentoring. The mentoring program will start with 20 participants. In the meantime, the partner organizations are looking for the best European ideas from agencies and institutions interested in the success of women’s innovation programs and who are committed to improving this with their useful experience, expertise and good practices.
Source: Press release