20220914 The Danish Industry Foundation Announces 3-year Funding to Deliver Longer Term Impact From Its Diversity/Female Tech Founder Growth Programme
Denmark ranks low on international league tables for female entrepreneurship. Only 1.5% of venture capital in Denmark is invested in female founder led startups, while a modest 6.7% goes to startups with mixed gender founders. Despite the small percentage of capital invested in female founder led startups, investors earn a higher return on investment (ROI) on those businesses: every 100 DKK invested in a startup led by female-only founders yields a 25% higher ROI than investments made in businesses led by male-only founders, according to the latest figures from the Danish Chamber of Commerce (February 2022).
Denmark is working hard to move to women entrepreneurship frontrunner position
In 2021, Tech Nordic Advocates* and the Danish Industry Foundation* teamed up with Danish and international partners, incl. e.g. the City of Copenhagen, The Danish Growth Fund, KPMG, Magnusson, Nordea, Netcompany, London Stock Exchange and others, to launch “Denmark as Female Tech Founder Frontrunner” – Europe’s only international growth programme with the key goal of helping to move Denmark from bottom to frontrunner position on female entrepreneurship with focus on the high-growth digital/tech sector.
The ambitious female tech founder growth programme consists of three modules: Module 1 is an international mentoring programme, which helps women entrepreneurs launch and grow new tech sector businesses; Module 2 is an international accelerator programme, which aims to accelerate the scale-up of high-growth potential tech companies, led by women. Module 3 is a Diversity Venture Fund, convening Danish and international investors, committed to improving access to capital for female tech founders.
The Danish Industry Foundation now announces new 3-year funding to enable its diversity/women in tech growth programme to deliver longer term impact
Based on the strong results the Programme has delivered to date, the Danish Industry Foundation is now announcing a significant new 3-year funding to help the 3-module diversity in tech programme deliver longer term results and impact.
Charlotte Kjeldsen Krarup, director of development at The Danish Industry Foundation says:
“We want more Danish entrepreneurs to reach high growth rates. But right now, the talent pool is not utilized well enough. Only few women venture into entrepreneurship and even fewer get funding from business angels and venture funds. This must change. We have to encourage more female talents to start up their own businesses and we also have to help investors and guide them in the right direction. Gender inequality must be eliminated, and we would like to lead that change.”
Stine Bosse, Chairman, Tech Nordic Advocates chairman adds:
“The fact that the Industry Foundation supports female entrepreneurs in this way is of great importance for not only the women directly encouraged. It is also an inspiration for other women. Knowing that you can successfully make it in the tech industry as a female entrepreneur is an important inspiration. Female entrepreneurs see success after joining this programme and this must inspire others to get involved. Half of all good ideas sit with women, and we must free up this resource now and for generations to come. On behalf og Tech Nordic Advocates, I want to thank the Industry Foundation for the trust you show us, and for the opportunities you give female tech entrepreneurs”
Jeanette Carlsson, Founder & CEO, Tech Nordic Advocates, says:
“We have proven in the last couple of years that decisive action and a structured top-down programme, supported by and benchmarked against best-in-class Danish and international standards is needed to really shift the needle on the gender imbalance in tech entrepreneurship and diverse tech company growth. Medium/long term funding is needed to deliver medium long-term results. We’re delighted that the Board of the Danish Industry Foundation have voted to ramp up the support for “Denmark as a Female Tech Founder Frontrunner” with a decisive shift in gear to enable us to widen the reach of the Programme to include many more of the huge pool of talented women tech entrepreneurs in Denmark and thus, close the gender gap in tech and move Denmark to frontrunner position in tech entrepreneurship”
International recognition
London Stock Exchange, the British, Canadian and US Embassies and the US government are amongst the international partners supporting the Programme.
“London Stock Exchange is proud to continue our support for the dynamic group of individuals and entrepreneurs in Denmark and the Nordics via our collaboration with Tech Nordic Advocates. We look forward to working with the Danish and Nordic tech entrepreneurs and supporting the ecosystem’s ability to access to international finance.”, says Ayuna Nechaeva, Head of Europe, Primary Markets, London Stock Exchange Group.
*About Tech Nordic Advocates, please visit: www.technordicadvocates.org
*About the Danish Industry Foundation, please visit: https://industriensfond.dk/about-the-danish-industryfoundation/
For more information about “Denmark as Female Tech Founder Frontrunner”, please visit:
https://bit.ly/DKFemaleTechFounderFrontunner
For Press & Media enquiries, please email:
Jeanette Carlsson, Founder & CEO, Tech Nordic Advocates, +45 51 27 89 78, jeanette@technordicadvocates.org