IDC European Woman in Venture Capital

EUROPEAN WOMEN IN VC IDC #EUR148997722 © IDC 2022 4 INTRODUCTION The European venture capital scene experienced record-breaking growth in 2021, with over €100B invested in one single year in European startups. These investments created almost 100 unicorns in the region and contributed to a strong startup pipeline going into 2022.  Despite these positive results, there are still challenges ahead, especially when it comes to gender diversity. Comparing 2021 to 2020, there has been hardly any change in the percentage of funding that is raised by all- male founding teams, all-female founding teams or mixed-gender founding teams.   There is no doubt that all-women and mixed-gender founder teams bring benefits to the market, both from a financial and a sustainability perspective. Still, even though the financial benefits are clear, it will take 135.6 years to close the gender gap worldwide if the current trajectory in the growth of female entrepreneurship continues, according to th e Global Gender Gap Report 2021 To address the issues above, European Women in VC asked us to further explore the female funding gap. Is there a female funding gap in Europe, and if there is, what are we doing to address this? Knowing that it is venture capital that backs the businesses of the future and plays a vital role in building future society. How can we fundamentally change the way venture capital is distributed among entrepreneurs in Europe to ensure equal access to capital for all and to address global challenges?  This report combines a breadth of information sources, checked and validated to provide insights on the largest VCs in each European region and country, providing a data-driven overview of gender diversity in the European VC sector.