Gender Smart Financing. Investing In and With Women: Opportunities for Europe

Gender-diverse teams produce better results. However, women remain underrepresented when it comes to investment, both as beneficiaries of investment and as decision-makers. In 2018, over 90% of capital raised by tech companies backed by European venture capital (VC) went to teams that did not have a single female founder. This paper discusses the reasons behind the gender investment gap, with a focus on the lack of female investors. Women’s wealth is on the rise and women tend to invest in more long-term and impactful projects. Investing in and with women is thus an opportunity that Europe needs to seize for more sustainable and inclusive growth. InvestEU, the EU investment programme as of 2021, could act as a catalyst of these benefits by stimulating gender-smart financing, i.e. financing that funds, empowers and inspires female founders and investors.