WISE*UP: Women in Startup and Entrepreneurship

With our programmes and events specially designed for female founders, you know exactly what is important when setting up a business. You will have intensively analysed your strengths, your way of working and your visions, giving you a clear picture of all the dimensions of your start-up project. In our network, you will get to know inspiring female founders, benefit from their experience and make valuable contacts.

Numerous co-operations that have been established here are proof of this: The support of your cohort gives you a decisive advantage over lone fighters. In dialogue with like-minded people, you develop a viable business idea or take your existing concept further, validate your business model and make sensible adjustments. You know the next steps on your start-up journey - from finding a team to funding opportunities and follow-up financing - and are ideally equipped to successfully launch your company.

With this new funding line, the BMWE is realising an important project of the federal government's start-up strategy. The promotion of female start-up founders and diversity is one of the strategy's fields of action. Currently, the proportion of women founding start-ups in Germany is still low, which means that the potential of women in the start-up sector is not being fully utilised. In terms of funding from the long-standing EXIST programme, the proportion of female founders has only averaged around 20 percent in recent years. This proportion should be significantly increased in the coming years.

Incidentally, the TU Braunschweig already stands out positively here: with 37% women among the students, the TU has recorded an average of 20% participation of women in the supervised start-up projects, 25% participation in the EXIST start-up grant/research transfer applications and 60% women among the start-ups over the past 5 years. We want to build on these strengths.