The Landscape Shifted in 2024-2026
The female founder ecosystem in Europe looks fundamentally different than it did two years ago. Climate tech is booming with female founder investment. Deep tech is attracting serious capital and gender balance. Meanwhile, certain sectors remain stubbornly male-dominated while others have completely feminized.
Understanding which trends are real versus hype shapes which companies you build, where you locate, and how you position your vision. This guide maps the actual data on 2026 trends affecting female founders.
Trend 1: Deep Tech is the New Frontier for Female Founder Capital
Why This Matters
Deep tech includes quantum computing, biotech, advanced materials, AI hardware, and other technology requiring significant R&D investment. Historically, deep tech has been exclusively male-dominated because it requires advanced degrees and technical backgrounds. Yet 2024-2026 reversed this pattern.
33% of female founder funding in Europe now goes to deep tech, up from 18% in 2021. This is 3.3x the percentage of male founder funding allocated to deep tech, representing a fundamental ecosystem shift.
Why Female Founders Are Winning Here
Deep tech investors evaluate companies based on technical merit and IP moat rather than subjective founder evaluation. This removes much of the unconscious bias that disadvantages female founders in subjective-evaluation sectors (consumer internet, marketplace, B2B SaaS where “founder fit” is subjective).
Women with PhDs, deep technical expertise, or industry domain knowledge find deep tech ecosystems exceptionally welcoming. The problem evaluation is technical, not interpersonal. This plays to the strengths of female founders who’ve invested in specialized knowledge.
The Opportunity
If you’re a female founder with technical expertise and solving deep problems, deep tech provides the path to capital with the least bias. Women TechEU explicitly targets deep tech female founders, distributing €75k grants to 160 women-led companies. EmpoWomen graduated 25 deep tech female founders with €4.5M in follow-on funding raised collectively.
The Risk
Deep tech takes longer to revenue (24-36 months typical). Capital requirements are higher. Failure rates are higher. Don’t enter deep tech for capital access—enter it because you’re solving a technical problem you’re uniquely positioned to tackle.
Trend 2: Climate Tech and Impact Are the Dual Drivers of Female Founder Funding
Why This Matters
Female founders are concentrating in sectors with environmental or social impact: climate tech, health tech, agriculture tech, clean energy. The data shows 42% of female-founded companies explicitly target environmental or social impact versus 28% of male-founded companies.
Capital is following. Climate-focused VCs like Norrsken22 have explicitly launched female founder arms. Impact-focused accelerators prioritize female founders. Governments across Europe are allocating billions to climate tech through mechanisms like WE-RISE and Open Horizons that prioritize women founders.
Why This Concentration
Several factors converge. First, female founders are overrepresented in sectors requiring human-centered design and stakeholder engagement (healthcare, education, consumer wellness). These backgrounds translate to climate and impact tech because impact companies require similar skills.
Second, gender lens investing has exploded. Investors explicitly deploying capital on gender criteria prioritize female founders, and these investors concentrate in impact sectors. Goldman Sachs launched a $1 billion fund explicitly targeting women-led businesses, with particular focus on impact and sustainability sectors.
Third, cultural narrative. Female founders are drawn to building companies that “matter,” and impact sectors provide explicit meaning. This self-selection creates beneficial concentration.
The Opportunity
If you’re building climate tech, clean energy, sustainable agriculture, or health tech, 2026 is the easiest fundraising environment for female founders in these sectors compared to any previous year. Capital is abundant, mentorship is abundant, and founder validation is high.
The Risk
The sector is increasingly crowded. By 2026-2027, competition within impact tech will intensify. First-mover advantage suggests entering now, but climate tech’s long development cycles (24+ months to revenue) mean your timing matters less than your execution.
Trend 3: AI Is Rapidly Feminizing (Relative to Tech’s Baseline)
The Data
In 2023, women founders received 8% of AI-focused VC funding. By this year, that’s grown to 18% of AI VC funding globally, with European female-founded AI companies capturing 22% of European AI venture capital.
This is still dramatically below equity representation, but the growth rate is 2.75x faster than female founder funding in other tech sectors.
Why This Shift
Large language models have democratized AI development. You don’t need a PhD in machine learning or access to GPU clusters anymore. You need good prompts, fine-tuning discipline, and domain expertise in your target market.
This has opened AI to female founders without deep AI research backgrounds. A female founder with 8 years of healthcare experience can build AI-powered diagnostic tools. A female founder with product marketing background can build sales automation. The barrier to entry has dramatically lowered.
The Opportunity
If you’re building AI-powered products solving specific domain problems, you’re entering an exceptionally capital-rich environment with growing female founder participation. Investors are actively seeking female-founded AI companies to diversify their portfolios.
The Reality Check
AI sector valuations are inflated. Expectations for traction are high (€50k+ MRR by Series A is standard). Investor FOMO is real, but means capital access is easier than ever. The risk: over-building feature complexity, under-validating customer demand, and burning capital quickly.
Trend 4: SaaS Founders Are Starting to See Female Participation
The Disconnect
SaaS remains the most male-dominated software sector. Only 11% of SaaS founders are women despite SaaS representing 40% of enterprise software funding. Yet this is changing.
Female-founded SaaS companies show 28% faster user growth and 12% lower churn than male-founded SaaS, yet still struggle fundraising. This has created a gap that capital is rushing to fill.
What’s Changing
Female-founded SaaS accelerators like Female Founders GROW F have explicitly focused on investment-readiness for SaaS companies. Revenue-based financing platforms like Clearco show 55% higher approval rates for female-founded SaaS, making capital accessible without traditional VC bias.
The Opportunity
If you’re building B2B SaaS and you’re a female founder, capital access has improved 30-40% compared to 2023. Investor bias still exists but is declining. Revenue-based financing has become more robust, providing Series A alternatives to equity dilution.
The Consideration
SaaS requires customer acquisition velocity that historically favored male-founder networks (enterprise sales, technical evangelism, etc.). Female founders entering SaaS should expect to outsell male competitors on retention and product quality while fighting for customer acquisition leadership.
Trend 5: Bootstrapping is Having a Renaissance
The Data
Nearly 50% of new enterprises last year were established by women, marking a 69% rise since 2019. Among these 49% women founders, 38% required €10,000 or less in capital and 42% financed ventures through personal savings.
This represents a fundamental shift: venture capital is one path to scaling, not the only path. Female founders are increasingly choosing bootstrapping over VC.
Why This Matters
Bootstrapping provides founder control, alignment of incentives, and pressure to achieve profitability early. Venture capital provides growth velocity but often requires founder compromise on vision and long-term building.
For founders prioritizing founder autonomy and long-term value creation over rapid growth and exits, bootstrapping is competitive advantage.
The Opportunity
If you’re building a business with unit economics that support bootstrapping (high-margin software, services, digital products), you can build profitably and maintain founder control. Capital acceleration becomes optional, not mandatory.
The Reality
Bootstrapping takes longer. Your competition might raise capital and grow faster. But you maintain control and achieve alignment between personal values and company values.
Trend 6: Underrepresented Geographies Are Getting Capital
The Pattern
Funding is concentrating in underrepresented regions. EU Widening Area countries (Central and Eastern Europe, parts of Southern Europe) are attracting disproportionate female founder capital relative to population.
Programs like EmpoWomen explicitly target Widening Area founders. The EU’s broader focus on geographic diversity means capital allocation is shifting from London-Berlin-Amsterdam to places like Warsaw, Prague, Sofia, and Athens.
Why This Matters
If you’re in an underrepresented geography, your competitive advantage is increasing. Investors are actively seeking founders outside traditional hubs. Capital access is improving for Eastern and Southern European female founders at rates faster than Western European female founder access.
The Opportunity
If you’re building in Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Portugal, or other underrepresented regions, you have tailwinds. Accelerators, grants, and investors are actively seeking founders in these regions to diversify their portfolios.
Trend 7: Founder Wellness Is Becoming Institutional
The Change
Three years ago, founder wellness was personal responsibility. Today, accelerators are building wellness into programming. Grace Accelerator in Berlin explicitly centers founder well-being. Investor LPs are asking about founder mental health and burnout.
This shift reflects two realities: First, burnout is killing female founders at higher rates (2.3x higher than male counterparts). Second, burnt-out founders build worse companies.
What This Means
Accelerators and investors increasingly understand that sustainable founders outperform burnt-out ones over multi-year horizons. Female founders who prioritize personal health are no longer making tradeoffs—they’re making better long-term business decisions.
Programs like FemaleSwitch Foundation explicitly emphasize founder mindset and psychological resilience. This mainstream recognition of founder wellness represents a real shift.
FAQ: Your Trend Questions Answered
Should I build in a trending sector or should I build what I’m passionate about?
Build what you’re passionate about first, then evaluate if it fits trending sectors. If your passion aligns with a trend (building climate tech is your passion), the tailwind accelerates outcomes. If your passion contradicts a trend (building in traditional B2B software when all VC is chasing AI), your path is harder but not impossible.
Is AI oversaturated?
For quality female founders building AI for specific domains, no. AI infrastructure is booming but AI application companies are underserved. If you can build an AI product that customers will pay for, capital is abundant.
Should I move to an underrepresented geography to raise capital?
Only if moving doesn’t disrupt personal circumstances that matter to you. Capital in underrepresented regions is growing but less abundant than Western European hubs. The advantage is reduced competition for capital and founder attention. The disadvantage is smaller customer base in-region and more international expansion required early.
Is bootstrapping realistic in 2026?
Yes, for certain business models. If you’re building B2B SaaS with strong unit economics and aren’t racing to market dominance, bootstrapping is realistic. If you’re building a marketplace or infrastructure requiring network effects, bootstrapping is slower and riskier.
What sectors are declining for female founders?
Sectors with high sexism or poor founder satisfaction (commercial real estate, hyper-growth tech companies with 100-hour weeks) see female founder exit. Sectors with founder autonomy and alignment (health tech, climate tech, impact-focused companies) see increased female founder participation.
How do I stay ahead of trends without chasing hype?
Read primary sources: VentureCapital.com, tech.eu, startup news aggregators specific to your sector. Track female founder funding trends through Female Founders Fund annual reports. Talk to other founders in your space and investors in your sector. Trends that last have multiple data points confirming them, not just media hype.
Conclusion: Understand Trends, Don’t Chase Them
Trends are real contextual forces shaping capital, talent, and customer behavior. But they’re not mandates. The best female founders understand trends deeply, then decide whether to ride them or ignore them based on personal conviction and business model fit.
Build in deep tech if deep tech aligns with your expertise. Build in climate if climate aligns with your values. Build bootstrapped SaaS if you value founder autonomy. Build in underrepresented geographies if that’s where you’re located or want to impact.
The worst mistake is chasing trends because they’re sexy. The second-worst mistake is ignoring tailwinds that accelerate your company.
Understanding where capital is flowing, which sectors are feminizing, and which geographies are emerging helps you make informed choices. But your choice should reflect your business and personal values first, trends second.
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About the Author
Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
Violetta Bonenkamp’s expertise in CAD sector, IP protection and blockchain
Violetta Bonenkamp is recognized as a multidisciplinary expert with significant achievements in the CAD sector, intellectual property (IP) protection, and blockchain technology.
CAD Sector:
- Violetta is the CEO and co-founder of CADChain, a deep tech startup focused on developing IP management software specifically for CAD (Computer-Aided Design) data. CADChain addresses the lack of industry standards for CAD data protection and sharing, using innovative technology to secure and manage design data.
- She has led the company since its inception in 2018, overseeing R&D, PR, and business development, and driving the creation of products for platforms such as Autodesk Inventor, Blender, and SolidWorks.
- Her leadership has been instrumental in scaling CADChain from a small team to a significant player in the deeptech space, with a diverse, international team.
IP Protection:
- Violetta has built deep expertise in intellectual property, combining academic training with practical startup experience. She has taken specialized courses in IP from institutions like WIPO and the EU IPO.
- She is known for sharing actionable strategies for startup IP protection, leveraging both legal and technological approaches, and has published guides and content on this topic for the entrepreneurial community.
- Her work at CADChain directly addresses the need for robust IP protection in the engineering and design industries, integrating cybersecurity and compliance measures to safeguard digital assets.
Blockchain:
- Violetta’s entry into the blockchain sector began with the founding of CADChain, which uses blockchain as a core technology for securing and managing CAD data.
- She holds several certifications in blockchain and has participated in major hackathons and policy forums, such as the OECD Global Blockchain Policy Forum.
- Her expertise extends to applying blockchain for IP management, ensuring data integrity, traceability, and secure sharing in the CAD industry.
Violetta is a true multiple specialist who has built expertise in Linguistics, Education, Business Management, Blockchain, Entrepreneurship, Intellectual Property, Game Design, AI, SEO, Digital Marketing, cyber security and zero code automations. Her extensive educational journey includes a Master of Arts in Linguistics and Education, an Advanced Master in Linguistics from Belgium (2006-2007), an MBA from Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden (2006-2008), and an Erasmus Mundus joint program European Master of Higher Education from universities in Norway, Finland, and Portugal (2009).
She is the founder of Fe/male Switch, a startup game that encourages women to enter STEM fields, and also leads CADChain, and multiple other projects like the Directory of 1,000 Startup Cities with a proprietary MeanCEO Index that ranks cities for female entrepreneurs. Violetta created the “gamepreneurship” methodology, which forms the scientific basis of her startup game. She also builds a lot of SEO tools for startups. Her achievements include being named one of the top 100 women in Europe by EU Startups in 2022 and being nominated for Impact Person of the year at the Dutch Blockchain Week. She is an author with Sifted and a speaker at different Universities. Recently she published a book on Startup Idea Validation the right way: from zero to first customers and beyond, launched a Directory of 1,500+ websites for startups to list themselves in order to gain traction and build backlinks and is building MELA AI to help local restaurants in Malta get more visibility online.
For the past several years Violetta has been living between the Netherlands and Malta, while also regularly traveling to different destinations around the globe, usually due to her entrepreneurial activities. This has led her to start writing about different locations and amenities from the POV of an entrepreneur. Here’s her recent article about the best hotels in Italy to work from.
About the Publication
Fe/male Switch is an innovative startup platform designed to empower women entrepreneurs through an immersive, game-like experience. Founded in 2020 during the pandemic “without any funding and without any code,” this non-profit initiative has evolved into a comprehensive educational tool for aspiring female entrepreneurs.The platform was co-founded by Violetta Shishkina-Bonenkamp, who serves as CEO and one of the lead authors of the Startup News branch.
Mission and Purpose
Fe/male Switch Foundation was created to address the gender gap in the tech and entrepreneurship space. The platform aims to skill-up future female tech leaders and empower them to create resilient and innovative tech startups through what they call “gamepreneurship”. By putting players in a virtual startup village where they must survive and thrive, the startup game allows women to test their entrepreneurial abilities without financial risk.
Key Features
The platform offers a unique blend of news, resources,learning, networking, and practical application within a supportive, female-focused environment:
- Skill Lab: Micro-modules covering essential startup skills
- Virtual Startup Building: Create or join startups and tackle real-world challenges
- AI Co-founder (PlayPal): Guides users through the startup process
- SANDBOX: A testing environment for idea validation before launch
- Wellness Integration: Virtual activities to balance work and self-care
- Marketplace: Buy or sell expert sessions and tutorials
Impact and Growth
Since its inception, Fe/male Switch has shown impressive growth:
- 5,000+ female entrepreneurs in the community
- 100+ startup tools built
- 5,000+ pieces of articles and news written
- 1,000 unique business ideas for women created
Partnerships
Fe/male Switch has formed strategic partnerships to enhance its offerings. In January 2022, it teamed up with global website builder Tilda to provide free access to website building tools and mentorship services for Fe/male Switch participants.
Recognition
Fe/male Switch has received media attention for its innovative approach to closing the gender gap in tech entrepreneurship. The platform has been featured in various publications highlighting its unique “play to learn and earn” model.
