Investment

The Asset & Investment tier focuses on presenting data on the systemic gap in investment raised and value generated by women-led companies. Specifically, this tier focuses on: 

  • Exits of women founders of European companies: analysing the number and total value of IPOs and non-IPO exits by women founders.    
  • Funds raised by women-led companies in Europe: focusing on the total number of deals and investments raised by women-led Deep Tech companies, again compared to male-led only 
  • Sustained value in women-led companies: looking at indicators such as the difference in median burn rates by women-led companies, compared to male-led only.  

Exits of women founders of European companies

The data shows that the Founders’ performance is higher for women:

  • Women founders exits are individually valued more than men’s, even if there are 15.9x less in total.
  • Women founders IPOs are individually valued more than men’s, even if there are 10.5x less in total.

Nº of IPOs Between 2014 and 2024

Women led companies
Men led companies
Men led companies are
times more
Source: GENDEX analysis on a sample of a total EU+UK of around N=20,000 companies from PitchBook and N= around 8,000 companies Dealroom

Total of IPOs (M EUR) Between 2014 and 2024

Women founders
Men founders
Men founders are
times more
Source: GENDEX analysis on a sample of a total EU+UK N= 150 IPOed companies from Dealroom

Nº of exits (non-IPO) Between 2014 and 2024

Women founders
Men founders
Men founders are
times more
Source: GENDEX analysis on a sample of a total EU+UK N= 1,300 acquired, merged and/or bought-out companies from Dealroom

Valuation of exits (non-IPO) (M EUR) Between 2014 and 2024

Women founders
Men founders
Men founder are
times more
Source: GENDEX analysis on a sample of a total EU+UK N= 1,300 acquired, merged and/or bought-out companies from Dealroom

Nº of companies valued at over 1BN USD In 2024

Women led
Men led
Men led are
times more
Source: GENDEX analysis on a sample of a total EU+UK N= 43 companies defined as Unicorns from Dealroom

Funds raised by women-led companies

Investment raised by women-led companies

This graph focuses on the total number of deals and investments raised by women-led Deep Tech companies, compared to the investment raised by men-led Deep Tech companies.

Period
Source: GENDEX analysis on a sample of a total EU+UK of around N=20,000 companies from PitchBook and N= around 8,000 companies from Dealroom

Sustained value in women led companies

Retention of company valuation by women-led companies

The graph showcases the sustained value in women-led companies by looking into the retention of company valuation by women led companies, looking at the share of down-rounds over total number of deals in Europe.

Period
Source: GENDEX analysis on a sample of a total EU+UK of around N=20,000 companies from PitchBook and N= around 8,000 companies from Dealroom

Diversity in funds

VC funds with at least 1 woman GP (EUR) by AUM

AUM in VC funds with at least 1 woman decision-maker

Period
Source: PitchBook, October 2024, N= around 350 VC, PE and Family Offices firms, with yearly fluctuations

Comparison of share of women GPs and the participation of women-led companies in portfolios

Share of women decision-makers (General Partners, Founding Partners, Managing Directors) in European investment firms.

Period
Source: PitchBook, November 2024, decision maker investors with an entity in EU+UK that have invested in EU+UK DeepTech companies of which total N=2,139 in VC Firms ; Total N= 463 in PE firms; Total N= 68 in Family Offices