According to the results, around 83 percent of all startups in Germany are founded by all-male teams. The proportion of men among startup employees is also significantly higher, at more than 60 percent. The situation is hardly different in France: 4 percent are all-female teams, 12 percent are mixed, and 84 percent are all-male teams. It is striking that in companies founded by female teams, the proportion of women is 62 percent, while in startups founded by men, it is only 35 percent.
The study authors analyzed 700 German and around 1,000 French startups and used the database Dealroom and LinkedIn. However, it should be noted that only startups that received venture capital funding between 2012 and 2016 were included in the analysis. This is, in a sense, a look into the past.
“Women are significantly underrepresented in the startup scene”
The highest proportion of female founders in Germany is recorded in startups in the dating sector (50 percent), the fashion industry (29 percent), and the children's sector (25 percent). In contrast, not a single female founder could be identified in the hosting, music, recruitment, semiconductor, and legal sectors. In France, female founders are most strongly represented in the wellness and beauty sector (25 percent), followed by children's businesses (20 percent) and gaming (18 percent).
The company valuation of female and male-founded startups in Germany is probably also related to the industry distribution: those with all-male founding teams are valued at a median of $21 million, startups with mixed founding teams at $20 million, and all-female startups at only $6 million.
Among German startup employees, women make up the majority in the fashion (58 percent) and education (52 percent) sectors. Startups in the robotics (19 percent), gaming (19 percent), and dating (12 percent) sectors have the fewest female employees.
“Women are significantly underrepresented in the startup scene, both as founders and as employees – across all industries, technologies and revenue models,”
says the study director Theresa Treffers from the Chair of Strategy and Organization at the Technical University of Munich.
"We know the reasons for the lack of gender diversity from social psychological studies. Investors perceive men as more suited to the role of entrepreneur. Furthermore, there are too few female students in STEM subjects, who are often considered as founders and employees. The proportion of women in STEM subjects is only around 30 percent."
