{"id":321541,"date":"2021-12-31T09:06:13","date_gmt":"2021-12-31T08:06:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/?p=321541"},"modified":"2021-12-31T09:06:13","modified_gmt":"2021-12-31T08:06:13","slug":"women-led-innovative-companies-still-receive-less-funding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/women-led-innovative-companies-still-receive-less-funding\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Women-led innovative companies still receive less funding&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Women-led start-ups in Europe are rising in numbers &#8211; in 2020, over 20 percent  of the companies funded by the <a href=\"https:\/\/eic.ec.europa.eu\/index_en\">European Innovation Council<\/a> had a female CEO &#8211; yet equality is far from being achieved altogether. In an effort to bridge the gender gap in innovation, the <a href=\"https:\/\/european-union.europa.eu\/index_en\">European Commission<\/a> is working on initiatives to promote and foster women-led innovation across the Union.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last month, EU commissioner for innovation <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/commission\/commissioners\/2019-2024\/gabriel_en\">Mariya Gabriel<\/a> named the winners of the <a href=\"https:\/\/eic.ec.europa.eu\/eic-funding-opportunities\/eic-prizes\/eu-prize-women-innovators_en\">EU Prize for Women Innovators<\/a>. They are Merel Boers &#8211; CEO of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nicolab.com\/\">Nicolab<\/a>, co-founder of <a href=\"https:\/\/fresh.land\/dk\/\">Fresh.Land<\/a> Mathilde Jakobsen, and Daphne Haim Langford &#8211; the CEO of <a href=\"https:\/\/tarsierpharma.com\/\">Tarsier\u2122 Pharma<\/a>. Each of the women received a \u20ac100,000 cash prize.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to them, the <em>Rising Innovator <\/em>award was given to Ailbhe and Isabel Keane of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.izzywheels.com\/\">Izzy Wheels<\/a>, who received \u20ac50,000. This prize is for exceptional innovators under 30 years of age.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis year\u2019s winners are the bright hopes that will help change the face of innovation and pave the way for more women entrepreneurs in the future,\u201d stated commissioner Gabriel during the prize-giving ceremony.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Women Innovators Prize Finalists\" width=\"1290\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/g19mf7Jx7g0?start=43&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The EU Prize for Women innovators awards the most talented women entrepreneurs from the EU and countries associated with <a href=\"https:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/info\/research-and-innovation\/funding\/funding-opportunities\/funding-programmes-and-open-calls\/horizon-europe_en\">Horizon Europe<\/a> (the EUs funding program for research and innovation) who founded a successful company that has brought innovation to the market.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Disrupting the food chain<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Mathilde Jakobsen is the CEO of Fresh.Land, a digital marketplace which enables the sale of fresh products directly to consumers. The Danish platform takes care of logistics, payment, and legal aspects in an all-in-one solution.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/archive.ioplus.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/original.jpeg\" alt=\"Mathilde Jakobsen - \u00a9 Fresh.Land\" class=\"wp-image-321542\"\/><figcaption>Mathilde Jakobsen &#8211; \u00a9 Fresh.Land<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The work of farmers is paid fairly this way and customers get quality goods. At the same time, Fresh. Land helps to reduce food waste and emissions by shortening the food supply chain.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe are disrupting the food industry by making the middlemen obsolete, and they don\u2019t like that\u201d, explains Jakobsen.  \u201cWe are now becoming a serious threat, also for some of the retailers, because &#8211; thanks to our platform &#8211; farmers and consumers can build up a relationship with each other, which is impossible to establish in retail shops.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Therapeutics for ocular inflammation<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Tarsier\u2122 Pharma develops bio-inspired medical solutions addressing the treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory ocular diseases. Daphne Haim Langford holds a Ph.D. in Biophysics and founded the company back in 2016.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/archive.ioplus.nl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/E87AxitWEAIjDjn-1004x1004.jpg\" alt=\"Daphne Haim Langford - \u00a9 Tarsier\u2122Pharma\" class=\"wp-image-321549\" width=\"316\" height=\"316\"\/><figcaption>Daphne Haim Langford &#8211; \u00a9 Tarsier\u2122Pharma<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>She has experience as an investor, an entrepreneur, and as an executive &#8211;&nbsp; given her 20-years-long career in the biomedical industry. Langford also co-founded the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.biomimicry.org.il\/\">Israeli Biomimicry Organization<\/a>, a non-profit organization to raise awareness on <em>biomimicry<\/em>, which gets its inspiration from nature for its biomedical solutions.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Lack of women role models&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In spite of a rising number of women entrepreneurs, the innovation world is still predominantly male. Consequently, women are themselves faced with many more challenges than men.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere are plenty of them. From taking a train by yourself in a foreign country to sitting in conferences that have a majority of male speakers. Moreover, venture capitalists are usually men\u201d, says Langford. \u201cFortunately, we are on a journey to change things, and the hundreds of applicants for this competition are proof that this kind of change might happen earlier than we expect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In shifting towards a more inclusive society, symbols are meaningful. \u201cThere is a lack of role models, as we don&#8217;t associate women with power yet. I have been inspired by two men: Elon Musk and Steve Jobs, because I didn\u2019t have any female role models. I have always told myself: \u2018I want to do what my male colleagues did&#8217;. But you need a lot of self-awareness to keep on going\u201d, Jakobsen notes.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is also a matter of taking some simple steps to pave the way for the emergence of these types of female role models. Being more inclusive when choosing the panelists for a conference is one of the points that Langford raises.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Women-led companies receive less funding&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Jakobsen, the gender gap remains gapingly huge in Nordic countries too. A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unconventional.vc\/report\/\">study<\/a> led by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unconventional.vc\/\">Unconventional Ventures <\/a>found that women-founded companies raised just 1 % of all capital invested in start-ups in 2019, while mixed-founded ones received about 6 %.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSince the data is here, we need to publicize it to raise people\u2019s awareness. We also need to understand why women are not getting enough funding, are we underselling ourselves? Are males overselling themselves? What\u2019s the reason behind these choices?\u201d Jakobsen asks.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Venture capitalists\u2019 approach plays a crucial role as well. \u201cThey ask men how successful their company will be, whereas they ask women about the challenges they are facing. Just with those two different approaches, you are already directing the answers\u201d, Langford clarifies.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf somebody is asking you about the challenges, then talk about the potential your company has\u201d, Langford suggests.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Cooperation leads to success&nbsp;<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>But what does it mean to be an innovator? Jakobsen underlines the \u201cability to respond to daily challenges.\u201d Langford also focuses on the \u201cinternal urge to solve problems\u201d.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>On the way to success, many more factors come into play.&nbsp;Recalling commissioner Gabriel\u2019s words, Langford highlights the importance of building relationships with other companies of the same realm.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Langford: \u201cI am part of a Whatsapp group with 40 CEOs from ophthalmic innovation companies. We help each other on a daily basis, asking and giving each other advice, as well as mentoring. This kind of non-stop flow of information is key to successful innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In fact, fostering innovation requires an open environment, and the EU is one of the best in the world in this regard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The open market is a huge bonus. It makes the business environment easy to set up and to trade-in. The EU has a scale thanks to its own market and it is very easy to access that\u201d, says Jakobsen. \u201cHowever, to make innovation happen, you need to be able to make mistakes, and that matters for innovators.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em><strong>Want to know more about women-led start-ups? You can find more stories <a href=\"https:\/\/innovationorigins.com\/en\/dossier\/women-run-start-ups\/\">here <\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Women-led start-ups in Europe are rising in numbers &#8211; in 2020, over 20 percent of the companies funded by the European Innovation Council had a female CEO &#8211; yet equality is far from being achieved altogether. In an effort to bridge the gender gap in innovation, the European Commission is working on initiatives to promote [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2084,"featured_media":513958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3009],"tags":[67159,67161,43731,67163,67166,47499],"location":[56342],"article_type":[43139],"serie":[],"archives":[],"internal_archives":[],"reboot-archive":[],"class_list":["post-321541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-startup","tag-eu-prize-for-women-innovators","tag-izzy-wheels","tag-mariya-gabriel","tag-nicolab","tag-tarsier-pharma","tag-women-entrepreneurs","location-denmark","article_type-features"],"blocksy_meta":[],"acf":{"subtitle":"During the European Innovation Council Summit last month, the EU awarded the best women innovators. Innovation Origins had a chat with two of them, Mathilde Jakobsen and Daphne Haim Langford. ","text_display_homepage":false},"author_meta":{"display_name":"Mauro Mereu","author_link":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/author\/mauro-mereu\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/KPYMwlas-woman2.png","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/startup\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Start-ups<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Start-ups<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/startup\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">EU Prize for Women Innovators<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/startup\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Izzy Wheels<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/startup\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Mariya Gabriel<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/startup\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Nicolab<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/startup\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Tarsier Pharma<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/en\/category\/startup\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">women entrepreneurs<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">EU Prize for Women Innovators<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Izzy Wheels<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Mariya Gabriel<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Nicolab<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Tarsier Pharma<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">women entrepreneurs<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 4 years ago","modified":"Updated 4 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on December 31, 2021","modified":"Updated on December 31, 2021"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on December 31, 2021 9:06 am","modified":"Updated on December 31, 2021 9:06 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2084"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321541"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=321541"},{"taxonomy":"article_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_type?post=321541"},{"taxonomy":"serie","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/serie?post=321541"},{"taxonomy":"archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archives?post=321541"},{"taxonomy":"internal_archives","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal_archives?post=321541"},{"taxonomy":"reboot-archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ioplus.nl\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reboot-archive?post=321541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}