Skip to content

Month: August 2021

  • “Give Me a Break” – Coffee Break for Female Founders

    “Give Me a Break” – Coffee Break for Female Founders

    Berlin Partner / Berlin Startup Unit Invites Female Founders to a Virtual Coffee Break

    According to the Female Founders Monitor 2020, only 16% of startup founders are women. Despite their high qualifications and entrepreneurial ambitions, they remain significantly underrepresented at the top of the business world.

    The Diversity Working Group of the Berlin Startup Unit is dedicating a new event series to topics of gender diversity. The first virtual coffee break “Give Me a Break – Coffee Break for Female Founders“ addresses as its first topics intercultural diversity, financing and funding, male-dominated structures, and the compatibility of family and founding a business.

    Nadine Jüdes, Head of Digital Economy/Startups at Berlin Partner für Wirtschaft und Technologie GmbH, emphasizes: “We have a strong interest in activating and strengthening the potential of female founders for the Berlin startup ecosystem, and we look forward to interesting results and food for thought from the discussion rounds.”

    In 2015, the State of Berlin, together with partners from the startup industry, established the Berlin Startup Unit as a collaborative project to improve the framework conditions for young and fast-growing companies. The project of Berlin Partner für Wirtschaft und Technologie GmbH brings together various players in the city’s startup ecosystem to further develop Berlin as a hub for founders.

    The Diversity Working Group of the Berlin Startup Unit invites all interested parties to the coffee break featuring exciting discussions with experts and networking opportunities:

    “Give Me a Break – Coffee Break for Female Founders“

    will take place on 27.08.2021 from 10:30 to 12:00
    in English on the networking platform Wonder.

    > Registration on Eventbrite <

    Partner Organizations

    Business Angels Club Berlin-Brandenburg e.V., Business Angels Network

    media:net berlinbrandenburg e.V., Network Association of the Media, Creative, and Digital Industry

    Beuth Startup Hub, the founding center of Beuth Hochschule für Technik Berlin

    Startup Incubator Berlin, the founding center of HWR Berlin

    Science & Startups, the association of startup services of Berlin’s universities Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin, and Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin

    Prime Crowd, a European venture capital investment platform and Female Investors Network by primeCROWD, established as the first point of contact for women interested in investing, in order to sustainably increase diversity in the investor scene

    Program

    10:30 Welcome
    Anna Wiese,
    Berlin Partner für Wirtschaft und Technologie GmbH
    10:40 Keynotes
    Svenja Lassen,
    Managing Director of primeCROWD Germany
    and representative of the Female Investors NetworkGhazaleh Koohestanian, Managing Partner Re2You GmbH
    11:00 Discussion Rounds

    Intercultural Diversity and Gender
    52% of Germans believe that migrants should assimilate. How does this affect female founders from different cultural backgrounds? What challenges, but also what opportunities, open up for diverse founding teams?

    Elli Strauven-Dejean, Beuth Startup Hub (Beuth Hochschule für Technik Berlin)

    Norhan Othman, Coordinator at Startup Migrants Berlin

    Freda Katunda and Maria Suárez, Founders of LEAP (Healthcare e-learning Platform for Africa)

    Financing & Funds for Female Founders

    Access to financial resources remains more difficult for female founders than for male founders. What financing options are available for female founders, and what public funding is available to them?

    Julia Gunnoltz, Senate Department for Economics, Energy and Public Enterprises Berlin

    Sebastian Schwenke, Business Angels Club Berlin-Brandenburg

    Overcoming Male Dominance in Industry & Business
    In 2020, only four percent of startups were founded by all-female teams — a alarming figure. Reasons include the still-prevailing image of the male founder, fewer financing opportunities for women, “male” rules of communication, and much more. What can women and men contribute to a more equal startup scene?Caroline Kunert, Humboldt Universität BerlinUte Voormanns-Wolters, Personal & Business Coach, Chair of the Women Entrepreneurs Network “Frauen machen Business”Compatibility of Family & FoundingEven today, the majority of responsibility for raising children in most families still falls on the mother. How can family and starting a business be reconciled? What support is available for female founders?Nadja Pahl, media:net berlin-brandenburg e.V.Christina Lüdtke, Science & Startups by Berlin University AllianceKatja Thiede, juggleHUB Coworking
    12:00 Closing

    Participants are free to move between the discussion rounds.

  • Response to COVID-19: New Startup Funding with a Focus on the Health Economy

    Response to COVID-19: New Startup Funding with a Focus on the Health Economy

    Great excitement about the new funding programs from Elli Strauven-Dejean (Beuth Startup Hub) and Christian Gurol (Startup Incubator Berlin).

    A new scholarship program for health startups launches in January 2022, and the application process has already begun. With the REACT Startup Scholarship, the startup centers of the Berlin School of Economics and Law (HWR Berlin) and the Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin (from October 1, 2021: Berlin University of Applied Sciences and Technology) are pooling the diverse competencies of both universities. Sought are innovative founding ideas that address medical topics and thereby make a social contribution to solving problems that arose from or became more apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    The funds come from the REACT-EU Initiative for better crisis recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic and its social impacts. Startups are expected to contribute to a green, digital, and resilient economic recovery. Together with academic mentors and business partners, they can make intensive use of the know-how and infrastructure of both startup centers. The founding teams will receive methodological support and be prepared for market entry through a coaching offering focused on crisis resilience and ecological sustainability.

    All information on the application process is available here, and our information events, in which we present all funding programs and answer questions, are listed under Events.

    The full press release on the new funding program is available here.

Cookie Consent Banner by Real Cookie Banner