And indeed, recent figures for all of Germany confirm that only 15.7 percent of new enterprises were launched by women. In Hamburg, this share is not much different: the city is currently home to almost 1,300 startups, and only 15.3 percent of these have a female managing director – albeit with a slight upward trend. Veronika Reichboth, head of the Startup Unit at Hamburg Invest, explains: “When it comes to founding as such, women are quite well-represented today. However, in the area of knowledge- und technology-based startups, there is a lot of room for improvement in Germany. In academia, women are significantly under-represented in information and communication technology as well as other technology-based degree programmes, and this trend translates into fewer women starting up their own business.”
In an effort to bridge this gap, the Hamburg Startup Unit has joined forces with other German startup hotspots. Initiated by the cities of Hamburg, Berlin, Cologne and Munich in the autumn of 2020, the #FemupStartups initiative is aimed at boosting the share of female founders and investors in Germany’s startup community.
These four cities now jointly organise events and campaigns to raise awareness among the general public. In addition, they create and support a number of formats for women who are interested in starting a business, which are then hosted by various organisations from the regional startup networks.