Seventeen institutions in Munich's innovation ecosystem have joined forces to form the Women Entrepreneurs Alliance (WE Alliance). They will coordinate services for female founders, making them more accessible, and streamline support.
In brief
- A new alliance of universities, start-up centers, funding organizations and investors
- Services are coordinated, and female founders are matched with appropriate offerings
- An overview is available on the Gründerland Bayern website
Programs, coaching, networks and capital - Munich already has a lot to offer to female start-up founders. Until now, however, there has often been a lack of connection between the offerings of the numerous institutions. The Women Entrepreneurs Alliance is now set to change that. Universities, research institutions, investors, start-up centers, funding organizations, companies and other partners have joined forces to make support for female founders more effective.
What kind of support fits which need and at what stage of the founding process? The members of the WE Alliance aim to facilitate access to the ecosystem, connect the various offerings, refer female founders to the right resources and thus provide more targeted guidance throughout their entire start-up journey. An overview is available on the Gründerland Bayern website. Some of these programs are also open to male founders.
The Women Entrepreneurs Alliance was founded by BayFor, BayStartUP, BioM, Businettes, gate Garching, GründerRegioM - Projekt guide, Hochsprung, Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Munich and Upper Bavaria, JUNE MINDS, City of Munich, LMU, MUNICH INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM, Munich Startup, net4tec, Technical University of Munich (TUM), UnternehmerTUM und WERK1.
"There are still significantly fewer women than men in start-up teams. This is not only a social problem but also an economic one, as diverse teams are more successful," says Prof. Gerhard Kramer, Executive Vice President for Research and Innovation at TUM. "That is why, with the founding of the WE Alliance, we want to make our support as effective as possible. The fact that so many institutions are joining forces sends a strong signal from Munich's innovation ecosystem."
- Services of the Women Entrepreneurs Alliance
- The Women Entrepreneurs Alliance will be presenting itself on September 28 and 29 at the Bits & Pretzels start-up conference.
- The innovation ecosystem centered around TUM is regarded as one of the most successful deeptech hubs in Europe. Its particular strengths are its strong, diverse network and the specific support. In initiatives and co-labs, start-ups work on innovations with established companies, experts, investors and administration. TUM and UnternehmerTUM, the Center for Innovation and Business Creation , support start-up teams with programs that are precisely tailored to the individual phases of the founding process and the teams. The TUM Venture Labs offer direct access to cutting-edge research, technical infrastructure and market expertise in twelve fields of technology. Each year, more than 100 companies were founded at TUM and more than 1,000 start-up teams were supported by UnternehmerTUM and the Venture Labs. UnternehmerTUM, which invests with its own venture capital fund, has been voted Europe's best start-up hub three times by the Financial Times.
