Founders & Diversity
Founder data exists for only 7.4% of 38,147 companies — a non-random sample, so figures here are indicative and never a headline. Gender is editor-entered, not inferred. Female-founder = ≥1 female founder.
Coverage gate: only 7.4% of 38,147 companies list a founder, and that sample skews toward better-covered (often larger / funded) companies — so every share below is indicative, not representative, and is never presented as a headline. Gender is editor-entered, not name-inferred, and is not used to rank companies. Investor-side diversity (e.g. women GPs) is not shown here: the dataset has no investor-level gender field.
This snapshot records ~1.0 founder per company (only 5 companies list more than one). Charts below reflect the gender of the recorded founder — read them as founder-gender, not full founding-team diversity. "Female-founded" and "female-only" therefore coincide here, and mixed teams are effectively absent.
Founder gender split
founders w/ known genderFunding to female-founded companies vs all
round year · € raised (all rounds) + share line“All companies” sums every funding round; “Female-founded” is the subset raised by companies with ≥1 female founder, and the line is that subset as a share of all euros. 2026 is a partial year (data through 2026-06-22).
Female-founder share by country
% of companies female-foundedFemale-founder share by sector
% of companies · sectors with ≥5 companiesFemale-founder share by founding year
founding year (LaunchYear) · % female-founded · 2010–2020Founding year is recorded for only 2,110 of 2,832 founder-tracked companies, and the data thins out after 2020 — so this chart covers 2010–2020 only and is not a full timeline. Years with too few companies are omitted.
Diversity leaderboard — female-founder share
countries with ≥20 tracked companies| Country | Companies | Female-founded | Share | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sweden | 169 | 30 | 17.8% | |
| Switzerland | 153 | 27 | 17.6% | |
| Denmark | 64 | 10 | 15.6% | |
| UK | 727 | 102 | 14.0% | |
| Spain | 158 | 22 | 13.9% | |
| Belgium | 65 | 9 | 13.8% | |
| Netherlands | 104 | 14 | 13.5% | |
| Finland | 73 | 8 | 11.0% | |
| Germany | 293 | 31 | 10.6% | |
| France | 254 | 27 | 10.6% |
Notable female-founded companies
≥1 female founder · by total raised| Company | Country | Sector | Total raised | Founders |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Octopus Energy | UK | Energy | €2.3B | UnnamedF |
| FlixMobility | Germany | Transportation | €993M | UnnamedF |
| SellerX | Germany | E-commerce | €729M | UnnamedF |
| Carvolution | Switzerland | Software | €323M | UnnamedF |
| Molo | UK | Fintech | €293M | UnnamedF |
| Karma Kitchen | UK | Foodtech | €278M | UnnamedF |
| Kolonial | Norway | E-commerce | €251M | UnnamedF |
| Pollen | UK | Travel | €190M | UnnamedF |
| NA-KD | Sweden | Fashion | €160M | UnnamedF |
| HoneyBook | Israel | Fintech | €155M | UnnamedF |
| IMMO | UK | Fintech | €141M | UnnamedF |
| Zenoti | Sweden | Foodtech | €132M | UnnamedF |
| IO Biotech | Denmark | Healthtech | €127M | UnnamedF |
| Proximie | UK | Healthtech | €108M | UnnamedF |
| Wandelbots | Germany | Robotics | €107M | UnnamedF |
| Ona Therapeutics | Spain | Healthtech | €104M | UnnamedF |
| Planted Foods | Switzerland | Foodtech | €94M | UnnamedF |
| Aphea.Bio | Belgium | Agritech | €84M | UnnamedF |
| anokion | Switzerland | Healthtech | €70M | UnnamedF |
| cargo.one | Germany | Transportation | €67M | UnnamedF |
Caveat: founder data covers only 7.4% of companies (non-random), so these shares are indicative rather than definitive — see the coverage note above.