Female founders of European unicorns: 13% of venture capital in 2025, a ceiling that moves slowly

Introduction

The place of women among European unicorn founders can be read two ways, depending on whether one looks at momentum or at level. Momentum is positive: according to the Female Innovation Index 2026, the amounts raised by startups with at least one female founder reached their highest level in three years in 2025. The level remains low: these startups capture 13% of European venture capital. Studies do not all define a "female-founded startup" the same way: the scope is stated each time.

13% of European venture capital in 2025

According to the Female Innovation Index 2026, published by Female Foundry on 2 March 2026, 1,307 European female-founded startups raised €7.5bn across 1,376 deals in 2025. That is the highest amount in three years and a 19% increase on the €6.25bn raised in 2024, slightly above the 18% increase in European venture capital across all startups.

These amounts represent 13% of the venture capital raised in Europe in 2025, one point more than in 2024.

Scope: the index counts mixed teams as female-founded startups.

A 2025 rebound after two years of decline, without a return to the 2021-2022 peaks

The 2025 increase has to be read within the market cycle. 2021 and 2022 remain the record years for European female-founded startups; amounts then fell, with 2023 only the third-best year at €5.9bn, according to Tech.eu in February 2024.

The decline continued in 2024: €5.76bn, 12% less than in 2023, close to the 11% fall in European venture capital as a whole, according to TechCrunch and Sifted in March 2025. The 2025 rebound, +19%, is also in line with the market, up 18%. Despite this increase, 2025 is only the third-best year of the last five: the 2021-2022 levels have not been regained.

• 2021-2022. Record years. The summaries consulted do not detail the amounts, nor the share of European venture capital.
• 2023. Amount first published: €5.9bn, revised to €6.56bn in the 2025 edition. Share: 11% in the 2024 edition, 12% in the 2025 edition.
• 2024. Amount first published: €5.76bn, 12% less than in 2023, revised to €6.25bn in the 2026 edition. Share: 12%.
• 2025. €7.5bn, up 19%. The revision has not been published yet. Share: 13%.

Two takeaways. First, the amounts raised by female founders follow the general venture cycle, down as well as up; the share gains only about one point a year (11%, then 12%, then 13% across successive editions). Second, each edition revises previous years upwards: 2023 went from €5.9bn to €6.56bn, 2024 from €5.76bn to €6.25bn. Year-on-year comparisons are only reliable within a single edition.

Mandalore reading: the 2025 rebound primarily reflects the market recovery rather than a rebalancing in favour of female founders.

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Success rates, sectors and round sizes

Relative to the number of startups, the index finds comparable funding success rates between female-founded startups and all startups, from seed stage onwards. An earlier study by Dealroom and the EIT's Supernovas programme, using 2022 data published in 2023, went further: female-founded scaleups converted seed into Series A at a higher rate than the European average. The two findings do not contradict each other, but the second covers an older period.

Health remained the leading sector for female-founded startups in 2025, both in company creation and in funding raised.

Regardless of sector, and across all European female-founded startups: 22% of the venture capital they raised in 2025 went to companies leveraging AI, and their round sizes grew 12% year on year across all stages. According to the index survey, 86% of the female founders surveyed use AI.

Real progress, but a persistent ceiling

Dealroom's data for 2023, reported by Unicorn Nest, describes a two-stage trend. Over the previous decade, the share of venture capital raised by startups founded or co-founded by women doubled, and the number of female-founded unicorns increased tenfold, reaching 35. The share has nonetheless plateaued at around 10% since 2017 and stood at 9.6% in 2023, or €5.9bn.

The Dealroom x EIT Supernovas study, using 2022 data published in 2023, finds that female-founded scaleups raise smaller rounds, with the gap in median round size most pronounced at seed stage.

Mandalore reading: reaching unicorn status requires a sequence of ever-larger rounds, which makes this size gap structural.

A note on method. Dealroom's 9.6% (2023) and the Female Innovation Index's 13% (2025) come from two separate series with different methods. The gap between them should not be read as an increase of more than three points. Within a single series, the increase is one point: 12% in 2024, 13% in 2025.

Five new unicorns in 2025, 29 in total

Five European female-founded companies reached unicorn status in 2025, bringing the European total to 29, the highest level recorded by the index. The previous edition counted three new unicorns in 2024 (Newcleo, Pigment and Cardior Pharmaceuticals) and a total of 25. The total therefore rises by only four between editions despite five additions, which the public summaries do not explain.

The UK accounts for 13 of these unicorns, unchanged from 2024, or 45% of the European total against 54% a year earlier.

On liquidity, the index records 124 acquisitions of female-founded startups in 2025, a level it describes as unprecedented. Three female-founded companies went public in 2025: RedCloud, Appear and MEDS.

Other counts exist: according to Dealroom data reported by Unicorn Nest, Europe had 35 female-founded unicorns in 2023. The gap with the index's 29 comes from definitions and scopes that are not harmonised across sources.

The pool of future unicorns: a 2022 snapshot

Sifted's ranking of 100 future European B2B unicorns, published in June 2022, sheds light on level rather than momentum. Only six companies had a female CEO or co-CEO; sixteen were founded by mixed teams; in total, 19 co-founders across the cohort were women, or 7%. Of the 67 companies that responded, 57% reported more than 70% men on their executive team, and only 4% reported gender parity.

This figure dates from June 2022 and, to our knowledge, has not been updated on the same indicator: it should be read as a historical reference point, not as the current state.

In the United States, Ilya Strebulaev (Stanford GSB) finds that 7% of the nearly 3,000 founders of US VC-backed startups that became unicorns between 1997 and 2021 are women, or 181 people. The scopes differ: founders of future European B2B unicorns are not the founders of all US unicorns.

A more diverse new generation of founders

Antler's "Europe's New Tech Founders 2023" study, which analyses 845 European unicorn founders, finds that new tech founders applying to its programmes are five times more likely to be women and represent three times more nationalities than existing unicorn founders. The same study notes that a European unicorn founder was then more likely to be an Oxford or Cambridge graduate (35) than a woman (32).

The 2024 edition of the Antler study, covering 2021-2023, finds that the number of aspiring female technical founders increased 3.5x. These new founders are not yet unicorn founders: the time between founding and unicorn status is measured in years.

What this means for corporate investors

Mandalore reading: the following points are analytical recommendations, not measured data.

• Measure your own pipeline. A corporate venture programme can compare the share of female-founded startups in its deal flow with the 13% market benchmark for 2025. A large gap points to a sourcing bias rather than a lack of projects.
• Do not confuse round size with quality. Funding success rates are comparable from seed stage onwards: the difference lies in round size, not in the ability to raise.
• Look at exits. With 124 acquisitions of female-founded startups in 2025, industrial buyers are already one of the main outlets for this segment.
• Track geographic concentration. The UK, Finland, France and Germany capture 67% of the capital raised by female founders: sourcing limited to these four markets covers most of the flow, but not emerging ecosystems. See also What Europe's 2026 Unicorn Class Reveals About Where Capital Is Flowing.

Frequently asked questions

How many European unicorns are female-founded?

There is no single count. The Female Innovation Index lists 29 at the end of 2025; Dealroom counted 35 in 2023, using a different method.

Is the 13% share comparable from one country to another?

No. Distribution is highly concentrated: in 2025, female-founded startups based in the UK (32%), Finland (13%), France (12%) and Germany (10%) together captured 67% of the venture capital raised by female founders in Europe.

Are mixed teams counted together with all-female teams?

Yes, in both the Female Innovation Index and Dealroom, which count startups founded or co-founded by women. All-female teams account for only 6% of venture capital, a share that has stagnated since 2016 according to Atomico.

Limits and methodological caution

• Four different categories. A startup with at least one female founder, a startup led by a woman, an all-female team and a mixed team are not measured the same way. The Female Innovation Index and Dealroom count teams with at least one woman, which produces higher shares than a count of individual co-founders, such as Sifted's, or than the share of all-female teams alone (6% according to Atomico).
• Different dates. The 13% figure covers amounts raised in 2025; the 7% figure covers the make-up of a cohort of future unicorns in 2022. Treating them as if they measured the same thing would lead to a wrong conclusion.
• Revised figures. Each edition of the Female Innovation Index revises previous years; only comparisons within a single edition are reliable.
• No causality. These figures do not say whether the gaps stem from investment bias, sector choices or the make-up of the founder pool. Mandalore reading: three unmeasured hypotheses coexist (round size, founder pool, access to investor networks); only the first is directly supported by a source cited above.