The Female Founders Monitor 2025 clearly shows that women are still underrepresented in the German startup ecosystem – and the positive trend of recent years has been broken for the first time. At just 18.8 per cent, the proportion of female founders is lower than it has been for a long time. The study provides concrete indications of the causes: structural inequalities, difficult access to capital and a lack of compatibility. At the same time, the report shows what needs to be done to specifically promote female founders – because those who do not utilise the potential of female innovation are wasting economic opportunities and society’s future.
Why the decline is an alarm signal
Why the decline The Female Founders Monitor 2025, published by the Startup Association in collaboration with Google, is the most important reference on the situation of female founders in Germany. This year, the results are particularly sobering: The proportion of female founders has fallen to just 18.8 per cent. This is a step backwards that makes you sit up and take notice – especially as the Monitor had recorded a slight increase in previous years. Alarm signal
This downward trend shows that, despite all initiatives, there is still a lack of structural framework conditions that offer women a fair chance of entrepreneurial success. And this is precisely where the Female Founders Monitor 2025 comes in – it identifies challenges and provides specific recommendations for action to close the gap.
Why women start up less often – and what this has to do with visibility
The Female Founders Monitor 2025 not only sheds light on the current distribution of start-up teams, but also goes one step further back: there are already major differences when it comes to interest in starting a business. While around 40 per cent of male students can imagine starting a business, this figure is only 21 per cent for women. This suggests that many women do not even consider starting their own business – often because they do not see any suitable role models or do not recognise themselves in the common start-up narratives.
In addition, women are more likely to start up in consumer-related sectors such as education, healthcare or lifestyle – areas that are currently suffering particularly badly from economic uncertainty, according to the Female Founders Monitor 2025. The result: fewer opportunities for growth, less investment and less visibility.
Venture capital remains unevenly distributed – despite positive trends
According to the Female Founders Monitor 2025, the proportion of capital invested in start-ups with female founders has increased in recent years – from 5 per cent in 2017 to currently around 9 per cent. However, the majority of funding still flows into purely male-led teams.
Particularly problematic: the assessment of the existence of a gender gap differs greatly between the sexes. 87 per cent of female founders see a structural problem, but only 50 per cent of male founders share this view. The Female Founders Monitor 2025 clearly shows that without a common awareness of the problem, it is not possible to develop a common solution.
Compatibility as a key issue for female founders
Another key topic in the Female Founders Monitor 2025 is the compatibility of family and entrepreneurship. For 81 per cent of the female founders surveyed, this is a key factor for real equal opportunities – but 60 per cent of men also state that better framework conditions are necessary. This shows that a family-friendly start-up culture is no longer a women’s issue – but a lever for society as a whole that benefits many.
According to the Female Founders Monitor 2025, flexible working models, reliable childcare and fair parental allowance regulations could play a decisive role in encouraging more women to take the plunge into self-employment.
Three central measures to specifically strengthen female founders
The Female Founders Monitor 2025 does not stop at analysing the situation, but identifies three key levers for attracting more women to start-ups:
- Promote start-up expertise at an early stage:
Interest in starting a business does not begin with a business plan, but at school and university. The Monitor recommends strengthening entrepreneurial thinking at an early stage – with a focus on female role models, mentoring offers and targeted support programmes. - Taking compatibility seriously:
Whether maternity leave for the self-employed, parental allowance regulations or flexible support programmes – according to the Female Founders Monitor 2025, entrepreneurship must be possible even when care work is part of everyday life. - Diversify the investor landscape:
According to the Female Founders Monitor 2025, more women in investment decisions, more awareness of bias and targeted female-funding initiatives can help to close the existing funding gap and promote innovative start-ups more broadly.
The Female Founders Monitor 2025 calls for real change
The Female Founders Monitor 2025 is more than just a report – it is a wake-up call. If we succeed in promoting female founders in a targeted manner, distributing capital more fairly and understanding compatibility as an innovation factor, the German startup ecosystem can benefit enormously. However, this requires concrete political measures, entrepreneurial courage and, above all, a new start-up culture in which diversity is not the exception but the norm. The Monitor not only provides the facts, but also the roadmap – now it’s time to implement it.