High start-up activity in the Hanover region

The recently published Lower Saxony Startup Monitor confirms this: With 20 percent of start-ups founded by women, Lower Saxony is above the national average (16 percent) - hannoverimpuls contributes to the results with tailor-made funding instruments.

"You know our horses. Experience our strengths" was once Lower Saxony's advertising slogan - the current Lower Saxony Startup Monitor proves that one of the key current strengths of Hannover as a business location is the openness of the start-up system to women. This applies both to the number of female start-ups and to the exploitation of market areas with immense business potential, such as women's health.

Doris Petersen, Managing Director of hannoverimpuls GmbH, is delighted: "The numbers of female start-ups show that our measures such as the promotion of female investors and the Female Founder Consult project are having an impact on the market. Our most recent instrument, the Female Health Incubator, proves how important it is to focus economic development for the city and region on supporting women who are starting their own businesses."

Women's start-ups are far more than just a women's issue, they are a key economic and therefore competitive factor. It is significant that femtech services such as apps for pregnancy support or cycle control, which are relevant for half of the world's population, only receive two percent of the capital - that is the estimated share of the global VC volume that goes to female founders. The reason for this is not a lack of business ideas, as the Female Health Incubator from hannoverimpuls proves. The second round of the program is already starting in May 2021. Men are still more likely to invest in male start-up teams, and the reasons for this are diverse.

Only seven percent of the approximately 10,000 German private investors, so-called business angels, who are an important source of funding for young companies, are women - according to the latest assessment by the Business Angel Network Germany (BAND). Data shows that it pays to invest in female start-up teams: For every VC dollar invested in them, female founders generated 78 cents in revenue, compared to 31 cents for men, according to a study conducted by the Boston Consulting Group last year.

According to the Lower Saxony Startup Monitor, the number of new startups in Lower Saxony in 2020 was 106 - 19% more than in the previous year despite the coronavirus crisis, 43 of which were founded in the Hanover region, almost a quarter of them by women. The particularly high level of activity in the state capital of Hanover is also a result of the work of Gründerinnen-Consult. It contributes to the fact that Lower Saxony is clearly ahead of the national average when it comes to start-ups by women, with four percent more than the national average.

Based at the business development agency hannoverimpuls, the EU-funded Gründerinnen-Consult project supports and advises women in the start-up process. One focus is on female startup founders. In order to create a better start-up climate in Lower Saxony's start-up ecosystem, Gründerinnen-Consult conducted the #femalestartupsnds study with the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg and developed recommendations for action to support female innovation start-ups.

Another building block for the promotion of female start-ups is the "Female Health Incubator" (FHI) launched last year by hannoverimpuls, which supports start-ups by or with women in realizing business models that focus on female health. The focus is on "Femtech" and "Digital Health".

During the project period of six months, teams are intensively networked with investors and experts in three rounds of coaching, workshops and mentoring. The six-month intensive period is followed by a three-month fade-out phase. The Female Health Incubator is funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) as part of the "Social Innovation" project.

The five teams from the first round of the FHI are already in the fade-out phase and have already achieved initial success on the market: KindCare, for example, has already received expressions of interest from regionally based corporations for the pilot phase of its mobile care app. KindCare offers a personal advice system via a mobile app to help with the care of those in need and is offered free of charge to employees via employers.

The four teams that will receive six months of intensive support in developing their business ideas in the second Female Health Incubator from May 2021 all have a central focus topic that is of great importance - and not just after more than a year of enduring the pandemic: mental health. From VR concepts to strengthen mental health to online programs for more self-confidence or support for relatives of sick people - all groups are working on promising ideas in growing sectors.

With regard to technical innovations, the healthcare sector in particular will benefit from well-trained female founders with the relevant expertise in the future. "Women usually associate a higher goal with their business idea. It's not just economic success that plays a role here, but a commitment to a better future," explains Cornelia Klaus, Head of Gründerinnen-Consult, who accompanied the #femalestartupsnds study in Hanover.

We would be happy to provide you with further material on the subject if you are interested. Please contact us:
Cornelia.boedecker@hannoverimpuls.de, Tel.: 0511-200 333-16

The facts:

Women invest - angel investments in start-ups: hannoverimpuls wants to break through the mechanism of men giving money to men and promote female investors. This is why the business development agency has successfully organized an event for female investors with experts. Read more now:https://www.wirtschaftsfoerderung-hannover.de/Presse/Frauen-investieren-Angel-Investments-in-Startups

Female Health Incubator: Hanover has a strong healthcare industry with five new start-ups that score points with business ideas relating to female health. The audience and expert jury at the first "Demo Day" of the Female Health Incubator - incidentally the first incubator with a focus on "women" nationwide! - were impressed by the innovative, multifaceted approaches of the teams that presented at the first Demo Day after six months of intensive work - supervised by hannoverimpuls. More on the topic:https://www.wirtschaftsfoerderung-hannover.de/Presse/Female-Health-Incubator

The topics at the second Female Health Incubator from May:

Virtual reality as a complementary therapy approach, e.g. for eating disorders or addictions, in which patients face their problems in individual scenarios.Digital offer for relatives of seriously ill patients for coping with their own illness and grief and possible secondary diseases.Empowerment and embodiment in focus: online program for stress reduction and strengthening self-confidence.Dissolving the stigma of postpartum depression: offers for prevention and education around postpartum depression, which 10 - 15 % of mothers develop.

Founders-Consult

Based at the business development agency hannoverimpuls, the EU-funded project supports and advises women in the start-up process. One focus is on female startup founders. In order to create a better start-up climate in Lower Saxony's start-up ecosystem, Gründerinnen-Consult conducted the #femalestartupsnds study with the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, among others, and developed recommendations for action to support female innovation start-ups. The project is funded as part of the F.I.F.A. state programme of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Social Affairs, Health and Equality and the Lower Saxony Ministry of Economic Affairs, Labour, Transport and Digitalization.

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