On October 18th 2023, we participated in the “Luxembourg Venture Days” at LuxExpo, a flagship event for startups and investors in Luxembourg.
Marina Andrieu, our Director and Co-founder, was invited to take part in the “Women in Tech” panel, clearly aiming to challenge the status quo of representation of Women in Startups in Luxembourg.
According to Luxinnovation and dealroom.com, only 6% of Startup Founders in Luxembourg are women.
Being active in the ecosystem for 10 years and having worked with more than 50 women founders, Marina was able to bring her valuable insight to the conversation.
She mentioned during her closing speech, “We can do better and we have to do better”. Awareness can only be raised if organisations establish concrete actions allowing a more systematic change to happen. Marina also said that women still experience a lot of sexism in the ecosystem.
She focused on the importance of education to build a pipeline and raise the issue of access to funding in Luxembourg.
First of all, girls have to be aware that being an engineer, an IT specialist or an entrepreneur is an option. Parents also have a role to play, as there are still a lot of stereotypes in society.
Women also need to be better informed about what it takes to start and venture, especially when it comes to building a product and acquiring clients.
Lastly, she stressed out the problem of women not getting access to funds in Luxembourg. “Over the last couple years, very few women were able to raise funds, maybe one per year on average. When they raise, they raise less than men”.
WIDE ANDCO offers a range of resources for entrepreneurs and women founders thanks to a long term experience. You can contact us on the following email address contact@wide.lu to book your spot for our individual office hours, join our numerous training sessions and attend our upcoming Women Founders on November 30th!
