Following the conclusion of the third Women TechEU call, which was open until March 17, 2025, the EU scheme received a record-breaking 1,038 applications from 43 eligible countries—the highest number to date. This indicates growing demand for support among women-led deep tech startups across Europe.
After a thorough evaluation process, 40 winners from 13 countries were selected, including three from ‘widening’ countries (countries with broadened access to research and innovation programs).
Geographical diversity of the winners
The latest selection round includes startups from a wide range of countries. The United Kingdom leads with nine selected companies, followed by France with six, and Germany and Norway with four each. Denmark and Turkey each have three winners, Austria, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden each have two, while Belgium, Estonia, and Greece each have one winner. This broad representation highlights the consortium’s commitment to fostering innovation across diverse technological environments, including those from less represented countries.
Sectoral representation
Startups from numerous sectors applied to the call. The majority of the selected winners (50%) operate in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning, including Big Data processing, with a focus on data-driven innovations in manufacturing and digital services.
This is followed by companies from the biotechnology, life sciences, and agricultural technology sectors (32.5%), and sustainable energy, clean tech, and green technologies (15%). Other significant sectors include advanced materials (10%), the Internet of Things, the Semantic Web, and W3C (10%), electronics and photonics (7.5%), advanced manufacturing (5%), as well as space technology, the automotive industry, and remote sensing (2.5%).
DataHub
The Women TechEU DataHub has been updated with the profiles of all winners from the third call. These startups represent a diverse range of deep-tech innovations and provide insights into their technologies.
The platform allows easy access to information about individual companies and promotes greater visibility and networking within the deep-tech ecosystem.
Explore the DataHub: https://datahub.womentecheurope.eu
Interactive winners map
You can now visually explore where Women TechEU winners are located across Europe via our interactive map (Geo-Map). This functionality provides a quick overview of the geographical reach and diversity of the Women TechEU community.
Visit the map: https://datahub.womentecheurope.eu/map/
What’s next?
Following the conclusion of the third call, the Women TechEU consortium has also announced the fourth and final call, which was open until August 4, 2025. Experiences from the first three calls were crucial for improving inclusion strategies, with a focus on encouraging greater participation from regions and sectors that were previously underrepresented. With this, the consortium aims to further increase the diversity and impact of future calls and ensure more inclusive outreach across Europe.
More information
All details, including eligibility criteria, are available on the Women TechEU website. Potential applicants are invited to view the Guidelines for Applicants and the Frequently Asked Questions section.
For any questions regarding the Women TechEU scheme, you can contact the official helpdesk team: helpdesk@womentecheurope.eu.
Source: EISMEA