German Economy Minister Robert Habeck travelled to the Web Summit technology conference in Lisbon with a group of female startup founders and employees on Monday to highlight the achievements of women in startups in Germany and Europe.
The summit, which runs until Thursday, is one of the world’s most important technology conferences and the most important within Europe, bringing together 70,000 participants in 2023.
Around 150 young companies from Germany are represented this year, 100 of which are to present their work on Germany’s stand at the summit.
In its coalition agreement, the German government set itself the goal of promoting young companies with innovative products and in the summer of 2022 adopted a startup strategy including around 100 measures.
Habeck has also campaigned for an increase in the number of women in the startup sector.
The proportion of women in the sector increased in the first two years of the government’s term, but fell again in 2023 from 20.7% to 18.8%, according to the 12th German Startup Monitor 2024 report.
Speaking ahead of the summit, Habeck said there are not only too few female founders in Germany and Europe, but also not enough female venture capitalists.
He said access to venture capital for female founders must be improved and that there should be a focus on increasing the number of women working in companies that develop from university projects.
Habeck is to give a keynote speech at Web Summit on Tuesday afternoon. He is also scheduled to meet Portuguese Economy Minister Pedro Reis.
The trip is Habeck’s first since the collapse last week of Germany’s governing coalition, which includes his Green Party, and comes as the government is in crisis over the date of the next election.
