The share of female founders in the Estonian startup sector has grown

According to the Commercial Register and Startup Estonia, the share of female founders of startups in Estonia has been steadily moving up in recent years, hitting 17% at the end of last year, up from 16% a year earlier and 15% at the end of 2020.

According to the database of managed by Startup Estonia, there are currently 1,448 startups operating in Estonia, 289 of which, meaning one in five, were founded by women or had at least one woman among the founders.

The share of female founders is highest in health and education technology startups, where they account for 30%. Women make up 24% of the founders of communications and food and agricultural technology startups, and 22% of founders in deep-tech.

Eve Peeterson, the head of Startup Estonia, noted the share of female founders in Estonia was about the same as elsewhere in Europe.

“According to the State of European Tech report, women make up 15% of startup founders in Europe. The report points out, and we see the same trend in Estonia, that young women are becoming more and more active in establishing startups. The share of female founders is increasing, especially in younger age groups, and this shows that in the long run we are moving in the right direction,” Peeterson said.

The head of Startup Estonia, Eve Peeterson.

The latest State of European Tech report shows that 14% of the founders of startups with less than five years of experience are women. Meanwhile, among founders of European startups with more than 15 years of experience, the share of women is only 6%. The data in the report includes founders of startups that received funding during 2022.

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