The motto of the summit in 2025 was again: Promoting, networking and supporting women on their way to successful start-ups. In the male-dominated startup and investment world, female founders are often underrepresented. Carlotta Altringer, CEO & Co-Founder of VitroFluidix, emphasized: “It is extremely important that everyone really gets involved in this problem or in solving this problem. ”
During the opening, it became clear how important it is to provide targeted support to female founders. Mona Neubaur, Minister of Economics, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia: “North Rhine-Westphalia and Bonn are one of the most exciting start-up hotspots in Germany — and this is also due to the many great female founders who use their ideas to drive innovation, sustainability and economic progress. But in the male-dominated investment scene, it is often much more difficult for women to get the necessary recognition and trust from investors. That must change urgently! We need more female courage and strong role models in the startup world. With programs such as the Gründungsstipendium. NRW and strong networks, we want to better support female founders — so that family and starting a start-up are not a contradiction. So dare yourself! Your ideas deserve it.”
During the exciting panel discussion on “Female Entrepreneurship in NRW”, Theresa Voss (Co-Founder & CCO of chunkx), Sina Volkmann (Country spokesperson at Federal Association of German Startups e.V.) and Katrin Reuter (Co-Founder & CEO of Trackle) with Minister Mona Neubaur about the challenges and opportunities faced by female founders in NRW. Katrin then inspired us all with valuable strategies and personal insights in her keynote “From Vision to Reality.” This was followed by the “Women in Tech” panel, in which Florian Schnitzler, Lena Esseln and Julia Rhode highlighted the challenges and opportunities for women in the technology sector. Özlem Doger-Herter In her keynote “The Art of the Start”, she then summed up the ten most important points for successfully founding a start-up. 🤝
The highlight came later in the evening — the pitch competition for the NRW Female Innovation Award 2025. The founders of the startups Scobees, VitroFluidix, Mangolade, Pivio, Comuneo and Pancha Pitched for the title of the most innovative female-founded startup in NRW 2025 and from Sparkasse Köln Bonn Sponsored prize money totalling €3,000.
It was a close head-to-head race, but three outstanding startups came out on top of the competition:
It continues next year: The Female Founders Venture Summit will take place again in 2026! Add 05.03.2026 to the calendar and look forward to even more EmpoWoment!
What exactly is behind Investment SHeroes? Support on the path from female founders to investments! We have created this 12-week program in particular to encourage and support female founders and various founding teams in successfully securing their first investment. The founders can look forward to hands-on workshops and individual coaching from experienced mentors and investors who help participants sharpen their business models and find the right investors. The program content ranges from financing strategies and pitch techniques to negotiations and legal aspects of corporate governance — everything you need to know on your way to investing! However, Investment SHeroes not only offers participants the necessary expertise, but also valuable networking opportunities with investors, experienced entrepreneurs and experts as well as gaining a great deal of visibility, for example at Germany's largest STARTUP OPEN AIR. The program starts in May 2025, applications are still open until 20.04.2025 here possible! We are looking forward to seeing you! 🌟
Until then, stay connected with us and everyone else, take the step into founding and let's move the startup world forward together! Take advantage of the numerous offers, as well as our two accelerator programs HUBGRADE and HUBGRADE CYBER, exchange ideas and continue working on your innovative ideas. #EmpoWOMENt on one 🙏
