International Women’s Day 2021: An inspiring discussion on fundraising for tech startups

09.03.2021 15:15, Isabelle Mitchell

To celebrate International Women’s Day, Venturelab kicked off a new series of panel discussions that put the spotlight on women tech entrepreneurs in Switzerland and provides inspiration and support to ensure the innovation ecosystem can grow stronger. “Instead of one event on one day of the year, we wanted to make sure that we support women entrepreneurs throughout the year. We hope that our discussion series will not only inspire but also remind people of the power of diversity and inclusion,” explained Venturelab Program Manager Selina Schmid, who organized the panel.

Finding precise data on the percentage of women-founded startups in Switzerland, the types of startups they found, and the amount of money they raise is challenging. One statement that is often cited is that there are 20% of women-founded startups across all types of startups in Switzerland. When looking at the science- and tech-based startups, however, the number is even lower, with only 10%. Unfortunately, this lack of data continues for investments: Only 2% of venture capital money is invested into women-founded startups on an international level. 

Nevertheless, women succeed and transform the tech startup ecosystem. For our discussion panel, four women shared their experiences and advice with about 100 audience members. For anyone who could not join the panel, we collected some insights from our four experts: 

Eugenia Balysheva is the co-founder and CEO of Dotphoton, a startup that was founded in 2018 and specializes in raw image data compression for critical applications and AI. In 2020, Dotphoton raised a seven-digit pre-Series A round from Swiss private investors. Eugenia is also a professional photographer and has worked as an independent photographer before founding Dotphoton.

Angès Petit Markowski is the founder and CEO of MOBBOT, a startup that offers 3D concrete printing technology to customers in the utility infrastructure industry. Founded in 2018, MOBBOT raised a seed round of CHF 2.9 million from VCs and business angels last year. Agnès has a PhD from ETH Zurich and has worked in the industry before founding MOBBOT.

Patricia Montesinos interacts with female entrepreneurship as an entrepreneur, business angel, and startup coach and jury member in the Swiss startup ecosystem. She is also the president of the FE+MALE think tank, a Zurich-based non-profit association that aims to empower, foster, and uplift female entrepreneurship in Switzerland and abroad. Patricia is the author of the book Female Entrepreneurs & Investors, we dare but we don’t match!.

Gina Domanig is the founder and managing partner of Emerald Technology Ventures, a globally recognized venture capital firm focused on energy, water, advanced materials, and industrial IT investing in North America and Europe. Gina founded Emerald Technology Ventures in 2000 and currently serves on the boards of several portfolio companies and national and international corporations.



The power of diversity
“Startups with a mixed founding team performed on average 63% better than the ones with all-male founders. If there is diversity at the table, there is a bigger chance of getting funded. Research shows that the chances for raising funds for teams that include men and women can be up to three times higher than all-men or all-women teams.” — Patricia Montesinos 

Fundraising experiences
“The first year, I was just trying to understand who the investors were. It was a lot of work. When you become a startup founder, you wake up, and everyone assumes that you must understand everything from labor law to fundraising to your own topics. And you have to learn, and it is a huge and steep learning curve to understand how startup investment works.” — Eugenia Balysheva

“I was trying to understand who the investors were, their motivation, and their understanding of the challenges and opportunities. For me, the relationship with the investor is more challenging than marriage. With an investor, it can be more difficult to master challenges, and I really needed to be 200% sure that I have the right investors with my company and that they invest for the right reasons.” — Agnès Petit Markowski 

Pitching and leadership 
“When you go to Rome, you are not trying to speak German. You are going to adapt. If you are pitching to men, then adapt to it. You will not lose your authenticity; you just adapt to your audience. By figuring out how to communicate to be more effective, we adapt to our audience.” — Gina Domanig

“Communication with investors has a lot to do with risk assessment. I think women have a different way of assessing risk. I am very scientific, and I have an analytical way to assess risk—maybe too much. When I try to communicate with an investor, I need to figure out if they can counterbalance my lack of risk-taking. I know where my weaknesses are, so I am looking for an investor who takes more risk but who is open to having a constructive discussion about it.” — Agnès Petit Markowski

“We go with the assumption that to succeed, we need to raise many millions and build a unicorn. Yes, many companies will do that but not every company in the world wants to be a unicorn. It is absolutely great that there are so many entrepreneurs who go build a nice beautiful pony. They create employment and contribute to society, and I think this is brilliant. Success is not measured only by how much money you raise.” — Eugenia Balysheva

“Raising funds is about dedication and preparation. Know where you meet and whom you meet. Then you can adapt to that audience. It does not matter if you are a man or a woman; you need to be ready, prepared, and fearless.” — Patricia Montesinos 

Advice for women entrepreneurs
“Dedication and execution have no gender. What matters is preparation and determination. I also wanted to encourage women to shape the future equally as men and not leave men alone within technologies such as robotics, AI, or 3D printing. Join these technologies, too, and ask for support and training. Be ready for the future, and be fearless.” — Patricia Montesinos

“Dare to ask. Dare to ask for more than you want. Double what you ask for. Be more ambitious. Do not be afraid to be more ambitious.” — Agnès Petit Markowski

“Sometimes, women might not have the confidence because they are not encouraged. If you don’t have an example, you have to create one for yourself and others. What is the worst thing that could happen if you write an email to a powerful person at a powerful company? Probably some discomfort. But what are you losing? They might not answer, but I can live with that. This helps to build a thicker skin.” — Eugenia Balysheva

“Be overly ambitious. We are going to discount it anyway. If everyone is overly ambitious and you are more realistic, we are going to discount that to something that may not be that attractive anymore. We do not want you to be ridiculous, but we depend on people to be overly optimistic. We have learned to put in risk factors, discount things, add buffers for unforeseen events. For us to have confidence in you, you need to show us that you have confidence in yourself.” — Gina Domanig