Women are seriously underrepresented in this business angel asset class in Europe, particularly when one considers other aspects of women’s participation in the business and leadership ecosystem:

• Women comprise up to 40% of entrepreneurs;

• Women comprise, on average, 11.5% of Boards in Europe, with significantly higher proportions evident in Sweden, Finland and Norway;

• Women control around 50% of the world’s wealth.

EBAN believes that women should comprise a major business angel investor segment in Europe and that the EU should support initiatives to increase the number of women business angels with a goal of achieving a level of 20% of business angel investors in Europe by 2015. EBAN believes that, once the target of 20% is achieved, there will be a self-sustaining critical mass of women investors, a level that will remove the need for further intervention to actively stimulate and support the participation of women as business angels.

To achieve this objective it will be essential to:

• Understand the barriers faced by women in becoming business angel investors.

• Implement a program of best practices combined with incentives to the BANs and public authorities for cultivating women angels.

EBAN sees the effort to bring more women angels to the market as part of a broader effort to stimulate the business angel market and diversify the private investor base so that it includes more women, more ethnicities and more age groups. Developing mechanisms to increase the number of women business angels in the EU would achieve overall objectives to increase business angel investment generally and improve the BANs’ efficacy through the twin influences of diversified intellectual capital and wider business networks.

EBAN White Paper Women & Early Stage Investing Report shows its contribution and support to women business angels and entrepreneurs. This research piece gathers special measures to impulse women participation in early stage investing and promotes different ways in which women participation in the business angel market can be increased further than its actual 5% of the European business angels. When an ecosystem is open to diversity, it is also open to new sectors of investee companies. Gender diversity will, therefore, enrich the early stage investment picture in Europe.

To find out more about EBAN's initiatives for Women & Early Stage Investing you are welcome to contact Chiara de Caro at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it