Consortium – Women TechEU

Women TechEU Consortium

Taking over from the sterling work carried out in the past by the European Commission, The Women TechEU project is currently being led by a consortium of partners from 8 countries across Europe with the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency remaining its granting authority.

The consortium partners cover all the expertise and geographies needed to reach over 15000 women entrepreneurs in deep tech from all over Europe.

Led by EIT Manufacturing, it is strengthened with the participation of other KICs from EIT – Health, Food and Climate – leveraging the power of their network and landmark events.

We also count with the expertise from Sploro in cascade funding programmes. AcrossLimits will guide the communication and dissemination activities as well as link in the service delivery with Awaken Hub, who will coordinate an effort to evaluate over 1500 applicants in 4 different open calls.

The consortium is also complemented by a number of major networks of investors and women entrepreneurs – EBAN, AFAEMME, WA4STEAM and Finance Innovation.

EIT Manufacturing

EIT Manufacturing is a knowledge and innovation community, supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union. It is the largest innovation network for the manufacturing industry in Europe and invests in its strategic and sustainable development. By connecting manufacturing companies, research organisations and universities in innovation ecosystems, EIT Manufacturing fosters the development of innovative technologies and the creation of globally competitive and sustainable manufacturing.

EITM West, headquartered in San Sebastian, Spain, is the coordinator of the project, whilst EITM South based in Italy and EITM East based in Austria are affiliated partners.

Sploro

Sploro is an innovation advisory firm from Spain with long experience in managing open innovation programmes and funds to support third parties internationally. Sploro is a word in Esperanto that means exploration. We were born as a company with the idea of becoming true explorers of innovation. Our mission is as simple as ambitious, we want to make innovation understandable and reachable for any organization through services and digital technologies.

AwakenHub

Hailing from Ireland, AwakenHub is an experienced all female team which enhances opportunities, access, and connectivity for female founders, removing barriers to investment, scaling, and success, with experience providing support and assistance through their community, We have no agenda other than to change the landscape for women founders and open up the investor community for women across Ireland – North and South and it’s diaspora. We welcome any woman founder or want-to-be founder to join us as well as allies who wish to support us and them.

AcrossLimits

AcrossLimits is a dynamic company primarily based in Malta, offering European solutions for technology, innovation, funding, networking, commercialisation and more. Their experience with helping start-ups access EU funding across Europe has helped them to build a large ecosystem of industry stakeholders and experts. AcrossLimits has also participated in multiple European Projects aimed towards helping start-ups scale up, including projects targeting research commercialisation and female entrepreneurship.

European Business Angels Network (EBAN)

European Business Angels Network is the pan-European representative for the early stage investor community gathering over 100 member organizations in more than 50 countries today. Established in 1999 by a group of pioneer angel networks in Europe with the collaboration of the European Commission and EURADA, EBAN represents a sector estimated to invest 11.4 billion Euros a year and playing a vital role in Europe’s future, notably in the funding of SMEs. EBAN fuels Europe’s growth through the creation of wealth and jobs.

Finance Innovation

A global competitiveness cluster created by the French government in 2007, and a trusted third party of public interest, Finance Innovation has a vast network of valuable members and partners to encourage innovation and research in the financial ecosystem with a special focus on women in the Fintech sector.

Finance Innovation supports financial startups in 7 business areas: Insurance, Banking, Sustainable and Responsible Finance, Asset Management, Corporate Finance, Real State/Smart City and Decentralize Finance. Our goal: help Fintech to grow by providing visibility, credibility, networking and fundraising assistance.Finance Innovation supports finance startups in 6 areas of activity: Insurance, Banking, Sustainable and Solidarity Finance, Asset Management, Corporate Management and Finance and Real Estate. Our goal: to help them grow by providing visibility, credibility, networking and fundraising assistance.

Association of Organisations of Mediterranean Businesswomen (AFAEMME)

AFAEMME is the Federation of Businesswomen Associations in the Mediterranean, launched in 2002 in Barcelona (Spain). AFAEMME currently comprises 65 businesswomen organisations from 24 Mediterranean countries. AFAEMME is a coordinator of Euro Mediterranean business, gender equality projects and ground-breaking research, it also serves as a networking platform for businesswomen and women entrepreneurs in the Euro Mediterranean region and a Lobby for strengthening gender equality and facilitating the access of women to decision-making positions in the economy.

EIT Food South S.L.

Our current food system is a leading cause of some of the biggest challenges the world is facing, from climate change, resource depletion and waste, to malnutrition, disease and obesity. At EIT Food, we accelerate innovation to build a future-fit food system that produces healthy and sustainable food for all. To achieve this, we are leading the world’s largest food innovation community. Through a missions-led approach, we put improving outcomes for people and planet as the starting point for our work. Supported by the EU, we invest in projects, organisations and individuals that share our goals for a healthy and sustainable food system. We unlock innovation potential in businesses and universities and create and scale agritech startups to bring new technologies and products to market. And we equip entrepreneurs and professionals with the skills needed to transform the food system and educate and inspire the next generation.

Asociacion EIT Health Spain

EIT Health is a network of best-in-class health innovators with approximately 120 partners and is supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union. We collaborate across borders to connect and enable the brightest minds from business, research, education, and healthcare delivery, creating a more conducive environment in which innovation can flourish. Together, we address the biggest health challenges Europe faces. At EIT Health Spain, a Co-Location Centre of EIT Health, we aim to be the reference body that brings together and mobilises the relevant players of the health innovation value chain in Spain, from the public and the private sectors, to drive and generate technology transfer, social and economic impact, and improve the quality of life of European citizens.

EIT Climate-KIC

EIT Climate-KIC is Europe’s leading climate innovation agency and community, using a systems approach to shape innovation to support cities, regions, countries and industries meet their climate ambitions.

Together with partners across the globe, EIT Climate-KIC acts to bridge the gap between climate commitments and current reality by enabling decision-makers and investors to act. They find and implement solutions in integrated ways and mobilise finance. They build skills to accelerate learning and explore innovation, opening pathways to shift mindsets and behaviours. Through radical collaboration, EIT Climate-KIC orchestrates large-scale demonstrations that show what is possible when cycles of innovation and learning are deliberately designed to trigger exponential decarbonisation and build resilient communities.

Past Partners

Asociación Women Angels For STEAM (WA4STEAM)

WA4STEAM is a growing international community of women angel investors seeking to expand women entrepreneurial presence in the STEAM fields. Our members are more than business angels driven by profitability, since they aim not only to provide seed capital, but also to become a strategic partner nurturing women future leaders and role models. Our members hold a wide variety of backgrounds with professional expertise in biosciences, mathematics, finance, engineering, law, accounting, communication, education and training. Altogether, these backgrounds combined, add significant value to the early stages of start-ups life cycle.

Advisory Board

The Advisory Board is our internal advisory board that gives the consortium guidance and an outside perspective on how the project is progressing. They are 4 incredible women in their own right, coming from diverse countries and industries. Their suggestions will help ensure that the Women TechEU project does not rest on its laurels but continues to strive for excellence and to ensure that we achieve the best impact we can.

Pilar Fernández Hermida

She is a global commercial expert with 20+ years’ launching successful commercial strategies across 6 continents (profit and non-profit). She was part of the leadership teams of Cisco and Wolters Kluwer. Amongst her accomplishments, she achieved double-digit growth Y/Y, raised $350M in funds, and helped hundreds of businesses and government institutions leverage technology to achieve their goals.

Currently, Pilar is the founder of i-Expand, a commercial strategy firm focused on assisting Tech companies grow and expand. The company has also launched the Go to Market Academy x i-Expand©. To date, more than 500+ companies have been through the programme.

Additionally, she serves as a Board member of Digital Health and Care Alliance (UK), Deggendorf Institute of Technology (Germany), and is an advisor, mentor and investor in several startups.

Pilar is fluent in 9 languages, holds 2 First-class degrees and is PMO-certified by Stanford.

Sasha Bezuhanova

She is a senior executive, serial angel investor, and philanthropist with a 20-years executive business career in HP. She founded several trendsetting initiatives driving sustainable solutions for society through innovation and collaboration.

Sasha serves as Chair of the Boards of Bulgarian Center of Women in Technologies and WWF Central Eastern Europe and is a member of the advisory group Women Climate Leaders Network (WCLN) to EIB.

She holds many awards for her contribution to Europe’s innovative development and women’s empowerment, among them – Digital Woman of Europe 2013 and Forbes 50 x50 female leaders 2024.

Sasha has earned an Executive Master’s Degree in International Negotiations and Policy Making in Graduate Institute, a Master’s Degree in Electronics, and has executive qualifications from INSEAD, Stanford, and others.

Claudia Blomgren-Hansen

She has an international legal background and more than 25 years of experience within the Life Science Industry. She provides specialised and business-oriented legal advisory and works closely with University spin-outs, start-ups and SMEs within Biotech/Medtech/Pharma both from Denmark and abroad. She is part of the jury members at EIC Accelerator programme since 2018 and the EU Prize for Women Innovators in 2021. She is the founder of Life Science Plus Advokater (her own advisory firm), co-founder of WiLD (Women in Life Science in Denmark association) and serves as a mentor (SPARK Denmark), board member and investor in start-ups.

Romana Krizova

Graduated at the Faculty of Philosophy of the Charles University in Prague. She has acted as an external expert for the European Commission and many other Government agencies in the EU since 1997. Romana and her companies co-ordinated many international research/business networks and consortia.

In 2005 she was an external expert on establishing a central Financial Mechanism Office – EEA Grants in Brussels. Since 2020 she is the CEO and founder of Business Friends that promotes and makes its members (business owners and CEOs) visible as much as possible and connects them across the country and abroad. She is also the co-owner at HandyBot, a robotic process automation (RPA) software company and a key Microsoft partner on RPA in the Czech republic. Romana is fluent in 5 languages.