Despite the fact that there are more women than ever founding and managing companies, the support and visibility given to leading female figures in the tech and innovation sector remains essential for the achievement of gender equality.
To this end, Startup Valencia and Demium gathered a large group of business women from the Valencian tech and innovation ecosystem on International Women’s Day to meet first-hand two leading entrepreneurs who are founders and leaders of disruptive projects: Pilar Prados, CEO & Co-Founder of Bounsel, and Magdalena Gajda, CMO & Co-Founder of Talentomnia, a startup that was born in Demium’s incubation programme.
The aim of this meetup, moderated by Ángela Castelló from Demium and Karina Virrueta from Startup Valencia, was to call attention to the role and reality of businesswomen in the field of entrepreneurship in order for women’s representation in the startup ecosystem to continue growing exponentially.
Pilar Prados emphasised that “Valencia’s growth in recent years on the cutting-edge of technology has been incredible”. In her speech she commented that “as women we’re good at arranging work and family commitments in our schedules in order to maximise the time we spend with our loved ones.” Pilar considers that “thanks to this ‘multi-tasking’ ability that makes us much more attentive to detail, we women have developed a sixth sense to detect flaws when it comes to managing a project”. She ended her speech with a motivational message for the women who attended the meetup: “I encourage you to never give up, to undertake new projects, to be brave, and to be fighters, all while learning along the way“.
Magdalena Gajda highlighted that “having this perfect balance between quality of life and professional opportunities in Valencia has offered me the opportunity to meet people with common goals and to be able to establish Talentomnia in this city”. Furthermore, Magdalena wished to point out that “in Valencia, where there are so many women entrepreneurs who share their inspiring stories, you feel supported to move forward and build self-confidence”. She concluded her participation by addressing the business women present: “Don’t be afraid, there are so many women entrepreneurs ready and willing to motivate one another and give each other strength. We’re proving that we’re worthy of leading an entrepreneurial project“.
Women in the Valencian entrepreneurial ecosystem
According to the report of the Startup Observatory of the Valencian Community carried out by Startup Valencia, more than a third of Valencian startups have been founded by women. More specifically, 40% of tech and innovation companies in the Valencian Community have at least one female co-founder in their team. Among the startups invested in by Demium, 36 of them stand out for having women in their co-founding teams, which represents 41% of the total number of those invested in by its partner fund.
In addition, of the more than 1,100 startups registered in the Observatory, 80% claim to be committed to gender equality and women’s empowerment as part of the Sustainable Development Goals drawn up by the United Nations.
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