A 24-month ISTKA guided project that meets women entrepreneurs’ needs, from the idea stage through to access to investment, with a permanent knowledge centre and an acceleration model
- Project development and feasibility consultancy
- Design of the implementation model and activity architecture
- Financial planning and preparation of the application file
The need
Women entrepreneurs’ access to finance, expert mentors, R&D infrastructure and investors remains fragmented across different institutions. In 2023 investment data, only 97 of the 699 founders of funded start-ups were women (13.9%), making visible the gap in representation and the information asymmetry in the investment ecosystem. There was therefore a need for a permanent, women-focused innovative entrepreneurship centre that would manage the journey from idea to investment from a single point.
Force & Brothers’ approach
Force & Brothers prepared the project and feasibility design that turns KADEM’s seven years of camp experience into a permanent Innovative Women’s Entrepreneurship Knowledge Centre model. The model brings together level analysis, individual development plans, mentoring, thematic accelerators, Easy Access to R&D infrastructure, an e-catalogue, Demo Day, an investor club and crowdfunding tools across three service lines: entrepreneur development, promotion and facilitation, and investment and funding.
Outcome
Designed for a 24-month implementation, the model brought women entrepreneurs together with technoparks, research infrastructure and investors in a continuous service mechanism. In this way, an ecosystem infrastructure was established that goes beyond a periodic programme, whose success can be tracked through indicators and which institutionalises investment readiness.
Deliverables
- 1 knowledge centre, 2 training/meeting rooms and a 5-person project team
- Level analysis, development plans, consultancy and mentoring for 150 women entrepreneurs
- 2 accelerator programmes in food-agriculture technologies and biotechnology, with intensive support for 10 entrepreneurs
- 2 national and 1 international entrepreneurship camps
- Entrepreneur–investor matchmaking through 4 Demo Days and 4 Knowledge Centre meetups
