The gaping gender gap in the European deep tech sector has cost it almost €200 billion over the past 10 years, new research has found. Women-led companies have had significantly less representation in both IPO and non-IPO exits, despite bringing in more value per exit than their male-led counterparts.

Which new research? Where’s the link? The rest of the article seems to be correlation, not causation. You can have a company comprised 100% of women, but if there’s little diversity in thought, it won’t necessarily fare any better than a company comprised 100% of men. Both can easily have old heads at the top blocking any innovation from the bottom because “things have always been like this”. Diversity doesn’t just mean sex, it means age, education, descent, culture, lifestyle, and many other things. Narrowing it all the way down to sex is not seeing the forest for trees.

Currently, only four of the world’s top 50 tech companies are European. A Google report published in October 2024 found that Europe spends only 2% of its GDP on tech research. By contrast, the US spends 3%, and South Korea and Israel spend over 5%.

This to be seems like a bigger factor in why Europe lags behind in tech innovation. Also, starting a business in Europe is not easy. There’s barely any help and mentoring for start-ups, getting funding isn’t easy, there are many regulations to be aware of, and getting a lawyer can easily set you back 1k€ or more before you even start making money.