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Austrian organisation Female Founders launches €20m fund to drive gender diversity in tech

The new fund has already made its first close of €12.5 million to date

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Co-founders Nina Wöss and Lisa-Marie Fassl

The Austrian organisation Female Founders has announced a €20m VC fund to invest in gender-diverse founder teams.

Fund F aims to foster equal opportunities for female entrepreneurs in the European tech ecosystem, driving investment in pre-seed and seed start-ups with at least one female founder in sectors including femtech, health tech, fintech, climate tech and HR tech.

The fund’s LP base includes entrepreneurs, angels, and family offices. It has already raised €12.5m from the Austrian bank Raiffeisen-Landesbank Steiermark, the VC fund Speedinvest and Austria Wirtschaftsservice, the promotional bank of the Austrian federal government.

Female Founders, an organisation based in Vienna, Europe’s hub for female entrepreneurship, was founded in 2016 by Lisa-Marie Fassl and Nina Woss to drive gender diversity in tech and innovation in Europe through accelerator and leadership programmes, events and networking.

The company provides founders with products, services and opportunities in the areas of start-ups and investment, talent and its growing community to help make that mission a reality.

“Our first close happened in October at over €12.5m and was over-subscribed,” the two founders said in a social media post.

“Now, we are thrilled to start investing in and supporting gender-diverse founder teams.

“Our main focus industries include femtech, health tech, fintech, climate tech and HR Tech and we are looking for start-ups ready to tackle the world’s many issues and positively impact humanity.”

The Fund F plans to invest in 25-30 pre-seed and seed stage companies that have at least one female co-founder in the next four years. Initial ticket sizes will be between €100,000-€400,000.

Austria is gaining a reputation as a hub for female start-up founders. More than 35 per cent of all start-ups created in Austria had at least one female founder, with women making up 18 per cent of the total of all start-up founders, up from 12 per cent in 2018.

According to the Federal Ministry of Labor and Economy (BMAW), Austria currently has the highest share of female start-ups in the EU.

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Last chance to save on Women’s Health Week and Women’s Sport Summit: Early Bird pricing ends 11 September

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Early bird pricing for W Group’s two flagship October summits – Women’s Health Week Europe 2026 and Women’s Sport Summit Europe 2026 – closes on 11 September.

Both events take place at Emirates Stadium, London, bringing together founders, investors, corporates, and industry leaders shaping the future of women’s health and sport.

Women’s Health Week Europe 2026

7-8 October | Emirates Stadium, London

This year’s edition will be Women’s Health Week Europe biggest one yet: with 700+ attendees, 80+ speakers, and 20+ sponsors, it will also feature two stages – a Global Stage covering market trends and policy, and a Scale Stage focused on company-level growth and commercialisation. WHW takes place across two days of content, business matchmaking, and dealmaking.

Agenda highlights include:

  • Where Capital Flows: Funding Trends in Women’s Health – with Merete Clausen (EIF), Ekaterina Gianelli (Calm/Storm), Henriette Hessen (Verdane), Jemma Day (British Business Bank), Ravit Warsha Dor (Telus Global Ventures), Tim Davis (LSEG)
  • Six Feet Under-funded: Surviving the Valley of Death in Women’s Health – with Patric Stenberg (Gesynta Pharma), Valentina Milanova (Daye), Amber Vodegel (28x)
  • The Women’s Health Label – Gift or Curse? · Live Debate – with Juan Camilo Arjona Ferreira (organon), Marissa Fayer (DeepLook Medical), Christian Lautner (Heal Capital), Annie Theriault (CBIV), Ida Tin (Clue)
  • Passport to Scale: Taking Your Women’s Health Business Global – with Vanessa Carpenter (Femtech Across Borders), Annie Theriault (CBIV), Victorine Lançon (Daya Ventures), Dr Mridula Pore (Peppy)

Early bird pricing (ends 11 September):

Ticket typeEarly birdStandard
Startups, Scaleups, Investors, Non-Profits, Government£599 + VAT£699 + VAT
Corporates, Payors & Providers£1,799 + VAT£1,999 + VAT
Service Providers & Consultants£3,299 + VAT£3,499 + VAT

Register for Women’s Health Week Europe | See the full agenda for WHW

Women’s Sport Summit Europe 2026

6 October | Emirates Stadium, London

The first-ever Women’s Sport Summit expands W Group’s expertise in connecting key decision-makers to the sports industry.

WSS brings together rights holders, brands, investors, athletes, and media to accelerate commercial growth across the sector.

Agenda highlights include:

  • From capital to crowd: the women’s sport cycle at scale – with Omar Shaikh (Arsenal FC), Nicole McWilliams (Google), Kerstin Lutz (Mercury13), Jo Currie (BBC Sport)
  • Women’s sport through the investor lens: what gets funded – and why – Hugo Sever (APEX Capital)
  • Rethinking ROI: what are we measuring that doesn’t actually matter? – Fi Watherston (Metro Bank), Silvia Keiser (Billie Jean King Cup), Gabriel Akin-Odujobi (Crux Football), Tammy Parlour (WST)
  • Beyond the 90 minutes: matchday as a commercial product, not just a fixture – Maggie Murphy (Aston Villa Women FC), Sam Feasey (Diageo/Guinness), Molly Miller (OneFootball), Megan Feringa (The Athletic/The New York Times)

Early bird pricing (ends 11 September):

Ticket typeEarly birdStandard
General Pass£299 + VAT£399 + VAT
Service Providers & Consultants£1,799 + VAT£1,999 + VAT

Register for Women’s Sport Summit Europe | See the full agenda for WSS

Attending both events?

For group tickets or to attend both summits this October, contact Callum, W Group’s Client Success Lead, at [email protected].

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KOVE Medical raises €1.7 million to improve safety of foetal surgery

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KOVE Medical has raised €1.7 million to support first-in-human studies of an implantable device designed to reduce preterm birth risk after foetal surgery.

The University of Zurich spin-off is developing a device designed to close defects left by surgical instruments following fetoscopy, a minimally invasive procedure performed inside the womb.

Fetoscopies can treat life-threatening conditions before birth but require surgical instruments to pass through the uterine wall and amniotic sac.

This can weaken the protective membrane, causing fluid leakage or rupture and often leading to preterm birth.

KOVE Medical said in a statement on LinkedIn: “This is a crucial step forward for our company, and we are incredibly grateful for the strong support and trust from our syndicate of visionary angel investors.”

KOVE Medical says its device closes the defect at the end of the procedure, stabilising the membrane and preventing complications. The aim is to make in-utero interventions safe enough to become a standard method of care.

The company plans to use the seed funding to reach first-in-human studies, a key milestone for a medical device seeking regulatory approval.

The CHF1.6m round was backed by a syndicate of angel investors.

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WHIS 2026 adds 18 new speakers to October summit agenda

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The Women’s Health Innovation Summit (WHIS), the event uniting the global  women’s health ecosystem, has just announced 18 new speakers joining the agenda for  its 2026 summit, taking place October 13–15 at Encore Boston Harbor.

The latest additions bring further depth across pharma, clinical research, health  systems, venture, and policy, reinforcing WHIS’s role as the only platform where the full women’s health ecosystem convenes under one roof.

Newly confirmed speakers include:

  • Kelle Moley, MD – VP, Women’s Health Early Phase Clinical Development, Cardiometabolic Research, Eli Lilly & Company
  • Justine Levin-Allerhand – Executive Partner, Chief Corporate Development Officer & COO, Flagship Labs, Flagship Pioneering
  • Sebnem Yildirimoglu, MD, PMP – Executive Director, Women’s Health Strategy, Premier Research
  • Terri Stewart – Head of Global Healthcare & Government Affairs, EMD Serono
  • Dr. Morag Grassie – Executive Director, Blavatnik Fund for Innovation, Yale
  • Sandra Butler – Director, Design Impact, Mass General Brigham
  • Zhenya Lindgardt – Chief Executive Officer, Sera Prognostics
  • Sadie Morahan – Head of US Revenue, Withings Health Solutions
  • Angela Drew, PhD – Vice President, Regulatory Strategy, Premier Research
  • Dr. Stephanie Lahr – CMIO, Aqurio
  • Michelle Andrews – Contributing Writer, KFF Health News
  • Charlotte Williams – CEO, My Bump Hub
  • Clint Dart, MS – Director, NIH Women’s Health Data Coordinating Center, Premier Research
  • Cass Sanford – US Venture Advisor, FemTech Lab
  • Megan Mukuria – Founder & CEO, ZanaAfrica
  • Tiffany Inglis, MD, FACOG – Chief Medical Officer, Sera Prognostics
  • Angelean Hendrix, PhD – Vice President, Pharmacometrics and MIDD, Premier Research
  • Amanda Ducach – CEO & Co-founder, EmaEQ

“WHIS is where the women’s health industry comes together to take action,” said Poppy Howard-Wall, Event Director at WHIS.

“This latest wave of speakers reflects exactly the kind of cross-sector expertise our attendees expect – from global pharma and clinical research leadership to venture, health systems, and grassroots innovation.

“It’s this breadth that makes WHIS the room where things actually move forward.”

Bringing the Full Ecosystem Together

These additions join a growing 2026 agenda spanning four content tracks that reflect the  full lifecycle of healthcare innovation, from early-stage research and development  through to patient delivery, system transformation, and commercial scale.

Attendees can expect over 1,000 senior decision-makers, 120+ expert speakers, four dedicated stages, and more than 10 hours of curated 1:1 meetings.

Full speaker and agenda details are available at whisusa.com/speakers-2026.

About WHIS

The Women’s Health Innovation Summit is the only platform uniting the full women’s  health ecosystem – providers, payers, employers, pharma leaders, investors, and innovators -to increase deal flow, expand reimbursement, improve access, and deliver better outcomes for women at every stage of life.

 

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