Women TechEU’s fourth open call officially closed on the 4 August 2025. The EU-funded initiative has again received a record number of applications: 1 107 from 43 eligible countries, including 27 widening countries.
Geographic diversity of applications
The final fourth call drew applicants from a vast array of countries, showcasing a truly pan-European reach. The United Kingdom led the submissions with 193 applications, followed by Türkiye with 125, a particularly notable figure given its status as a widening country. Other strong contenders included France (93), Spain (85), Germany (72), and the Netherlands (44). With 27 of the 43 eligible countries classified as widening countries, Women TechEU continues to extend its impact into underrepresented innovation ecosystems.
Sectoral representation
The fourth call showcased a great spread across multiple deep tech domains. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (including Big Data) led the way, with (53.6%) of applicants selecting this sector, showing its critical role in shaping future innovation. Biotechnology, Life Sciences, and Agri tech followed at (29.9%), highlighting the sustained importance of breakthroughs in healthcare and agriculture. Sustainable Energy, Clean Technologies, and Green tech accounted for (16.4%) of applications, reflecting the strong commitment of women in deep tech to advancing environmental sustainability.
Other significant sectors included Advanced Materials (9.3%), Other (6.9%), Advanced Manufacturing (6.0%) and Internet of Things, W3C, and Semantic Web (4.9%). Emerging trends were also apparent in Cybersecurity and Data Protection (4.1%), Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Metaverse (3.5%), Advanced Computing /Quantum Computing (2.9%), Aerospace, Automotive and Remote Sensing (2.7%), as well as Web 3.0, Blockchain, and Distributed Ledgers (2.7%), pointing to an increasing interest in decentralised technologies. Other niche sectors such as, Electronics and Photonics (2.3%), Robotics (2.1%), Communications and Networks, including 5G/6G (1.4%), and Semiconductors (microchips) (0.6%) also made their mark, reflecting the diversity of deep tech innovation.
With a total of 1 652 sector selections across 1 107 applications, the data highlights the multidisciplinary nature of women-led deep tech start-ups and their capacity to bridge diverse technological domains. In this category, however, companies could indicate multiple sectors of operation, meaning these figures do not represent a direct one-to-one correlation between the number of companies, sectors, or the percentage of companies within each sector.
Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) of start-ups
The submitted applications displayed a broad spectrum of TRLs, reflecting the varying stages of maturity among deep tech start-ups. Given that only TRLs 3 through 6 were eligible for the programme, the majority of accepted applications fell within this range. TRL 3 (151 start-ups) and TRL 4 (312 startups) were the most prevalent, while TRL 5 (285 start-ups) and TRL 6 (233 start-ups) also represented a significant share, emphasising the initiative’s focus on supporting start-ups in the validation and demonstration phases. Of the 1 107 applications evaluated, 981 met the eligibility requirements in terms of TRL, while 126 were deemed ineligible due to their TRL. This distribution highlights Women TechEU’s strategic role in advancing early-to-mid-stage innovations, ensuring that promising technologies receive essential support to progress toward commercialisation.
DataHub: showcasing innovation
To promote the achievements of the selected start-ups, Women TechEU continues to improve its dedicated DataHub. This online platform offers a deep dive into the winning start-ups, helping to foster connections and amplify their presence within the deep tech community. It’s a valuable resource for investors, policymakers, and innovators eager to discover the groundbreaking work being led by women across diverse technological fields. Explore the DataHub at: https://datahub.womentecheurope.eu
What’s next?
The fourth call marked the final call of the current iteration of the Women TechEU initiative. From this round, 39 beneficiaries will be selected to join the programme and receive support, joining an additional winner originally selected from the third round of applications following a successful appeal procedure. Each selected start-up will receive a €75 000 grant (non-dilutive funding) alongside a personalised business development programme, which includes mentoring, coaching, and targeted training. With this support, the programme aims to empower more women-led start-ups in the deep tech space.
Looking ahead, the journey of all Women TechEU winners will be shared through upcoming highlights in the project’s newsletter and on social media, where their achievements and impact in deep tech across Europe will continue to be showcased.
For stakeholders interested in collaborating to promote the Women TechEU scheme through a physical or virtual activity, the consortium encourages reaching out to the dedicated Events Team at eventswomentecheurope [dot] eu (events[at]womentecheurope[dot]eu) .
For more information
All relevant details can be found on the Women TechEU website. For any questions regarding the Women TechEU scheme, please contact the official Helpdesk Team at helpdesk
womentecheurope [dot] eu (helpdesk[at]womentecheurope[dot]eu).