Tuborgfondet has granted 4.045.000 DKK to Even Founders, an organization dedicated to creating women founders, and increasing the investment opportunities for them. The grant aims to strengthen Even Founders’ mission to establish equal opportunities in the entrepreneurial world, particularly focusing on the work with their Startup School in Denmark, which provides women with the right tools, knowledge, and network from the earliest day of their entrepreneurial journey.

While numerous initiatives exist to support women founders in the Nordics, what makes Even Founders different is the stage at which they support founders, and that is at the very inception of the idea. Given that only around 25% of founders are women, Even Founder’s goal is to work to increase that number significantly. Women come to the Startup School because they have an idea, but are not sure how to start. Having tested the Startup School platform with 100 brave women so far, Even Founders is now ready to take it to the next level, and build the best possible program for women entrepreneurs who are looking to start a company.

“Research shows that 30% of women founders who start with an idea, never establish a business (compared to men). Having worked with 100 women already, we have develop insights on what we can do to better support them. Our goal is to remove all possible barriers for women who want to become entrepreneurs and build scalable companies” — says Ana Andonovska, a co-founder of Even Founders, heading the Startup School."

Behind Even Founders is an ambitious team with experience working on both sides of the table, as entrepreneurs, operators, and investors. Based out of Denmark, the team has for the past three years established themselves as a central actor in the ecosystem, having partnered with many Nordic players, including VCs, accelerators, and different initiatives. They have also gathered a wealth of knowledge about women founders, having built the largest database of women-founded companies in the Nordics.

“From the beginning, our organization has been impact and mission-driven. This is a systemic problem and to move the needle on this agenda, we therefore need to work with the whole ecosystem simultaneously, from current and future founders, to accelerator programs, investors and policy makers. Everyone has a role to play and look forward to sharing our findings on how we can jointly improve and do better to create even opportunities for all founders.”— says Ella Rytsölä, a co-founder who is heading impact at Even Founders."

Even Founders believes that in order to close the gap we need to do the hard work — create an ecosystem where women can fast-track their progress with hands on support, providing the right tools and methods that have been tested before, and bring them close to the network they need to succeed.

Even Founders’ Startup School offers a free 8-week program where women gain access to an online learning platform with courses that can be taken whenever and wherever, which helps founders understand that they don’t need to leave their full time job if they are not ready, but can still test their startup idea. Additionally, founders get access to the whole ecosystem and get a chance to build a network in the ecosystem.

Pernille Brems, Program Manager for Labor Market projects at the Tuborg Foundation, says:

“There is a great need to break down barriers and put much more focus on women entrepreneurs in society. Even Founders are the right actors to strengthen this agenda, while at the same time providing up to 200 young women with inspiration and support for entrepreneurship through their Startup School. We are very much looking forward to following the project.”

Tuborgfondet and Even Founders look forward to strengthen women’s entrepreneurship and foster a more inclusive and diverse startup culture in the Nordics.