Inside the Investors Edition: Empowering Women-Led Startups Across Borders
Driving Pan-European Female Leadership and Investment Synergies
On May 21, 2025, the European Women Innovation Ecosystem Online Workshop (Investors Edition) brought together over 30 participants from across Europe to explore the intersection of gender, geography, and investment in innovation. Hosted by Luxinnovation — Luxembourg’s national innovation agency — and co-moderated by Inna Perepelytsya, Mathilde Hampert, and Olena Malchyk, the event was a direct response to the demand voiced during the January 2025 Female Entrepreneurs’ Workshop. That earlier session, detailed in this article, highlighted the urgent need to better understand investor expectations for women-led startups.
The UASEEDs Female Entrepreneurship and Leadership Program recognizes that strengthening female-led entrepreneurship is not just a gender equity task — it is part of the broader mission of pan-European innovation integration. That’s why Luxinnovation, as a Seeds of Bravery partner, has prioritized these thematic workshops, connecting local needs with EU-wide resources and expertise.
Reverse Pitch: Investors Take the Stage
The session opened with a dynamic reverse pitch, flipping the traditional format to let investors present themselves to founders. This transparent approach encouraged founders to better understand how to connect with the right funding partner.
Featured Investors:
- Daria Yaniieva, Sigma Software Labs – A corporate venture fund with global reach and a portfolio of 25 early-stage companies. Strong focus on tech and defense innovation.
- Petro Sovyak-Krukovskyy, Vesna Capital – A Ukrainian VC fund with €10M AUM, 19 portfolio companies, and a strong founder-turned-investor approach.
- Zhenni Liang, Redcap Ventures – A Stockholm-based firm backed by 80+ women angels, investing exclusively in women-led pre-seed/seed stage startups.
Panel Discussion: Bridging Gaps in Gender and Geography
The subsequent panel discussion tackled the hard truths: Why do women-led startups receive just 2% of global VC funding? Investors shared candid insights into their portfolios, success stories, and how they address unconscious bias:
- Vesna Capital: 39% of startups invested in had female co-founders.
- Sigma Software Labs: is a part of a global IT consultancy, Sigma Software Group, that has 35% of women in the team and 50% in leadership roles. Working with promising startups, Sigma Software Labs is proud to witness the growth of women co-founders up to 30-40% even in such traditionally “male” areas as defense tech and military tech.
- Redcap Ventures: 100% of investments in women-led startups.
Panelists emphasized the importance of diverse teams, not just for inclusion, but for better performance. They also called attention to the role of cultural shifts over policy mandates in driving real investor behavior change.
“In venture, we know the team matter just as much as tech. We look for founders with execution and bold vision, and we believe diverse teams combine different perspectives and stronger execution. The more we create spaces like this workshop, the more we help founders build not just companies, but resilient, future-ready leadership.” – Daria Yaniieva, Sigma Software Labs
Takeaways for Founders:
- Ask for feedback and analyze investor responses after every pitch.
- Be bold in communicating your values and needs — don’t undersell.
- Team strength and leadership matter just as much as your tech.
Startup Pitching: Vision, Validation & Feedback
Two female founders took the virtual stage in our Startup Pitching Session:
- Anastasiia Pustylnyk (Anima, Ukraine): A mental wellness SaaS solution with an AI coach and neuroscience-based eye-tracking to assess mental states in real time — helping teams stay focused, productive, and resilient. Targeting B2B clients with 90,000 users.
- Virginia Strong (Partao, Luxembourg): A marketplace and SaaS platform for agricultural and heavy equipment spare parts, with a strong founding team and European go-to-market strategy.
Investors offered constructive feedback on product-market fit, regulatory pathways, competitive landscape, and scalability.
“Mental wellness is one of the most urgent global challenges of our time — it’s not a ‘nice to have,’ it’s a fundamental need. At Anima, we revolutionize mental health assessments using advanced neuroscientific and eye-tracking technologies to address burnout, anxiety, and depression — issues impacting teams and leaders across every industry and geography. As we scale, platforms like this workshop are essential: they give women-led teams the visibility and opportunity to connect with the right investors and bring life-changing solutions to the global stage.” – Anastasiia Pustylnyk, COO, Anima.
What’s Next: More Than Just Capital
Participants agreed that one key area deserving deeper focus is how to interpret and act on investor feedback. This led to a proposed idea for a follow-up workshop exploring:
- Understanding and implementing feedback
- Building and leading resilient teams
- Hiring strategically in early-stage startups
Early-stage investors often place as much emphasis on team and leadership as they do on metrics — particularly in pre-seed and seed phases. This reinforces the importance of workshops dedicated to founder development, team dynamics, and inclusive leadership.
Resources & Future Opportunities
Participants were also encouraged to stay engaged through several opportunities and resources:
📊 Mapping & upcoming events for women innovators
Follow the Seeds of Bravery journey online for updates, impact metrics, and future programming:
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The May 2025 edition of the European Women Innovation Ecosystem Workshop stood as a testament to the power of community, collaboration, and cross-border insight. By blending perspectives from Ukraine, Luxembourg, and across Europe — and putting both investors and founders on equal footing — the workshop created a dynamic space where innovation is not just inclusive but strategic.
The seeds of bravery are not only being planted — they are already growing.