The Grow F program is equity free. Nevertheless, we expect full commitment from our participants. Therefore, we take a down payment of €1000 in the case of acceptance. We transfer this money back to you when you successfully participated in Grow F.

What is more, we take a success fee in the case of successful fundraising from equity investment. The amount is set with 5% of the total investment sum with a cap of € 20k. This means (for example):

• Capital raised € 70k = € 3.500 success fee
• Capital raised € 150k = € 7.500 success fee
• Capital raised € 900k = € 20.000 success fee

The success fee is taken for the sum of equity investment that is closed from the beginning of the program until 15 months after the program has ended. There are several exceptions, such as if you already have investor LOIs when the program starts. You will find out everything about it during the application process.

Yes, usually half of the startups going into our program already have angel investors on board when joining the program. We do have a focus on the fundraising process overall and institutional investors. As you can also see from our experts, we work with many VC funds delivering sessions. 

The program has an overall time commitment of roughly 40 hours, we usually have 1-2 sessions per week with an average of 2 hours. All our sessions are highly interactive. You will also have a mentor that works with you throughout the program. In addition, there are individual check-ins with the Female Founders team working with you on your pitch deck and pitch. 

Yes, the program is fully virtual as of now. 

Yes please! We are very happy to welcome gender mixed teams to the program. 

No –startups from all over the world can apply!

We encourage startups from all industries to apply (e.g. Health, Femtech, Fintech, Deep Tech, Marketplaces / Platforms, Mobility & Logistics, GovTech, GreenTech)

We have two batches a year – one that is running from October to January and one that runs from April to June. 

After completing the online application, a jury consisting of VC experts and Female Founder representatives will shortlist a group of startups based on objective criteria. We will schedule calls with all shortlisted startups for further interviews. The acceptance/rejection feedback will be sent out shortly afterwards.

Yes, there will be a virtual demo day where we invite our whole network of investors. What is more, there are also further opportunities to present your startup to our network.

We provide many services for our alumni:

• You have access to the Slack group and thereby stay in touch with a growing group of international female founders and experts
• Fast track to our “Everything about sessions”
• Access to our exclusive founders retreats (work in progress)
• Ongoing invitations to events such as Lead Today. Shape Tomorrow and other opportunities (tickets etc.)
• Discounted rates for our leadership program Lead F
• Access to all Grow F Perks 
• Portfolio Newsletter
• Individual support by the Female Founders team 

Please reach out to antonella@female-founders.org – We look forward to hearing from you!