Women are leaving tech - we need it to stop

Good morning there,

A growing number of women have been bowing out of European tech in the last few years, put off by a lack of support and the widespread “bro” culture of a male-dominated space. So what can we do? That was the focus of an event at Berlin’s Fraunhofer Institut yesterday. Sifted’s DACH reporter Miriam Partington has more below.

Women at startups, Sifted also wants to hear from you. What is your experience of working in European tech? Are you thinking of quitting this year? Fill in our anonymous survey, and we’ll publish the findings in the coming weeks.

Elsewhere today: 

• Europe’s best-funded nuclear startup raises €87m
• We sit down with GoCardless CEO Hiroki Takeuchi
• UiPath is investing $35m in French AI startup Holistic

— Kai Nicol-Schwarz, reporter

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Women are leaving tech - we need it to stop

There’s a lot of talk about how to attract and retain female talent in tech. For all the panels and events about diversity, however, knowing what to do to keep women in tech careers can be difficult.

It was the topic of conversation among female network leaders, tech employees and HR heads yesterday at the ‘Stay in Tech’ event at Berlin’s Fraunhofer Institut — an event aimed at helping companies identify ways to retain female colleagues. Women are fed up, people at the event said, and are leaving careers in tech for reasons including a lack of childcare support and career development. They also said that a pervasive “bro” culture makes them feel uncomfortable and underappreciated. 

There’s been an outflux of women from European tech in the last few years. Sifted reported in 2023 that tech layoffs at startups disproportionately affected women. Many female VCs also called time on the industry last year. 

One panel yesterday highlighted that a staggering 53% of women leave careers in tech after 10 years. At work, women feel they have to prove themselves more than men to be rewarded with the same opportunities or promotions. They then hit a glass ceiling. 

“The microaggressions women put up with over the years makes you think you’re not good enough,” said Gillian Arnold, managing director of Tectre, a diversity training and recruitment consultancy. “We need to break the system that puts us in that position. We don’t need to break ourselves.”

On stage, women said they weren’t given enough space to reach their potential, or even to speak up in meetings. “I often feel like I don't get enough time to talk, so I speak really quickly,” said Edna Kropp, tech lead at LivePerson, on a panel about how to retain female talent. “Part of me is always questioning whether it’s my background, whether I’m too relaxed or am not on my A game. I’ve been in this environment for 20 years and it’s just all too obvious who gets the high salary and the career options.”

Robert Baker, CEO of Potentia talent consulting, said some women he has spoken to feel they are “questioned constantly” about how they got their role in the company, while others said being talked over in meetings and ‘mansplained’ to had become unbearable.

He said men need to learn to understand the challenges women face at work to be better allies. “The best thing you can do as a man is join a board of a female network. Men are not used to being a minority. You learn so much about what it’s like to be in that situation and develop empathy,” he said. 

Leaders of diversity and inclusion consultancies and female networks told me companies with men in leadership positions often don’t know how to approach finding female talent or are unable to write job descriptions that appeal to women. They’re also often looking for a silver bullet without doing the real work.

“There’s a big gap between what organisations are saying they are doing about including women, and what they are doing. And if we don’t plug that gap, more women are going to leave the industry,” said Sarah Needham, cofounder for Womxn for Climate Tech and Innovation, a network supporting women working in climate tech.

Begonia Vazquez Merayo, founder and managing director of diversity recruiting, training and coaching consultancy Why Consult_Power of Diversity said it’s important for companies to look closer at which departments are losing the most female workers, and under which managers. “It’s about knowing in which areas of an organisation you can work effectively,” she said. Things like exit interviews are a good way to do this.

So, what else can be done?

Some people suggested researching and investing in inclusive hiring processes — so asking yourself if you need someone who ticks all the boxes in a job description, or ensuring you use inclusive language. Others suggested offering flexible work hours, asynchronous work and generous parental leave policies. It goes without saying but you should also have a zero tolerance culture for bullying and sexual harassment in the workplace.

Women at startups, we want to hear about your experience of working in tech. What has impacted your stress levels in the last year? What could your employer do to better support you at work? Are you thinking of leaving the industry this year? Please fill out our anonymous survey here — we’ll write up our findings in the coming weeks.

— Miriam Partington, reporter

💰 Edinburgh-based Malted AI has raised £6m to scale up its development of “distilled” GenAI models for businesses. The round was led by Hoxton Ventures and joined by Creator Fund and angel investors. 

• The company’s distillation process uses a “teacher” system that takes a company’s raw data and feeds it into a string of small, efficient language models, which the company can use to complete specialised tasks.

🦄 UK-based Newcleo, Europe’s best-funded — and only — unicorn nuclear startup has raised €87m. The company, which is developing lead-cooled small modular reactors (SMRs) fuelled with radioactive waste, said the round was the first close of a targeted €1bn fundraise. It brings its total funding to €487m, three years after its launch. 

🇸🇪 Swedish impact investor Norrsken VC has closed its second fund at €320m, above its target of €250m. It plans to make at least 30 investments in impact startups from the fund. LPs include Swedish institutional investors and the European Investment Fund (EIF), among others. Its portfolio companies include Northvolt, EV startup Einride and energy startup 1KOMMA5°.

💸 Software robotic automation company UiPath is investing $35.2mn in French AI startup Holistic, according to recent company filings. The investment is part of Holistic’s seed round, which is understood to be $200m — made up of $80m in equity and $120m in convertible bonds. 

• The filings also state that UiPath is planning to develop a “commercial partnership” with the French startup.

🗣️ 'We need to get to profitability quickly' - GoCardless CEO Hiroki Takeuchi's new sense of urgency.

👀 Sifted Scout: 20 solar energy startups to watch. (For Pro subscribers)

May 15 | Online. Contributing editor Éanna Kelly will bring together a panel of experts from Delivery Hero, ANNA Money, Twilio and Qonto to chat about innovative strategies for using data-driven insights and AI for scaleup growth. RSVP. 

May 15 | London. Reporter Sadia Nowshin is moderating at ‘Greeking Out in London’, hosted by entrepreneur community Endeavour Greece and Genesis Ventures. Are you there? Reach out.

May 15 | Stockholm. Europe editor Mimi Billing is at Sana Labs’ AI Summit today, which features names like Geoffrey Hinton and Jeanette Winterson. Drop her a line if you’re also going. 

May 16 | Reykjavik. Head of content Steph Bailey is moderating at Iceland Innovation Week this week, talking about crafting the perfect funding mix for climate tech companies. If you're around, reach out.

May 15 & 16 | Poznań. CEE reporter Zosia Wanat is at ImpactCEE. Also attending? Reach out for coffee.

May 16 | Malmö. Mimi Billing is at Mashup, an invite-only event for founders and VCs. Also on the list? Get in touch. 

May 16 | Berlin. Miriam Partingon is at the German Startup Awards. Also there? Drop her a note to catch up. 

May 18 & 19 | Athens. Newsletter editor Tom Nugent is at the Start For Future Summit in Greece Thursday and Friday. Who should he connect with while he’s there? Get in touch.

May 21 | Online. We’ll be showcasing five of the hottest early-stage healthtech startups currently fundraising (and potentially one or two healthtech founder superstars) — exclusively for Pro subscribers. RSVP. 

May 22 - 25 | Paris. Europe's startup and tech event returns to Paris — VivaTech. Gain insights from experts and discuss tech topics from AI, climate tech, mobility and beyond. Last call to get your pass.  

May 23 | Madrid. Steph Bailey is moderating at Samaipata Annual Summit next week, talking about the future of fintech. If you're around, reach out.

June 3 | Vienna. Join Sifted at the ViennaUp Startup Festival for an exclusive networking event to connect with the fastest-growing startups on our Central Europe Leaderboard. Join startups and investors like TourRadar, nyra health, Dawn Capital and Fund F. RSVP. 

June 4 | Munich. Tom Nugent is moderating a panel on the state of Europe’s spinout ecosystem at Spinoff Summit 2024. Going to be there? Reach out.

June 12 | Online. We'll look at how to build, nurture and maintain an airtight finance team to improve your bottom line, alongside experts from Tipalti and Eight Roads. RSVP.  

Paris-based May Health, a medical device company that helps women living with polycystic ovary syndrome, raised $25m in Series B funding. Bpifrance and Trill Impact Ventures led the round and were joined by investors including Sofinnova Partners.

London-based Purple Dot, an inventory management platform that allows e-commerce businesses to sell stock before it arrives at warehouses, raised $10m in Series A funding. OpenOcean led the funding and was joined by investors including Commerce Ventures, Unusual Ventures, Connect Ventures and Moxxie Ventures. 

Brussels-based Jobgether, a search engine for remote and flexible jobs, raised €3m in seed funding from family office Rutherford SA, 4 Ventures and Finance & Invest Brussels.

Stockholm-based Grasp, a generative AI assistant for investment bankers and management consultants, raised $1.9m in funding. Yanno Capital led the round and was joined by Philian Invest.

Berlin-based hexafarms, which develops software for indoor commercial food production, raised €1.3m in pre-seed funding. Speedinvest led the round and was joined by investors including Mudcake and techstars.

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