Suche
Mein Konto
Hildesheim promotes female founders: New opportunities for women in startups!
The University of Hildesheim receives almost one million euros to support startups, strengthen start-up skills and equal opportunities.
Hildesheim promotes female founders: New opportunities for women in startups!
On September 2, 2025, the University of Hildesheim announced that its application for start-up funding under the KET program had been approved. This grant amounts to almost one million euros over a period of three years and is intended to strengthen the further development and regional anchoring of startup funding. The new program, KET 2.0, has the particular goal of sensitizing women and teacher training students to start-up issues. The university plans to develop a comprehensive qualification offering that focuses on digital, sustainable and social-cultural start-ups.
A central element of KET 2.0 is close cooperation with the regional start-up ecosystem, including a cooperation agreement with the Hildesheim economic development agency HI-REG. Professional support is offered – from advice and qualifications to workplaces for start-up teams and support during contract negotiations. Start-up advice is visibly offered at the University of Hildesheim. The program will start in fall 2025 and comes after an original funding period of the EXIST program that ran from April 2020 to March 2025.
Focus on women and social start-ups
Since its introduction, KET has advised more than 150 start-up projects, of which over 30 have been successfully implemented. More than 2,000 participants have completed KET's previous qualification offerings. In order to better address the specific needs of female founders, additional tailor-made measures should be developed. These could, for example, address topics such as starting a business and family, business models for social impact, tolerance for mistakes and dealing with experiences of discrimination. Preliminary surveys could help identify the biggest challenges aspiring female founders face.
The measures could offer general start-up topics in specific formats for women, such as “investor approach for female founders” or “pitch training for female founders”. In addition, the creation of so-called “safe spaces” only for women is conceivable, combined with networking events and reports from role models. Individual support through networks is considered essential to increase the visibility and success of female founders.
Equal opportunities in the startup sector
The audience composition of around 80% women indicates an increased awareness of the problem. A study also shows that women experience the gender gap as more serious than their male colleagues, who often view this problem less critically. Dr. Daniel Schraad-Tischler from the Bertelsmann Foundation also found that professional role models are already created in daycare and school and have a significant influence on the perception and support of female founders.
With the new strategies and the proposed funding, the University of Hildesheim sees numerous opportunities to sustainably promote the start-up potential in the region and at the same time make an important contribution to equal opportunities in the start-up sector. The coming months will show to what extent KET 2.0 can stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit, especially among women.
uni-hildesheim.de reports that the KET program is now starting with a focus on women.
exist.de explains what specific measures are planned for aspiring female founders.
bertelsmann-stiftung.de addresses the challenges regarding equal opportunities in the startup sector.