PORTFOLIO

The FE+MALE Think Tank has designed The Beat Funding Bias Initiative (BFBI) to lead efforts to push and build the institutional capacity for a gender-bias-free systematic approach to help remove funding barriers for female entrepreneurs in Switzerland. Specifically, this innovative initiative was designed to address those gender biases or stereotypes that women are likely to face during the screening stages, vetting interviews, or ‘funding rounds’ that either qualify or disqualify them for potential funding. To this end, the FE+MALE Think Tank conducted a series of expert interviews from May to June 2022 (which included representation from well-known institutions from within the Swiss start-up space, including ‘Angel’ investors, VCs, prospective entrepreneurs, etc), to better understand the underlying dynamics where gender bias is occurring or where it was likely to be exhibited during the various vetting rounds. FE+MALE Think tank found there is not a systematic approach to avoid biased processes in the funding settings, hence there is no sharing of best practices or learning from each other.

To goal of the implementation orientied project is to:
1) Raise Awareness on the topic,
2) Conduct targeted stakeholder workshops,
3) Design & develop & test toolkit with partners to build institutional capacity,
4) Validate to scale it up.

Main Partners involved in the project are SICTIC, Venturelab, Startfeld, SwissEF, Startup days. The iniative is supported by a number of GREAT female founders.

Since the project officially started FE+MALE Think Tank has had two scoping workshops: in person and online with BFBI’s partner institutions and supporters. During these workshops, we got insight and feedback to develop the online toolkit. 
Up today, FE+MALE Think Tank is developing a landing page that includes related content to support the community of investors and entrepreneurs.
The Landing page will go live as soon as the materials for training and self-assessment are pre-tested and ready to be shared with our community.  The pre-testing will be done in cooperation with our stakeholders, supporters, and partners on April 23. We expect the official launch at the beginning of May 23.