Promotion fund planned New women’s network for start-ups

As of: 06/17/2021 1:58 p.m.

Women are a rarity in the boardrooms of young companies. As a study shows, this is also due to the corporate culture. A new network wants to change that. According to a study, women rarely make it to the top of listed start-ups. “The young companies repeat the design flaws of the previous generation: They grow without women,” said Wiebke Ankersen and Christian Berg, heads of the non-profit AllBright Foundation. The German-Swedish organization advocates more women and diversity in management positions. The proportion of women on the executive floor at the ten companies that were founded in the past 15 years and are represented in the DAX index family is 5.4 percent. For the 160 companies in the DAX, MDAX and SDAX, the average is 12.6 percent.

Men dominate

According to the study, the top young companies, with the exception of the online furniture retailer Home24 and the pharmaceutical company Medios, are almost exclusively made up of men. “The founders often surround themselves with people who are very similar to them and hold on to them,” says the study.

Delivery Hero is the only company in the top stock exchange league that still specifies the “target size zero”. This means that the DAX company has so far been planning the board of directors without women. The company declares that the composition of the management board has proven itself. “Of course, this does not rule out an increase in the proportion of women at this management level.”

Politicians decide on new quotas

A draft law recently passed by the Bundestag stipulates that in future at least one woman must sit on the board in listed and codetermine companies with more than 2000 employees and more than three board members. This must be taken into account when filling new posts.

According to the draft law, other companies that do not fall under the requirement should justify in future if they plan to run the board without women. If this does not happen, fines are to be threatened.

New investment network for start-ups

In order to support women in setting up companies, around 60 managers from large corporations and politicians have set up a network of women supporters. With their association encourageventures they want to accompany “female founders from the founding idea to the IPO” if at least one woman belongs to the founding team, explains initiator Ina Schlie.

For this purpose, the establishment of an “all-female growth fund” worth 100 to 200 million euros is planned, from which the support will be provided. Startups run by women have a harder time raising capital. “According to the Female Founders Monitor 2020, only five percent of the female founders’ teams have already received one million euros or more in external capital,” said Alexa Gorman from the software company SAP. “In the case of the founding teams, on the other hand, it is around 30 percent.” In addition to Schlie and Gorman, the network includes, among others, the former Minister of Economic Affairs Brigitte Zypries, the head of freight transport at Deutsche Bahn, Sigrid Nikutta, and Douglas boss Tina Müller

Increase investment in innovation About 36.4% of the total of more than 350,000 enterprises in Ho Chi Minh City have applied science – technology and innovation. Mr. Le Xuan Dinh, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology affirmed that the creative capacity of Ho Chi Minh City represents a very important part of the creative capacity of the nation. Therefore, it is very important to pay attention to developing the scientific and technological potential of Ho Chi Minh City in the coming period. From the background of science – technology, will make a change in the quality of economic growth of the City. The background of science and technology is reflected in the number of human resources participating in this field, the level of investment in scientific research and innovation activities in businesses and the startup community. If 5 years ago, the concept of start-up and start-up was new, now, this community is growing rapidly in both quantity and quality. Deputy Minister Le Xuan Dinh assessed that Ho Chi Minh City is a pioneer in the country in the start-up movement. According to data from the Department of Science and Technology of Ho Chi Minh City, in the past 5 years, Ho Chi Minh City has become the cradle of direct and indirect support for nearly 1,840 start-up projects in the stages of product completion, completion Adjusting business models, connecting domestic and foreign markets, providing financial advice, developing startup ideas, etc. Along with that, more than 1,000 events were held in the area to connect individuals, organizations, and innovative start-ups with experts, advisors, investment funds and markets through forums. forums, conferences/workshops… “The ecosystem supporting innovation startups in Ho Chi Minh City is the most comprehensively developed in Vietnam, with all components. Therefore, it is necessary to continue to invest and develop this community further”, emphasized Deputy Minister Le Xuan Dinh. Science Development Fund can invest in start-ups Ho Chi Minh City has set a target that by the end of 2025, it will support to improve innovation capacity for 3,000 businesses; support incubating and developing 1,000 innovative start-up projects; supporting the development of 100 innovative start-ups to access venture capital. However, HCMC only supports incubators and events; Direct support activities for start-ups are limited in both direct funding and tax policy. In addition to the start-up group, the promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises to set up funds for science and technology development also needs to be increased. Science and technology development fund is a fund set up by enterprises to invest in scientific research and technological development. This fund is often used to build laboratories; purchase machinery and equipment for research and development (R&D); buy technology copyrights, industrial designs… According to the Department of Science and Technology of Ho Chi Minh City, as of October 2020, in Ho Chi Minh City, only 121 enterprises have set aside a fund for science and technology development with a total amount of more than VND 4,400 billion. . These numbers need to be increased. Leaders of the Ministry of Science and Technology said that in the coming time, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance will finalize regulations on the use of science and technology development funds in enterprises. Currently, enterprises often use science and technology development funds to conduct R&D activities, while this fund needs to be used for all activities to support innovation, businesses can use this fund to invest. for start-ups. Therefore, perfecting the regulations on the use of science and technology development funds is also one of the solutions to promote startups.

From Steffen Wurzel, ARD studio Shanghai A battery factory in Changshu, just under 100 kilometers north of Shanghai. The Chinese e-car company Aiways has the batteries for their electric SUV called U5 assembled here. Robots put the individual parts together on a conveyor belt. The battery packs have a capacity of up to 63 kWh, which means that Aiways cars can travel 400 kilometers according to the manufacturer. Only a few workers stand on the conveyor belt. Most of the work steps run automatically, explains senior engineer Wu Lunbin. “It currently takes nine minutes and 44 seconds to make a battery pack for a car,” he says. “But we will continue to expand our production capacity, that will further increase the pace.”

Lots of bankruptcies and takeovers

In addition to Aiways, the other Chinese electric car start-ups are also self-confident. Of the original hundreds of small companies, around ten have remained after bankruptcies and takeovers, which have now actually brought market-ready electric cars onto the streets. They are called, for example, Li Auto, Xiaopeng, World Champion and Nio . Even if the sales figures of these companies are still very low compared to the established, international large car brands: The e-car start-ups have shaken up the car market in China, says Zeng Zhilin, founder of the Shanghai management consultancy LMC Automotive. “These e-car start-ups are digital through and through. They are brave and dare to sell their cars and use new technologies,” says Zeng. “E-car start-ups like Nio combine classic car technology and new software in a way that traditional corporations cannot.”

“Most difficult market ever”

In the affluent cities along the Chinese coast, the hip electric SUVs from the startup companies are already part of the normal street scene. So far, only a few have dared to go abroad, more precisely to Europe. The Shanghai company Aiways, for example, is trying. It also sells its off-road electric sedans in Germany for just under 30,000 euros if you include the state e-car bonus. “We want to start our business from Europe because that is the most difficult market ever,” says Aiways company founder Fu Qiang. “If we survive in Europe, we can do it anywhere. And with that we show our customers within China: Look here, we have what it takes to sell our products in Europe – we build high-quality cars.”

Aiways founder Fu Qiang wants to sell his cars in Germany over the Internet. Image: Steffen Wurzel Entering the German market is complicated for new car manufacturers: There is fierce competition, high price pressure, and German customers are not considered to be keen to experiment. And: It is time-consuming and expensive to set up a Germany-wide sales network. Aiways simply bypasses the latter point: The Shanghai company sells its cars in Germany online and through a consumer electronics chain that otherwise sells televisions and computers.

Cooperation with workshop chain

For inspections and repairs, Aiways customers are referred to the nationwide active workshop chain Auto -teile-Unger, ATU for short, explains Aiways company founder Fu Qiang. “ATU has enough locations in Germany. They don’t need any new equipment or new mechanics for our cars. The only thing they need is precise instructions on how our cars are serviced.” As far as the number of new cars produced is concerned, the e-car start-ups are catching up, but they are still far behind the established, large car manufacturers. Aiways plans to sell at least 10,000 cars outside of China this year. For comparison: the Volkswagen Group sold around 4.2 million cars last year – in China alone.