Privilège Ventures launches fund for female entrepreneurs

Privilège Ventures has launched its fourth fund worth 20 million Swiss francs. With this, the venture capital fund based in Lugano in the canton of Ticino is specifically seeking to support female entrepreneurs. And not just because they are women, as Privilège Ventures founding general partner Jacqueline Ruedin Rüsch is keen to underline. In an article published by “Tech Crunch”, she explains that: “The data shows women in the driver’s seat produce better ROI”.

“The numbers are staggering”, comments Lucian Wagner, another founding general partner of Privilège Ventures, adding that: “Global GDP would grow by 6 percent if rates of entrepreneurship were equal between men and women”. Research by the Boston Consulting Group confirms that start-ups founded or co-founded by women receive less than half the average investment than male-led companies, even though women-led start-ups generated 10 percent more revenue across a five-year period. In Europe, Privilège Ventures even assumes that female entrepreneurs benefit from barely 1 percent of all venture capital investments.

Given that Privilège Ventures is targeting the earliest possible investment phase with this fund, it is planning to be closer to founders and will therefore focus on start-ups in Switzerland, Italy, France and Germany. Preference will be given to solutions that can save lives, preserve the planet and products that are not just “nice to have” but rather a “must have”, while there will also be a focus on the areas of MedTech, Deep Tech and the digital economy in general.

The fund is planning to hand out 15 to 20 checks. Initial investments are expected to total around 250,000 Swiss francs.