Less than 10% of patenting startup founders are women

Data collated to provide a Europe-wide picture of women in STEM indicates that fewer than 10% of startup founders applying for patents are women.

This doesn’t mean there aren’t success stories out there, of course – among them is Chloe So of PulpaTronics, whose business secured 14th place in this year’s Startups 100 Index. 

The venture rose from 48th place the previous year, as its revolutionary, metal-free paper RFID tags have gained traction. 

However, this latest report suggests that So is in the minority and that, unfortunately, women are simply not getting their names on patents.

Slow gains

The findings come from the EPO Observatory on Patents and Technology, and were drawn on information from 22 national patent offices as well as data from initiatives being developed at the national level in Europe to support women in STEM. 

It found that the share of women among inventors in Europe has increased only marginally in recent years. It reached 13.8% in 2022, up 0.8% from 2019. The UK Women Inventor Rate sits at 13.7%, which is just marginally below this European average. 

The report also disaggregated the data by sector and found that women’s participation varies across sectors. The highest proportion of women inventors was in pharmaceuticals (34.9%), followed by biotechnology (34.2%) and food chemistry at (32.3%). It’s clear from the data that life sciences is the arena where women inventors are pulling the most punches. 

However, this is in stark contrast to engineering ventures, where the levels were much lower. Among machine tools inventors, just 5.7% were women, while just 4.9% of mechanical elements patents were filed by women. 

The power of patents

Researchers found, however, that women are increasingly represented in inventor teams, increasing from 21.6% in 2019 to 24.1% in 2022. 

However, “they remain far less likely to be named as individual inventors or patenting startup founders,” says the team. The data reveal that women account for only 10.8% of founders in UK patenting startups, whereas approximately 14% of startup teams include at least one woman founder. When startups without patents are analysed, women account for 20.4% of founders. 

This indicates a significant underrepresentation of women among patent owners, and the EPO reports that “structural factors, such as sector specialisation, company maturity, and growth stages,” are having a profound impact. Crucially, it’s not that women aren’t engaged in entrepreneurship, but rather that there are barriers to them becoming the founders whose names are stamped on patents.  

Some UK regions are setting an example. Buckinghamshire ranked 8th among the 30 European regions analysed for its participation of women in inventorship. It received a Women Inventor Rate (WIR) of 17.9%, indicating that nearly one in five inventors named in European patent applications from the region are women. This was well above the UK and European average. 

Small businesses, big barriers

The EPO team found that universities and public research organisations have by far the highest proportion of women inventors (24.4%), while smaller businesses show the lowest participation rates.

The researchers also pointed to funding as a key crunch point. “Companies co-founded by women appear to face greater challenges in scaling,” the EPO says. “Women’s representation declines in later, more advanced funding rounds and for successfully acquired firms.”

The barriers women face when it comes to funding are well-documented. As we wrote a year ago, in the advanced tech and AI sectors, the average industry experience required to win VC funding among female founders is 18 years. In comparison, men typically require just nine years to achieve similar levels of success.

This is reflected across other sectors as well. Just last week, we reported on a large study conducted by Female Founders Rise, which found that 45% of female founders say funding access is the “primary obstacle” they face to getting their businesses off the ground. 

Diversity fuels innovation

The EPO researchers did find that newer startups have higher shares of women founders. This was more than 14% for younger ventures as compared to around 5.9% for companies over 20 years old.

This suggests that the ideas are present, but the funding process has become a “leaky pipeline” impeding their advancement. This will be magnified at the moment when innovation is reportedly being stymied for all founders due to an unsupportive ecosystem. 

EPO President António Campinos argues, however, that pushing hard to support women founders in submitting patent applications will have a significant, positive impact on the broader creative landscape. “There is an obvious gain for Europe in boosting women’s participation in innovation,” he said, adding: “Diversity is not a nice-to-have, it is fuel for breakthrough innovation”. 

However, what he calls the “persistent roadblocks in our path to progress” have been in place for so long that they seem difficult to circumvent. Without change, this leaves women inventors across Europe with ideas they cannot bring to market.