EmpoWomen 1st Cohort Startups Report Major Growth, Secure Millions in Funding, and Achieve National Recognition One Year After Inaugural Programme

BRUSSELS, Belgium – September 24, 2025 – One year after graduating its first cohort in November 2024, the EmpoWomen programme is proud to announce the significant and sustained success of its participating deep tech startups. The 11 women-led companies, which received funding, acceleration, and dedicated mentorship, have collectively achieved critical milestones in fundraising, technological development, and market expansion, underscoring the programme’s profound impact on fostering female leadership in Europe’s most challenging innovation sectors.

Since completing the programme, the cohort has filed numerous patents, entered late-stage investment negotiations, secured international partnerships, and launched commercial products. The success stories demonstrate a powerful return on the programme’s investment in breaking down barriers for women in deep tech.

Key achievements from the cohort include:

• Securing Major Funding: IPLEXMED is negotiating a €1M SAFE investment and preparing for a €3.2M seed round. The Newsroom has successfully secured follow-on funding, while GOTECH Antimicrobial has advanced to the final stages of a significant funding opportunity.
• Reaching Commercial Readiness: GMZ Enerji has achieved Technology Readiness Level 9 (TRL 9) for its advanced membranes and initiated pre-commercial agreements. Pinky CyberSafe launched the commercial version of its cybersecurity platform. P-Agro minerals has secured its first customers for business case validation after successfully building a real-life pilot prototype.
• Driving Technological Innovation: IPLEXMED filed four patents and completed crucial pre-clinical tests. IQ Biozoom significantly de-risked its saliva biosensing roadmap through multiple validation studies. Innosensus, developing a gluten biosensor, has optimized its technology and secured two Letters of Intent (LOIs) after attracting strong interest from global tech leaders. Hugup has finalized its 3D-knitted prototype for its innovative baby-care product.
• Gaining Widespread Recognition: The cohort’s founders are earning significant accolades. The founder of IQ Biozoom was honored as Startup of the Year 2025 and featured in “Top 15 Most Influential Women in Medicine 2025,” directly crediting the programme’s role in amplifying visibility. IPLEXMED won the Silver Medal at the EmpoWomen finals and has since collected numerous international awards, including at Web Summit and the Global Graphene Call.

The founder of IQ Biozoom Dorota Dardzinska highlighted the unique value of the programme, stating, “EmpoWomen gave us three things we couldn’t easily buy: visibility, credibility, and a high-trust founder network. Being selected to the first cohort put us on stages and deal-floors we hadn’t accessed before and validated our vision publicly. These recognitions were possible in no small part because EmpoWomen amplified the visibility of women leading deeptech ventures”.

The programme’s impact is also evident in the intense post-graduation demand faced by its startups. The team at Astroteq.ai, for example, reported being fully consumed by closing a major client contract, securing partner agreements, and preparing an investor white paper—a clear testament to the accelerated growth trajectory the programme helps to ignite. While this intense client focus limited their time to provide a detailed report, their success serves as another powerful, albeit indirect, indicator of the programme’s effectiveness.

Miguel García González, CEO & Co-Founder of Sploro, the coordinating partner at EmpoWomen, celebrated the cohort’s achievements. “We are incredibly proud to see our first cohort of founders thriving one year after graduation. Their progress is proof that when you provide targeted funding, expert mentorship, and a strong support network, women-led deep tech companies don’t just compete—they lead. They are building the future of European technology, and we are honoured to have been part of their journey”.

Editor’s Note: Announcing the EmpoWomen Cohort 2 Demo Day 

Building on this success, EmpoWomen is excited to introduce its next wave of innovators. The EmpoWomen Cohort 2 Demo Day will take place in Bucharest, Romania, on the 30th of September, showcasing 14 new women-led deep tech startups ready to make their mark. All our 14 startups will also be exhibiting at the How to Web conference in Bucharest on the 1 and 2 of October.  Investors and industry leaders are invited to discover the next generation of European talent.

For more information and to register for Demo day, please visit this link.

About EmpoWomen

EmpoWomen is a two-year program (2024-2025) operating within the framework of the HORIZON-CSA action and falling under the call designation HORIZON-EIC-2022-STARTUPEU-01. It is funded under grant agreement number 101120693. This initiative is dedicated to supporting startups led by women in Europe, providing equity-free funding and vouchers for mentorship, business angel investment, and participation in tech summits. The primary goal of EmpoWomen is to promote gender equality and diversity in entrepreneurship, contributing to economic growth and innovation in Europe. 

The project is supporting women-led deep tech startups from Widening Area countries. By providing equity-free funding, world-class mentorship, and access to a broad European network of investors and partners, EmpoWomen aims to level the playing field and empower a new generation of female innovators to solve global challenges. 

Contact: 

Natalia Petrova
Communication Specialist, TechUkraine
info@techukraine.org
TechUkraine.org