Analisys women entrepreneurship ecosystem Czeck Republic vs Spain
- Introduction country 1: general situation of the country, numbers of companies, % women CEO/ Founders, % women entrepreneurs
- Introduction country 2: general situation of the country, numbers of companies, % women CEO/ Founders, % women entrepreneurs
- Financial institutions: loans for entrepreneurs/ loans for women entrepreneurs = comparative
- Awards/ prices/ competitions for women entrepreneurs vs awards/ prices for entrepreneurs = comparative
- Outcomes
- The Czech Republic performs below the EU average. In the rating with 10 comparative indexes, Czechia holds the 21st place out of 27 in the EU. There are around 1 042 000 enterprises. In the first three quarters of 2021, 22 251 start-ups were registered in Czechia, 11% more than in the same period in 2020. The most developed sectors of the economy are services, real estate, and manufacturing. Gender equality index is 57.2 (https://eige.europa.eu/gender-equality-index/2022/CZ). According to the data from 2012, there were 30000 women entrepreneurs in the Czech Republic. Women hold only about one tenth of executive roles in the Czech Republic. Only about 4% of CEOs in the Czech Republic are women (https://www.mckinsey.com/cz/our-work/closing-the-gender-gap-in-the-czech-republic).
- Spain mostly performs in line with the EU average in all indexes, except for entrepreneurship, state aid, public procurement, single market, environment, and internalization. There are 2 564 893 enterprises. In 2019, only 4% of startups were set up by one female founder or an all-female team of founders (versus 63% set by male, the remaining 33% are mixed – male/female teams). The most developed sectors are services, retail trade, real estate, construction. There are 74 female Spanish entrepreneurs for every 100 male founders (https://www.onecowork.com/en/blog/women-led-businesses-barcelona-and-the-world ).Gender equality index is much higher than in the CZ – 74.6. Spain outperforms the rest of Europe – 45% of the entrepreneurial population is already women (https://femme-project.eu/female-entrepreneurship-in-spain/).
(https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/smes/sme-strategy/sme-performance-review_en)
- Financial institutions
The Czech Republic. Financing of a startup/company in the CZ is provided via several sources – banks, state programs, EU grants, business angels, and capital funds. To get money for a project, a proper business plan is needed, as well as in-depth knowledge of the project. In the table you can see sources, amount of capital offered and limitations.
| Source of capital<?xml:namespace prefix = o /> | Amount of capital offered(million CZK) | Limitations |
| Banking sector | 0.1 – 5 | Only limited number of baking institutions offers financing of start-up companies |
| Government programs | 1 – 10 | Focused mainly on SMB segment and first-time entrepreneurs or sole proprietors |
| EU grants | 1 – 150 | Not suitable for all projects. One of the main criterions to get an EU grant is social and public interest. |
| Business angels | 5 – 20 | One of the only possibilities to finance small- to mid-size start-up projects |
| Seed (risk) capital funds | 20 – 300 | The only real possibility to finance large projects |
The SME support programme ‘Guarantee 2015-2023’ (Záruka 2015 – 2023) helps SMEs to access bank loans to operate their business projects. The guarantee provides up to 70 % of the total loan granted for a period of 6 years. Government support for enterprises and entrepreneurs primarily comprises measures with respect to developmental and operational financing, export support, support of the energy sector, development of entrepreneurial skills and financial literacy of entrepreneurs, technical education and research, as well as development and innovation.
The National-wide contest “The start-upper of the Year” for young entrepreneurs and start-uppers was started in 2018 by the Czechstartups.org and the Czechinvest Agency (https://national-policies.eacea.ec.europa.eu/youthwiki/chapters/czech-republic/39-start-up-funding-for-young-entrepreneurs).
COVID III Guarantee Invest.
The Government approved Covid III Guarantee Invest, to provide investment loan guarantees for six years; for companies with up to 250 employees up to 90% guarantee provided for investment loans of up to CZK 50 million, and 50% guarantee for investment loans of up to CZK 90 million. For companies with 251—500 employees, guarantees will amount to 80% for investment loans of up to CZK 50 million and 50% guarantee for investment loans of CZK 80 million. The program will be open until June 30, 2028.
ČMAPM (The Czech-Moravian association of businesswomen and managers) – education, support, coaching for women entrepreneurs.
Czechitas – increasing diversity in the world of IT, higher level of digital proficiency among women.
Overview of bank institutions of the CZ:
KB provides loans up to 50 million CZK. Individuals can apply for a loan if their company has less than 500 employees. Sectors that can be provided with the loan are agriculture, forestry, production, trade, transportation, services.
ČSOB gives less money but for any purpose – up to 800,000 CZK.
Česka Sporitelna provides individuals with loans up to 50,000 CZK for startups.
For companies with 250-500 employees, the state guarantee would amount to an 80% guarantee for operational debts. Both guarantees would be capped at a maximum debt of CZK 50 million (CZK 45 million for smaller, CZK 40 million for bigger businesses, http://www.czechcompete.cz/economic-policy/business-and-industry/government-measures-supporting-business).
https://www.eib.org/en/products/loans/sme-mid-caps/index.htm
https://www.eib.org/en/products/loans/sme-mid-caps/intermediated-loans
https://www.eib.org/intermediarieslist/search/result?country=CZ
Spain. As in the case of the Czech Republic, there are several ways to get help for starting up a business. The cost of borrowing small loans relative to large loans is decreasing.
Overview of bank institutions in Spain:
Banco Santander – short-term financing and loans for new projects. Agile Payment is the solution to short-term financing needs. A loan for a new project provides a discount of up to 1.50% depending on the products of a company, to help fulfil company’s projects. Aimed at businesses, merchants and the self-employed that need financing to carry out new projects, to expand current projects, acquire productive assets, buy vehicles, acquire premises or renovate current premises.
Caixa bank – loans and the award “Women in Business Awards”.
BBVA – loans for business up to 50,000 euros.
Banco Sabadell – loans for business up to 21,000 euros
IVACE (Valencian institute of competitiveness), its purpose is overseeing the industrial policy of the regional Government and assisting companies in internationalisation, attraction of investment or innovation matters, as well as helping technological infrastructures, and the industrial safety of products and facilities, or energetic efficiency and renewable sources. IVACE represents a model for its support to the technology institutes network within the Valencian Community.
ICO Loans The Instituto de Crédito Oficial (Official Credit Institute) provides financing for investment projects for the self-employed or for companies. It also promotes innovative and sustainable projects focused on caring for the environment, as well as a catalogue of mediation lines aimed at different types of projects.
Enisa Participatory Business Creation Loan for Young People, which aims to provide the necessary financial resources to SMEs and start-ups created by young people to cover the investments of the business project in its initial phase.
Ministry of Equality – help women to start up a business.
The Women’s Business Support Programme (PAEM) – offers specialised advice and support to all women entrepreneurs.
https://www.eib.org/intermediarieslist/search/result?country=ES
Another option is public aid – through a grant or a soft loan. Different entities such as Empresa Nacional de Innovación S.A. (ENISA), Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial (CDTI) or the European Commission (EC) offer aid for start-ups, especially for those that have a scalable structure, and belong to the technological or environmental sector.
As far as the research shows, there is no difference for banks if a loan applicant is a woman or a man. The conditions are the same.
- Awards
The Czech Republic.
TOP Czech Women awards. Awards are handed out in four categories: TOP manager, TOP businesswoman, TOP female executive in the public sphere, and TOP start-up. Candidates for the TOP Czech Women awards are nominated by the general public, individual judges, jury consultants, or they can sign up themselves. The twenty member panel of judges chooses from around 500 candidates each year.
Social Impact Award (SIA) – award for young entrepreneurs (men and women) empowers youth to make a difference in 15+ countries across Europe, Central Asia, and Africa. We support their development into active agents of change that build social ventures and innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing issues (https://wegate-summit-2021.b2match.io/page-2531).
EY Entrepreneur Of The Year – entrepreneurial achievements among individuals and companies (https://www.ey.com/en_cz/entrepreneur-of-the-year).
Spain.
The startup award XXI – award for an innovative solution to the challenges. CaixaBank in collaboration with Enisa in Spain and Banco BPI in Portugal (https://www.emprendedorxxi.es/en/home).
Caixa bank – the award “Women in Business Awards”.
The Santander award – promotes the best business ideas in the project phase and the top, already established, Spanish technology-based start-ups (https://www.santander.com/en/press-room/press-releases/2022/09/santander-launches-the-second-edition-of-the-santander-x-award-spain-for-university-entrepreneurs).
The Kingdom of Spain Entrepreneurial Career Award. In recognition of an exemplary trajectory, and as an example for future generations, a significant entrepreneur who has carried out important work in Spain in terms of employment generation, investment, innovation and internationalisation, and has contributed, in short, to the progress and well-being of Spanish society as a whole (https://cercledeconomia.com/en/award_type/kingdom-of-spain-entrepreneurial-career-award/).
InnovAgroWoMed – Social Innovation in the Agri-food sector for Women’s Empowerment in the Mediterranean sea basin, provides finance resources to women entrepreneurs, or those who intend to start their business, in order to overcome the initial economic barrier faced by many of them (https://www.enicbcmed.eu/projects/innovagrowomed) .
Academy for Women Entrepreneurs Spain 2023 – a program for women entrepreneurs funded by US government (https://es.usembassy.gov/academy-for-women-entrepreneurs-spain-2023/).
- Outcomes.
The research shows that the Czech Republic and Spain perform a bit under the average for the EU. Spain outperforms the Czech Republic in number of enterprises – x2 times more. Also, Spain overcomes not only Czechia but many other countries in the EU in number of women entrepreneurs – 45% of the whole business population is taken by women. As far as access to financing goes, there are a lot of opportunities to take a loan/get a grant for a business in both countries. Spain’s and the Czech Republic’s bank institutions provide loans up to several million euros for startups/business. There are European grants that are accessible in both countries. When speaking of awards, there are again no differences for men and women to apply, but there are a lot of awards specifically for women to promote equality and access to the market for female entrepreneurs. Spain has more of such awards than the Czech Republic. And we can also notice that the gender equality is much higher in Spain. More women take leading roles in Spain than in Czechia. There is a lot of work to do to achieve the balance.
