Fabiola Pellegrini is co-founder of Klecha & Co., an independent pan-European investment bank specialising in tech. “We are an investment bank founded in 2009 in Milan with the aim of following companies with high growth potential, in 2013 we opened an office in New York, in 2015 in London, in 2019 in Paris, last year Madrid and now we are also about to open a new office in another European country,” he tells Startupbusiness Pellegrini, who has been working in the world of finance and technology for over fifteen years and in addition to being co-founder of Klecha & Co., is also a member of the board of directors of Ansaldo Energia and sits on the board of Primo Ventures as an independent director and is one of the most active supporters of Inspiring Fifty.
Inspiring Fifty is the award, founded by Janneke Niessen that identifies women who work in the tech world such as managers, entrepreneurs, researchers and rewards them with the aim of creating role models capable of inspiring other women to pursue their careers in the world of new technologies (here all the info on the award and the links to apply, The deadline is May 15, 2024 ).
“We support Inspiring 50 and we have done so for the three Italian editions and for one international edition, because we are convinced that for the tech sector it is essential to accelerate the process of gender diversity, both as an opportunity for women who wish to design their careers in this field and for the fact that only through a greater presence of women can we develop increasingly better and inclusive technologies and technological products“.
The numbers
Klecha & Co. has also released some data to underline how far there is still to go: On a global level, today only one in 4 startuppers is a woman (Statista) and Europe appears to be even lagging behind: in fact, although women make up 51% of the European population, they represent only 14.8% of startupper entrepreneurs (European Institute of Innovation and Technology). This share drops further if we look at Italy where, despite funding opportunities and the specific objectives of the PNRR, female-dominated startups rose from 13.2% in 2021 to 13.7% in 2023 (Rome business school). Good news, on the other hand, on the European front in terms of funding for startuppers: 2023 was a record year for capital raised equal to 22.8% of total venture capital funding and it is estimated that this trend may continue in 2024 (Fortune). Female unicorns are also growing, rising in Europe from 11.4% in 2021 to 15% in 2023 (Eurostat) out of the total number of scaleups that have reached a valuation of at least one billion euros.
The percentage of women active in tech globally is also increasing: among big tech, Google reports that the female incidence has risen from 31% in 2018 to 34% in 2023, Microsoft highlights that women with tech roles have risen from 21.4% in 2019 to 26.6% in 2023. Facebook and Apple show similar trends. Looking at top positions, however, only 1 in 10 CEOs among big tech is female, a share that is stable compared to three years ago. In 2023, the number of women employed in the IT sector is also growing in Europe, rising to 25.2% (23% in 2019 according to Eurostat) as well as the share of women leaders in technology companies, which has reached 14%, a stable value compared to that of the previous year, but up sharply compared to 2015, when it was 8% (Statista).
“As the data show, there is still a lot of work to be done,” Pellegrini continues, “and that is why it is very important for us to support initiatives such as Inspiring 50, which brings into the spotlight women who have chosen to work in the tech sector and their experiences, their stories thus become an inspiration for other women, students who, thanks to these models, can find new energy in developing their careers and making their contribution to a sector that can only grow and have a real impact thanks to gender inclusivity”.
Klecha & Co. has so far managed about 100 transactions for a total value of seven billion euros working in 10 different countries: “we are certainly very active in Italy but we are also aware that finance alone is not enough and therefore we support the companies with which we also work at a strategic level, which also includes M&A operations for example and internationalization which is increasingly important especially within the European market, entrepreneurs in Italy, France, Spain and every other country all have the same needs, the same desires, the same fears and we help them take those steps that are needed to grow their companies, We do this with specific strategic actions, leveraging experience and skills.”
Skills are a very important issue and this is also intertwined with diversity: “At Klecha we have achieved gender equality and we have done so without sacrificing skills, on the contrary we have women in our team who have solid skills and that is why Inspiring 50 is even more important because it allows us to give visibility to women’s ability, which becomes inspiration for others on the one hand, but also a demonstration of the fact that the time in which women must have the opportunity to access every opportunity has come and must find ground to continue to develop and materialize”.
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