Women take over at Malmö startup accelerator

“More than 550 companies applied, and they already looked good when it came to diversity,” Joel Larsson,  who leads the accelerator programme, told the Sydsvenskan newspaper. “Then when the selection was made the share of female founders was even higher than it had been among the applicants.” 

 

Companies that win a place in the accelerator programme receive 500,000 Swedish kronor ($53,500) in investment from the group's own startup fund Fast Track Capital, and spend four months at Minc developing their businesses. 

 

Larsson stressed that Fast Track Malmö had no affirmative action quotas to increase the number of women in companies on the scheme. 

 

But at the Nordic Female Investor Meetup last September, Minc said it aimed for 50 percent of the investments made in the accelerator programme to be in companies with female founders. 

   

“We know that diversity in itself is an important part of success,” Charlotta Alegria Ursing, Minc's chief executive, told The Local at the conference. “We know that diverse teams will perform better than just men. You need the mix.” 

 

In addition, 30 percent of the investors who contribute to and choose the companies in Fast Track Capital are women. 

 

“The whole startup scene in Malmö has worked to make it inclusive. There are many organizations with the same idea,” Larsson said. 

 

The Malmö-based group Pink Programming arranges events where women can get help learning to code.