The entrepreneurship trend, which increases its importance every year in Turkey and the world, has now begun to bear fruit with different success stories. The number of exits of entrepreneurs who have a business idea that turns into an enterprise, ending with public offerings, mergers, mergers or acquisitions by world giants, has now reached a significant level. The analysis, which sheds light on 2021 and the last 15 years by Sifted, the world-famous platform that keeps the pulse of the start-up ecosystem, reveals the presence and power of women entrepreneurs in the start-up ecosystem.
The analysis, which evaluated the successful exits of female entrepreneurs, revealed that female entrepreneurs made 23 successful exits in 2021. The total value of 23 exit transactions signed by women entrepreneurs was announced as 22.3 billion euros.
Female entrepreneurs have written 87 successful exit stories in the last 15 years
Again, according to the analysis, the number of successful exits of female entrepreneurs has reached 87 in the last 15 years in Europe alone. The number of exits made by male entrepreneurs in the same period of 15 years was announced as 899. The number of 87 successful exits, 23 of which occurred in 2021, provides important evidence of the success of women in the entrepreneurship ecosystem. The number of exits of women entrepreneurs was 14 in 2020; 8 in 2019; In 2018, it was 10. The previous notable data on the number of exits, which was 23 in 2021, belonged to 2015 with 13.
Fintech startups follow the health sector at the top
When the start-ups launched by European women entrepreneurs are evaluated on a sector-by-sector basis, health investments are clearly ahead. Health investments correspond to approximately 1/4, or 24.14 percent, of total female entrepreneur exits. Fintech investments are the second area that attracts the most attention with a rate of 11.5 percent. This rate once again confirms the importance of the fintech ecosystem, which has an important place in the world of entrepreneurship. In third place is the media with 10.34 percent; The food industry ranks fourth with 8.05 percent.
The country with the highest number of exits for female entrepreneurs in Europe is England, with 31 exits. In this ranking, Germany ranks second with 19 exit transactions, France with 9, Spain with 6 and Sweden with 5 exit transactions.
There is a Turkish female entrepreneur at the top of the list
When we list the exits made by female entrepreneurs in Europe in the last 15 years, the most striking exit was made by a female entrepreneur of Turkish origin. Özlem Türeci, one of the founders of Biontech, the first company to complete vaccine studies in the fight against COVID-19, obtained this epaulette by selling her previous venture, the biopharma company Ganymed Pharmaceuticals, to Japan-based Astellas Pharma in 2016. The acquisition by Astellas Pharma was realized at a valuation of $ 3.4 billion. Özlem Türeci founded BionTech with her husband, thanks to the resources she obtained from this venture.
The exit, which made Özlem Türeci the leader by far among female startups that exited, was made by Andrea Spezzi, whose London-based startup Orchard Therapeutics was valued at $1.3 billion in 2018.
