Study: gender gap in entrepreneurship funding costs Dutch economy €139 billion a year

Female entrepreneurs in the Netherlands continue to receive substantially less financing than men, according to a new national study by Code-V, the Dutch Code for Promoting Female Entrepreneurship. The second annual report shows the gap is driven not by lower approval rates, but by fewer applications and smaller loans and investments given to women. Researchers from ABN AMRO and consulting firm McKinsey estimate that the financing gap means the Netherlands is missing out on approximately 139 billion euros in annual economic growth potential.

Code-V reports that women are approved for financing at roughly the same rate as men when they do apply. However, only 8.6 percent of female entrepreneurs submit financing applications, compared with 13.2 percent of males. As a result, women ultimately receive just 26 percent of all business financing awarded in the Netherlands. The disparity also appears in the size of funding. On average, women receive nearly 25,000 euros less per approved application than men.

The gap varies depending on the type of financier. Among banks and other small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) lenders, the difference is smaller: women receive about 12 percent less per approved loan than men.

A much wider gap appears in venture capital funding, where investors provide financing to startups and fast-growing companies. In that segment, women receive significantly lower investment amounts—on average nearly 750,000 euros less per approval than men. Their applications are also less likely to be approved. Only 9.1 percent of capital requested by female entrepreneurs is granted, compared with 16 percent for male entrepreneurs.

According to Chantal Korteweg, director of Code-V, the imbalance is not a matter of diversity policy but a structural flaw. “It is not a diversity issue,” she said, “but a system error that seriously costs the Dutch economy.”