CFAs: Female Founder Challenge 2025

Deadline Date: February 23, 2025

Donor Name: VivaTechnology

Grant Size: Not Available

https://vivatechnology.com/challenges/female-founder-challenge-2025

Applicants are now invited to submit applications for Female Founder Challenge to celebrates the women leading innovative startups that are driving the disruptive technologies shaping the future.

The main objective is to empower women entrepreneurs by facilitating networking opportunities and access to funding through experience-sharing and connecting them with venture capitalists.

Benefits

• The Top 30 Female Founders:
  • One 4-days pass to attend the 2025 edition of Viva Technology (pass with a basic value of 300 euros)
• The 5 finalists
  • Pitch your solution in front of a jury of top decision makers and investors
  • One-to-one meetings booked with VCs during Office Hours
  • Visibility on the digital platform of VivaTech 2025
  • Two 4-days passes to attend the 2025 edition of VivaTech (pass with a basic value of 300 euros) 
• The Grand Prize Winner
  • Pitch your solution during the grand Award ceremony on VivaTech main stage
  • Fundraising coaching by IRIS (from pitch deck revamp to intros to VCs)
  • High visibility on VivaTech (an article on VivaTech website, visibility on the Female Founder Challenge webpage, on social media and within some newsletters dedicated to startups)
  • A private meeting with the jury
  • A Startup Corner at the 2026 edition of VivaTech (booth with a basic value of 3.500 euros).
  • A 3-month business development mentoring program with Forvis Mazars XFactory 

Eligibility Criteria

• The Female Founder Challenge is open to all female founders, co-founders, CEOs or Co-CEOs of a startup in the Tech sector wishing to raise funds. This seventh edition of the Challenge also remains open to all candidates from previous editions, with the exception of the winner of the 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 Challenges. 
• The candidate must be a natural person (and not a legal entity) over the age of 18 who has participated in the incorporation of and/or is the legal representative of the company. 
• The application must be written in English. It does not require the candidate to provide proof of residence or nationality. The candidate startup does not need to be limited to a specific topic, industry or technological solution. Any female founder, regardless of her company or location, can participate in the Challenge as long as she provides all of the necessary information so that the jury may correctly evaluate the application.
• By participating in the Challenge, the candidate will be expected to attend the Afterwork, the final session and the Awards ceremony (which will take place between June 11 and June 14 at VivaTech, Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, 1 Place de la Porte de Versailles, 75015 Paris, France) if she is selected amongst the 5 Finalists. If the candidate is unable to attend one of the meetings for unforeseen reasons or any other type of reason, she must inform VivaTech as soon as possible, and before May 11 at the very latest, the Candidate will then be disqualified from the Final and Awards ceremony and the next Candidate in the ranking will be selected for the Final.

Selection Process

• The Top 30 Selection:
  • Once the Challenge is closed, the knowledge partner FORVIS MAZARS will be in charge of screening all the applications and select 100 best startups following the selection criteria below:
    • Founder expertise and experience
    • Innovation of the product/solution
    • Scaling Potential
    • Impact of the solution
  • From that top 100, FORVIS MAZARS AND IRIS (the other knowledge partner), a venture capital and growth firm, will select a top 30 among the 100 best startups. 
  • They reserve the right to include a new partner in addition to IRIS at any moment during the Top 30 selection process. This partner will also have the status of knowledge partner. 
• The 5 Finalists Selection:
  • Once the 30 startups are selected, the jury will be in charge of selecting the 5 finalists. 
  • The selection criteria will be the same as the Top 30 selection criteria, with a higher level of expectation. 
• The Winner Selection:
  • The 5 finalists will be invited to pitch their startup in front of the Jury and the public during the Finale session at Viva Technology. The exact time and date will be communicated later to the finalists.
  • The Jury will be in charge of nominating the winning startup based on selection criteria set out above.
  • The winner will then be invited to pitch during the Award ceremony, with the winners of all the other VivaTech Awards. The winning startup will be announced during this Award ceremony at Viva Technology.
  • The exact date and time of the Award Ceremony will be communicated later.

For more information, visit VivaTechnology.