Czechia: Policy insights on how culture influences access to finance

Removing barriers to the creation and growth of businesses, including for women entrepreneurs, is a common policy goal of governments around the world. It is estimated there were 34 million “missing entrepreneurs” in OECD countries in 2023 (people who would be entrepreneurs if their social group – women, youth, seniors, immigrants – had a business startup rate equal to men aged 30 to 49). As many as 70% (24.8 million) of those “missing” were women.

The likelihood of people getting involved in entrepreneurship and the performance of new firms also varies between women and men. In the OECD area, 9% of working age women were actively working on a start-up or managing a new business in 2018-2022, compared to 11% of men. Women entrepreneurs also had lower growth expectations and export rates than men entrepreneurs. Only 11% of women entrepreneurs in OECD countries expected their start-ups to create at least 19 jobs in the next 5 years, compared to 16% of men. And only 25% of women entrepreneurs had firms that were exporting compared to 30% of men.

Women entrepreneurs contribute to making economies innovative and dynamic, however, they continue to face barriers – including cultural, skills, networks, regulations and access to financial capital—that hinder their entrepreneurial activity. The finance barrier is one of the most important, as reported by women entrepreneurs and demonstrated by data. For example, women entrepreneurs are about 25% less likely than men entrepreneurs to use bank loans to fund their business, and women typically launch their businesses with smaller amounts of financial capital than men. In terms of venture capital, only 2% of European equity investments go to all-female founding teams, while women who do acquire venture capital investment receive only about 70% of the funding amounts of men. Overall, when women entrepreneurs receive external finance, they tend to receive smaller amounts, pay higher interest rates, and are required to secure more collateral than men.

Public policy can address these gaps and increase opportunities for women to start and grow their business with a range of different tools. They include dedicated microfinance, bank credit and venture capital schemes for women. Initiatives for improving women’s access to mainstream finance can take the form of new credit scoring methods, credit guarantee offers, promoting women participation on fund boards and selection committees, promoting new digital and fintech options for finance, and increasing financial literacy and investor readiness of women entrepreneurs through advice, training and consultancy.

This report examines the issues and policy solutions used around the world to develop women’s entrepreneurship financing. It is aligned with the principles of the OECD Council Recommendation on SME Financing, which underlines the need to develop a wide range of financing options for entrepreneurs and recognise differences between different entrepreneur profiles, and builds on the findings of the OECD flagship report Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs Scoreboard as well as broader OECD work on women entrepreneurship, including the report on Entrepreneurship Policy through a Gender Lens. It covers avenues such as fostering an entrepreneurial culture, strengthening financial literacy, leveraging angel investments, boosting microfinance, financing growth-oriented start-ups, improving programme design and access, and harnessing the potential of fintech innovations. As well as an international assessment of the state of women’s access to entrepreneurial finance and success factors for policy, the report offers 29 country-specific policy insight notes, each focused on a specific thematic issue building on their national context. All policy notes submitted for this report by external authors were reviewed by the Committee on SMEs and Entrepreneurship and relevant OECD bodies, and have been subject to the OECD editorial process.