“It’s never too late and it’s never too early” to launch a startup, according to the co-founder and co-CEO of Enfuce, the payment startup and one of Finland’s biggest fintech.

Monika Liikamaa, co-CEO & co-founder of Enfuce, was speaking along with Michaela Berglund, CEO and founder of Feminvest, an events and education platform for women which has also launched an €8.8 million fund to invest in Nordic startups which are majority owned by women.

The pair discussed the dearth of female founders, female CEOs and females working in VCs- and its impact on the industry.

Asked her thoughts on seeing headlines in the media denoting gender such as “female founder raises .... ” and “…… appoints first female CEO”, Liikamaa says she found the headlines “empowering”-as it shows women were achieving feats.

That said, Liikamaa added:

“Is it something that I would like it to be? No, it kind of alludes to a founder is a male. But that is the world we are living in and we need to change it. I hope, a couple of generations later, that would be seen as ridiculous."

Liikamaa pointed to data showing companies with female directors outperforming those with male directors.

She said women were partially to blame for the lack of female founders, as they hadn’t explained well enough that women can be founders and have families as well.

In the UK, Anne Boden, founder, Starling Bank; PensionBee founder and CEO Romi Savova; and Lisa Jacobs, CEO of Funding Circle, are examples of high-profile female leaders.

Liikamaa added:

“What we need to teach the younger generation is that it’s ok to want to achieve, it’s ok to work your ass off. And it’s never too late and it’s never too early to found something and be passionate about it.”

Talking about Feminvest’s VC fund, Berglund said:

“The response has been incredible. The interest has been super high.“I have been approached by women and men across Europe saying ‘wow finally, thank you for taking the bet'."

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