2026-05-28
Women and migrant founder networks in Germany
These rooms serve different stages. EXIST-Women is a federal pre-founding line you enter through a Hochschule. Grace Berlin is eight months, full-time, €2,500 gross a month, 0% equity, and a Berlin residence rule. UnternehmerTUM’s Women Start-Up is a free community and training series without a stipend. The Migrant Accelerator is a free 12-week batch for first- and second-generation founders, plus a community that stays after Demo Day. Pick the stage before you stack all four in one quarter.
EXIST-Women as a university line
PtJ’s official EXIST-Women page is the source to start from. It is a BMWE line for women at universities and research institutes: graduates, scientists, students with a bachelor or at least half the degree, and women with a vocational qualification and a Hochschulbezug. You can arrive with an idea or build one in the year. The qualification phase is 12 months. It can run beside a job or a degree.
The optional three-month stipend is the cash: €1,000, €2,000, €2,500, or €3,000 a month by qualification, plus €150 per child, if you work no more than 20 hours a week. Hochschulen apply for the program, and you apply locally. The old EXIST-Women URL on exist.de now sends you to the generic exist homepage. Start at the Gründungsnetzwerk rather than at a PDF you found on Slack.
Grace Berlin and Women Start-Up
Grace Berlin has an unusually complete FAQ: eight months, €2,500 gross per founder per month, ESF+ and Land Berlin money, no shares, full-time, and official residence in Berlin, or a move before kickoff. The next window opens 24 August 2026 for a November 2026 batch. You need a concrete idea or MVP and no revenue yet, and you cannot already be on Berliner Startup Stipendium, EXIST (EXIST-Women is carved out), or GründungsBONUS. Mixed teams can apply, with 51% women if the whole team wants in.
Women Start-Up at UnternehmerTUM is a different product. The official page sells workshops, Female Founders office hours, Mentessa mentoring, and a 2026 training series that is free, in English, and combinable. You do not need a TUM affiliation. The page does not publish a stipend or an equity take. Treat it as a room with a calendar, including a Pitch Night on 19 November 2026. If you need monthly cash, read Grace first; this series covers training and peers.
A batch and a peer list for migrant founders
The Migrant Accelerator is clear about the job: first- and second-generation founders in Germany, knowledge- or technology-based startups, and a free 12-week program with workshops, mentoring, and “prototype funding.” Autumn Batch 2026 is the live call. The page does not print an equity percentage or a euro amount for that prototype line. Ask before you assume it is a grant. The silence on the number is information.
2hearts is the other useful door: a European tech community for people with immigration backgrounds, and mentorship for younger talent, without a cohort Demo Day. Haus also lists The Migrant Accelerator as a Stuttgart-tagged community row. If you need peers more than a curriculum, start with the community. If you need 12 weeks of structure, apply to the batch.