An illustrative image of lines of computer code. Photo: Twitter

CTech – The Israel Innovation Authority, the government’s tech investment arm, announced on Wednesday the launch of a grant program for female-founded startups.

The grant aims to double the number of female-led initiatives supported by the authority within two years.

To qualify for the grant, 33 percent of the company’s owners and technological management roles must be filled by women. The grant will cover up to 75 percent of a startup’s research and development costs for its first year, and up to 70 percent for the second year. The budget cap will be NIS 2.5 million ($690,000) for the first year and NIS 4.5 million ($1.24 million) for the following year.

In 2000-2017, women accounted for just seven percent of the founders or co-founders of startups established in Israel, according to an April report by Israel-based market research firm IVC Research Center Ltd.

Only 10.5 percent of the founders of startups established in Israel since 2014 are women, according to Start-Up Nation Central (SNC), a Tel Aviv-based non-profit organization and startup database. Out of 387 founders whose startups have raised more than just seed investments, only around five percent are women, according to SNC.