The study considered only companies with a turnover of more than RON100,000 in 2024.
As a result, over 170,000 local businesses have at least one woman shareholder, and one in four companies is entirely owned by women, out of more than 400,000 companies analyzed in Romania.
Profitability is the indicator where Romanian women entrepreneurs perform best: companies 100% owned by women recorded a profit margin of 12.3%, exceeding the average of mixed-ownership firms and those owned by men (10.2%). The study analyzed only companies with a turnover of more than RON100,000 reported for 2024.
“We initiated this study to mark the second edition of She’s Next, a program dedicated to women entrepreneurs in Romania, offered by ING Bank and Visa in collaboration with Impact Hub Bucharest. Enrolment for She’s Next has already begun and runs until 22 October 2025. The program is open to all businesses with more than one year of activity and majority female ownership (at least 51%). Participants can win grants totaling EUR60,000, receive one-to-one mentoring, group coaching, exposure and visibility for their business, and access to a community ready to support them with ideas and solutions. The results of our study clearly show that women entrepreneurs have extraordinary growth and profitability potential, so our role is to accompany them and build their confidence on the path they have chosen,” said Luana Sorescu, Head of Easy Banking at ING Bank Romania.
In the top 10 counties with the highest share of companies with female shareholders, the leading positions are Dolj (46.6%), Constanta (46.1%) and Hunedoara (46%). They are followed by Bacau (45.73%) and, tied, Neamt and Gorj (45.71%).
In Bucharest, 33,186 companies with female shareholders were registered—meaning one in five such companies in Romania is based in the capital. The ranking is completed by Arges (45.4%), Prahova (45.1%) and Caras-Severin (44.7%).
In Romania’s Top 300 companies, 46 are majority women-owned and 17 are fully women-owned. Moreover, 22 companies with female shareholders are among the country’s top 50 companies by turnover.
Companies run by women generated almost 40% of the total turnover achieved by Romanian firms in 2024, with revenues increasing by 13% compared to the previous year.
In 2024, according to the She’s Here study, companies with female ownership had revenues of RON482.2 billion, representing 39% of the total turnover of analyzed Romanian companies.
Revenues of companies fully owned by women increased by 13.3% in 2024 compared to 2023. These strong results come after another significant rise in 2023 compared to 2022, of 15.1%.
The profit generated by female- and mixed-owned companies in 2024 accounted for 40.2% of the total profit of RON122 billion, of which 15.4% came from companies 100% owned by women. These businesses had an average profitability of 12.3%, surpassing the average profitability of all analyzed Romanian companies (10.2%).
Top sectors for women-led companies
The main sectors by registered CAEN codes in which majority women-owned companies operate are trade, tax and management consultancy, administrative and support services, specialized medical care and dentistry, as well as construction works, transport, and engineering and technical consultancy, according to data provided by Termene.ro.
“The She’s Here study confirms the fundamental role of women entrepreneurs in Romania’s business environment. With the valuable support of the Termene.ro team, we extracted data that shows not only the scale of the phenomenon—almost half of Romanian companies have female shareholders—but also the quality of this impact, with women-led companies demonstrating profitability and resilience in their results,” said Ilinca Paun, founder of Bravva Capital, the company that developed the Bravva Angels & Bravva Female Founders communities.
The She’s Here study, carried out by Bravva Capital for ING Bank with support from Termene.ro, includes a quantitative analysis based on Termene.ro’s collected data. The database analyzed covered 401,404 companies with a turnover of more than RON100,000 (~EUR20,000), with Romanian individual shareholders. The study examined companies across several dimensions: shareholder structure, CAEN codes, indicators such as turnover, profit and number of employees in 2022–2024, as well as producing Top 50 and Top 300 company rankings by revenue.