Women founded startups struggling to get bigger share of VC funding
Venture capital funding overall has surged in recent years, but the numbers haven’t leapt forward for European and US female founders at the same pace. In 2022, US companies founded solely by women garnered just 2.1% of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups in the US. Europe’s female founders take a larger part of venture capital financing but overall, female founders lag behind previous years’ totals, according to financial data firm PitchBook.
“But that number doesn’t tell the whole story. US VC funding for female-founded or co-founded companies has been trending up in recent years, and 2022 saw the creation of several women-led funds, incubators for female founders and more new companies”, PitchBook says.
“Six months into the year, it’s becoming increasingly clear that 2021 and the first half of 2022 were outliers for US VC investment in female-founded startups.”
- US companies with at least one female founder have raised $13.4 billion across 1,537 deals in 2023, the lowest deal value since the H2 2020 and the fewest deals since H2 2018.
- Software remains resilient: US software providers with at least one female founder have raised $3.8 billion in 2023. The pharmaceutical and biology industry ranks in second with $3 billion.
- Notable US deals include a $450 million Series C for AI research company Anthropic, founded by Daniela and Dario Amodei, and a $275 million Series B for gene-editing startup Metagenomi, started by Jill Banfield and Brian Thomas.
- European companies with at least one female founder have garnered 16.3% of all VC capital raised in 2023, the largest annual percentage on record.
- Overall European VC fundraising for startups with at least one female founder is still lagging behind previous years’ totals. Capital raised in the first five months of the year was at its lowest since 2019.
- Last year, European companies founded solely by women garnered just 0.9% of the total capital invested in venture-backed startups in Europe.
Moonshot News is an independent European news website for all IT, Media and Advertising professionals, powered by women and with a focus on driving the narrative for diversity, inclusion and gender equality in the industry.
Our mission is to provide top and unbiased information for all professionals and to make sure that women get their fair share of voice in the news and in the spotlight!
We produce original content, news articles, a curated calendar of industry events and a database of women IT, Media and Advertising associations.
