Perhaps unsurprisingly, new PitchBook data showed that U.S. companies with all female founders are raising less capital this year than the last amid the current economic hardship.
Last year, women raised about 2.4% of all allocated venture capital, a figure that stands at 1.9% through the third quarter of this year. That number gets even lower and worse when we take race into account. When the total number for all-female teams was 2.4% last year, black and Latinx women each hovered around 0.05%, while Native Americans raised about 0.004% of known capital in the United States, according to Crunchbase.
It has long been a concern that, as the venture market slows, the most marginalized groups would be sidelined as investors pull back into old networks and deals that make them feel most trusted from the founders they don’t hesitate to trust. The direct line between the company’s haves and have-nots has always been grim, but there’s some good news up front.
Year-to-date capital invested in all-female companies in the United States is slightly higher than what was paid out in all of 2020. (Last year was a record year and given current market conditions, it’s not surprising that current numbers are comparatively meager. to be). All-female teams have raised $3.6 billion (of a total of $194.9 billion in the US) in 742 deals so far this year. In all of 2020, all-female teams raised $3.3 billion (out of $168.7 billion) in 771 deals. Obviously, 2021 was an outlier: all-female teams raised $8 billion in 1,132 deals.
“There is no logical justification for why female founders should be influenced more than any other category of founders, whether in a bear or bull market.” Pippa Lamb from Sweet Capital
It’s shocking to see the difference between the number of deals and the amount of money raised when the founding teams are mixed-gender rather than all-female. Compared to $3.6 billion in deals signed by all-female teams this year, teams with at least one male co-founder raised $32.4 billion in 2,811 deals. So far, mixed-gender teams have also raised the same percentage of capital that they raised last year, about 17%.