US-based, women-founded startups raised more $40 billion so far in 2021
Despite 2020’s record year for VC funding, women entrepreneurs actually saw drops in deals and investment dollars.
Francis Scialabba
• less than 3 min read
US-based startups with one or more female founders raised $40 billion in the first three quarters of 2021, almost double the amount raised in all of 2020 or 2019, according to a new report from PitchBook.
- It’s also been a record year for women to sell their companies or take them public. Through September, female-founded companies recorded $59 billion in exits.
- Plus, the greatest number of women-led startups hit unicorn status in 2021.
This is a hard pivot from last year. Despite the record amount invested by VCs in 2020, female-founded startups saw drops in the number of deals (down 2%) and investment dollars (3%) that closed.
So, what changed? Did VC funds wake up on January 1 and remember women can run businesses? Prolly not. One indicator might be who’s writing the checks: As of September, roughly 15.4% of general partners at VC firms were women, up from 12% in 2019.
Zoom out: Before you start blasting “Fight Song,” female-founded startups only nabbed about 18% of the $239 billion VC firms shelled out through September.—MM
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