According to PitchBook’s latest report, all-women founding teams have secured 1.9% of the total venture capital funding for this year, equivalent to $2.4 billion out of the $125.85 billion allocated through Q3. This percentage is only slightly lower than the 2% raised during the same period last year when all-women founding teams received $4.1 billion out of $204.8 billion.
For this specific Q3, all-women founding teams managed to secure 1.6% of the $36.7 billion in venture capital funding, marking a decrease from the 2.1% they secured in Q3 2022. This trend of hovering around the 1.9% mark has persisted for the past few years.
Kyle Stanford, the lead VC analyst at PitchBook, noted that this consistent percentage suggests that there are no exceptionally large deals going to all-women teams, which prevents significant positive movement in this data point. Although the number of deals going to all-women teams is gradually increasing, they tend to be smaller in scale, which keeps the proportion of deal value relatively low and stable.
On the other hand, mixed-gender teams are faring well. Companies with at least one female co-founder have raised 28.1% of all venture capital dollars this year, a substantial increase from last year’s 18.2%. They have secured $35.3 billion in funding so far this year, including $9.9 billion (around 27% of $36.7 billion) in Q3, which is in line with the $9.5 billion (about 20.5%) they received in Q3 2022.
This quarter has witnessed one of the most significant declines in the venture ecosystem since 2019 when $37.8 billion was allocated to U.S. startups, with all-women teams receiving $1 billion of that total. Despite this, there hasn’t been a substantial reduction in support for women, contrasting with the reduced funding for Black founders and the broader challenges related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. However, it remains a challenging environment for fundraising.
Entrepreneurs like Marusya Glazkova from SaaS House of Pitch and Ruby Gadelrab Tudor of MDisrupt have faced unique challenges in fundraising this year, including economic uncertainty, geopolitical conflicts, and prolonged due diligence processes. Nevertheless, they remain determined to achieve their funding goals, highlighting the persistence and resilience required to secure venture capital, even if it takes a bit longer.
