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The lack of VC funding to women is a Western societal shortfall • ZebethMedia

The issue of women startup founders not receiving equitable venture funding is a shortfall of the West: It’s here, everywhere in the U.S., and over there, all throughout Europe. It’s hard to say that some of these metrics represent investors simply pulling back when data shows the bias has historical precedence. Even in 2008, all-women U.S. founding teams raised 1.2% of all venture capital, according to PitchBook data. In 2012, they raised 1.8%, then 1.7% in 2016. If anything, 2021 was the anomaly, which saw 2.3% of venture dollars allocated to all-female U.S. teams. Today, that number is tracking at 1.9% so far, which is nearly on par with what, typically, always has been. That the solution is so simple — cutting more checks to women — highlights the discriminatory ideological strongholds that our society continues to impose on us. In Europe, the story is quite similar, although 2020 was the standout year that saw women raise 2.4% of all venture capital on the continent. Last year paints a more realistic picture: All-women teams raised only 1.1% of all venture funds in Europe, a number on par with what they raised in 2017, 2018, and 2019, which saw these teams pick up 1.5%, 1.8%, and 1.5% of all venture capital, respectively, as previously reported by ZebethMedia. The inequality gap is failing to move in a meaningful direction. It’s no coincidence that our societies, with frameworks and ideological mores hand-crafted with sexism and misogynoir, have made little progress toward equitable change. There are two concurrent narratives here: In one, the data reflects how investors, the men in charge, truly feel about economic gender equality. At the same time, the numbers are a byproduct of our Western society, one that is still beholden to excluding and devaluing women, one that relishes their treatment as second-class citizens, rendering their dreams irrelevant.

The highs and lows of Q3 venture capital data for women startup founders • ZebethMedia

Perhaps unsurprisingly, <a href=” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>new PitchBook data found that U.S. companies with all female founders are raising less capital this year than the last amid current economic woes. Last year, women raised around 2.4% of all venture capital allocated, a figure that stands at 1.9% through Q3 of this year. That number becomes even lower and even worse if we factor race into account. When the overall number for all-female teams was 2.4% last year, Black and Latinx women hovered around 0.05% each, while Indigenous Americans raised approximately 0.004% of known capital in the United States, according to Crunchbase. It has long been a worry that, as the venture market slows, the most marginalized groups would be pushed aside as investors retreat to old networks and deals that feel most familiar to them from the founders they don’t hesitate to trust. The direct line between the venture haves and have-nots has always been stark, but there is some good news on the front. Year-to-date capital invested in all-female-founded companies in the United States is slightly higher than what was disbursed in all of 2020. (Last year was a record-breaking year, and given the current market conditions, it’s not shocking that present-day numbers are meager in comparison). All-female teams raised $3.6 billion (out of a total U.S. figure of $194.9 billion) across 742 deals so far this year. In all of 2020, all-female teams raised $3.3 billion (out of $168.7 billion) across 771 deals. It’s clear that 2021 was an outlier: all-female teams raised $8 billion across 1,132 deals. “There is no logical justification for why female founders should be impacted any more so than any other founder category, be it in a bear or bull market.” Pippa Lamb of Sweet Capital It’s jarring to note the difference between deal counts and the amount of money raised when the founding teams are mixed-gender rather than all-female. Compared to $3.6 billion worth of deals all-female teams closed 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 been able to secure the same percentage of capital they raised last year, around 17%.

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