Venture Capital Funding for Female-Founded Companies is Slowly Increasing

The end of 2019 shows an uptick in the percentage of venture capital investment in female-founded companies. While 2.3 percent of capital was invested in such businesses in 2018, this year shows that figure to have grown to 2.8 percent. The change is small, but promising, considering that the official end of the year is still three weeks away.

In a December 2019 Tech Crunch article, author, Kate Clark attributes the gender discrepancy in venture capital investment in part to the lack of women hired by venture capital funds. She noted that “Men have 64 percent of all startup equity.”

In a September 2019, “Close the Gap” news clip produced by CNBC, Edith Dorsen, founder of Women’s VC Fund, helps create awareness of the need for venture capital for female-led companies. As CNBC’s Julia Boorstin reports, others see the investment value as well. According to investor Reggie Van Lee, The Carlyle Group’s chief transformation officer, “This equity issue that exists with respect to women and getting access to capital is something that needs to be fixed,…because there’s money being left on the table.”