Immediately is Girls’s Equality Day, in any other case referred to as the day ladies had been granted the correct to vote. There’s nuance to the date, after all, as Indigenous ladies weren’t assured that proper in each state till 1962 and Black ladies weren’t allowed to vote till 1965.
This story of delayed progress remains to be seen in each American business and sector. Enterprise capital isn’t any completely different. Total, ladies obtained 2.3% of the $341 billion in enterprise funds secured by U.S. startups final 12 months — that’s round $7.7 billion, and it was a file sum for solely women-founded firms.
Progress within the quantity of enterprise capital funding raised by firms with all-women groups has been sluggish and daunting, if regular. Taking a look at PitchBook information, in 2008, all-women founding groups raised $461 million out of the practically $37 billion invested in U.S. startups that 12 months. By 2012, that quantity jumped to $750 million (out of greater than $41 billion) after which to $1.6 billion (out of greater than $72 billion) in 2014.
“Extra ladies should be funded, and the spherical sizes should be bigger.” Christie Pitts, basic companion, Backstage Capital
The cohort noticed a slight dip in 2016, elevating $1.4 billion (out of practically $78 billion), a sum that jumped to a surprising $3.1 billion (out of round $140 billion) in 2018. From there, the sums raised by all-women founding groups fell barely once more in 2020, finally touchdown the place it’s at this time: $3 billion in enterprise funds in comparison with the $144.2 billion invested in American startups by means of the primary two quarters of 2022.
These numbers inform a narrative as outdated as time — that change is way from linear.