TechCrunch - Data obscures positive trends in female founders

This is an article I wrote to TechCrunch on the trend in venture capital allocation to female founders in 2021—I conducted the deep dive financial analysis and wrote the piece.

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In 2021, $330billion in venture capital was deployed, and only 2% of that number went to companies founded only by women and 15.6% to teams with both women and men on their founding teams, according to Pitchbook data.

In my view, the correct statistic is about 18%, not 2% — as we should take into account deals that had mixed-gender founding teams. Eighteen percent of $330 billion translates to $59 billion, or 25% of all venture transactions (e.g., deal count), and these three figures are the numbers that should be reported.

At 2%, only one in every 50 venture dollars is allocated to women-founded companies, while 18% puts this in the ballpark of one in five venture dollars. Both reflect that there is more to do on the issue, but they exemplify different starting points and, by extension, the ground that needs to be covered.