WJR Business Beat: Capital Investment Surges Into Women-Led Companies (Episode 318)

Good morning, Paul! What’s been known as a good old boys network for far too long is now experiencing major change toward a more diverse demographic. We’re talking about the venture capital community, the critical source of funding that fuels America’s and the world’s startups with that much needed funding. And new research from PitchBook suggests that change is afoot and funding to female-led startups is surging. This year, startups with female founders have raised more venture capital dollars and have executed more exits at greater values than at any point in the last decade. Startups with a female founder raised more than $40 billion through September, almost double the amount invested in companies founded by women in all of 2020 or 2019. Where’s the money going? Well, much of the investment surge was concentrated in the tech, health care and retail industries. Why the positive change? Well, PitchBook reports that there’s a growing pool of female investors and general partners that funds who are actively looking to support female founders. Data shows that these focused funding initiatives that target investments into companies founded or led by women are really working. At the end of 2019, just 12% of general partners at venture capital firms were women and there were about 740 female angel investors investing into startup companies. Today, women make up about 15% of general partners at venture firms, and there are now over a thousand female angel investors. Now, while this is really good news, there’s still a long way to go as these changes still represent a small slice of change as opposed to a major swath of change. But nevertheless, we’ll take it. This is a very positive sign indeed, Paul, as this is movement in the right direction that will help lead to a more level playing field, which ultimately supports a more diverse cross section of which companies receive that fundamentally critical infusion of capital that can ignite a startup’s trajectory and take them from nascent to prime time. I’m Jeff Sloan, founder and CEO of startupnation.com, and that’s today’s Business Beat on the Great Voice of the Great Lakes, WJR.