Women Led Startups’ Contribution To Total Startup Funding Plummets To 5% In 2023

inc42.com

When an unprecedented funding winter freezes a vibrant ecosystem, do all startups suffer equally? For Indian startups, 2023 had been a challenging year as overall funding hit a seven-year low, tumbling to the levels of 2017. As capital dried up across sectors and genres irrespective of funding stages, many women-led startups failed to attract venture capital despite the big strides made towards gender inclusivity. India is not the lone sufferer. Globally, too, female founders lacked the much-needed financial backing from investors due to gender-based stereotypes and a limited number of iconic role models. According to PitchBook-NVCA Venture Monitor, U.S. startups with at least one female founder bagged 26.1% of the VC pot in 2023, while all-women founding teams secured less than 2% (1.8%, to be precise) of the total deal value in the same year. Even in 2021, a year flush with VC money, female-led startups in the EU barely raised 2% of the funding, per a Reuters report. Read More