Women’s Capital Series | The stats on female founders and venture capital
Let Her Speak presented the first session for its Women's Capital Series for 2026, focused on entrepreneurship and investment in women-owned businesses.
Ever wonder how much venture capital goes to female founders?
In the U.S., startups with mixed-gender founding teams saw a significant milestone in 2023, securing 22.8% of total VC funding. This was a record high share by deal value. However, when isolating female-only founding teams, the share of funding shrinks dramatically. Across global VC in 2024, just about 2.3% of total VC dollars went to female-only teams, roughly $6.7 billion of $289 billion invested.
Ever wonder how many female VCs there are in the U.S.?
Access to capital isn’t only about founders; it’s also about who holds the checkbook. Women occupy approximately 15.4% of partner roles at VC firms as of early 2025. Only 4.9% of VC firms have a majority of female partners, and just 5.7% of firms were founded by women.
Let Her Speak: Addressing the gap
That’s why Let Her Speak is bringing back the Women’s Capital Series to help bust myths about female entrepreneurs’ access to capital. The founder, Catherine Porth, is a long-time small business advocate, strategist, and supporter in the Knoxville area. She launched Let Her Speak in 2017 to elevate all women’s voices, to facilitate deeper conversations, to inspire lasting change in our communities, and to build a stronger support system for more women to lead.
Let Her Speak encompasses several different programs – the flagship Let Her Lead program, the Let Her Vote initiative, the annual Women’s Summit, Let Her Invest workshops, community groups, and more.
On Tuesday, a couple of dozen entrepreneurs from various industries in the community gathered at 121 Tech Hub in the Old City of Knoxville for a robust conversation about capital investment.
Panelists included:
- John L. Billings of The Law Offices of John L. Billings
- Jen West of Wild Fig Commercial Lending
- Deahna Moore of Budgets by Joi
- Dennis Corley of Three Roots Capital
- John Bruck of Market Square Ventures
- Jaime Conry of Insight Strategic Wealth, LLC
- Liz Mabey of How Women Invest
- Deidra Harper of The Women of Knoxville
The final portion of the first 2026 Women’s Capital Session will be a “Money Talk” happy hour hosted at Mother Bar on March 5 at 5:50 p.m.
Learn more about Let Her Speak Here.
Connect with the Founder, Catherine Porth.
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