Women’s percentage of venture capital funding shrank again in 2021
Bloomberg Equality reports that it was another bad year for women founders seeking to raise venture capital. They secured only two percent of venture capital in the U.S. in 2021, the smallest share since 2016 and a sign that efforts to diversify the famously male-dominated industry are struggling.
It was the second year in a row that women’s percentage of venture capital funding shrank, according to a report by research firm PitchBook. However, because total funding levels in 2021 hit all-time highs, the overall dollar value of the funding to female founders rose.
“Massive, late stage deals drove total fundraising in the U.S. to $330 billion in 2021 – nearly doubling the industry’s previous record in 2020,” Bloomberg noted. “Female-only founding teams collected $6.4 billion of that across 217 deals, a record amount. When women teamed up with a male co-founder, they tended to raise more. Female and male founder teams captured 15.6 percent of total venture cash in 2021 – the highest amount since 2017.”
