VC Funding for Women Is at a Three-Year Low; But Female Leaders Are Paving a New Path

The pledges from big firms to focus on overlooked entrepreneurs and the publicly announced billion-dollar funds might feel like the tides are changing for female founders. But the reality is that venture capital funding dropped to a three-year low in the third quarter. 

The aura of this overwhelmingly supportive and impactful community was evidently clear during Beta Boom’s recent Female Founders Summit, which brought together (virtually) more than 350 investors, nonprofits, corporations, and founders. 

Sallie Krawcheck, Co-Founder and CEO of Ellevest, delivered an impassioned rallying cry to the mostly female audience to own their financial future and buck the social conditioning that has steered women away from investing: "I would argue that the most important thing we need to pay attention to is not the gender pay gap, but actually the gender wealth gap. The messages we have received as women have kept us from addressing this." 

Ellevest, which Krawcheck co-founded and now leads, specializes in investment and wealth management services for women. She proclaimed, "If we are able to get more money into the hands of women, women will have more power, and our world will be a better place."  

Pam Kostka, CEO of All Raise, challenged the audience to think beyond the status quo: "The tech industry is innovating our future but still operating in the past.” 

With women like Pam at the helm, a more diverse and more female startup ecosystem feels possible: “By creating a new version of visionary, and building at scale with diversity, equity, and inclusion at the core, we are shifting perceptions and lifting women into positions of power." 

With representation from Andreessen Horowitz, Salesforce Ventures, W Fund, Female Founders Alliance, TexNexus Venture Collaborative, Chicago Ventures, Hustle Fund, and other leading firms, the moment was truly about celebrating rising female talent through the many challenges female entrepreneurs are addressing - and solving. 

The Women’s Academy founders, for example, build upon Kostka’s new version of visionary with the tech-enabled solutions they have built: 

The startups who participated in the Friends and Family Pitch Competition were no different. With companies like Pairess, a brand that makes stylish and functional apparel for womxn; Memorē, a communication solution for dementia patients living in residential care communities; Free to Feed, which allows mothers to easily test their breast milk for allergens using a convenient test strip; Mira Therapeutics, a trauma support tool that acts as a grounding assistant when patients experience Post-traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms like flashbacks or dissociation; and Culture Pilot, which allows tourists to experience virtual, self-guided tours at museums and attractions worldwide.

Providing access to networks, supportive communities, and forward-looking investors will bring us one step closer to closing the gender wealth gap, and as put by Krawcheck, make our world a better place.