September 24, 2021

Female-founded startups have received 2.2 per cent of total venture capital funding in the first seven months of 2021, the lowest level since 2016. The data comes from Crunchbase, which monitors investment in startups.

The latest figures have nshow a steady decline in investment by women-founded companies, which registered their best year in 2019 at 3.3%.

Crunchbase did indicate, however, that there are signs that the final four months of 2021 may be better than the earlier months of the year. They noted that a lot of transactions have not yet been announced, as only start-ups with named founders are counted and private equity investments are not included in the figures.

Though female founders have earned smaller amounts than their male counterparts in addition to fewer deals, they nevertheless experienced success in biotechnology and health-related startups.

Also notably, startups with female and male founders were not spared the low level of venture capital funding, as they received 11.7% of total funding, a similar sum with similar past years of only 12%.

For more information, read the original story in Reuters.