I usually point out that I’ve invested in 100 startups. A reader (thanks Lily York) not too long ago challenged me — what number of of these investments have been in startups with feminine founders?

That’s an vital query, and I didn’t have a prepared reply. So I went again and compiled the information. Which answered just a few questions, however raised vital new ones.

The Investments

Since I began angel investing in 2010, I’ve made 50 investments in 37 startups. (I invested in a number of rounds of some startups.)

As well as, I’ve been a part of 5 angel group funds that pooled our cash to spend money on 10–25 startups every, bringing the whole to properly over 100 startups.

Nevertheless, for my evaluation of feminine founders in my portfolio, I solely seemed on the 37 startups I invested in immediately. I made these selections alone. And since I do know these founders personally, it was simpler to compile the information.

Of my 37 investments, right here’s what number of had feminine founders:

• Feminine-only founders: 16.2%
• Feminine CEO: 24.3%
• Feminine co-founder: 29.7%

Not unhealthy, not nice.

Digging into the information, I discovered one thing fascinating. My first spherical of angel investing ran from 2010 to 2013. Then I finished investing till 2018 once I exited my very own startup and had extra money and time to take a position once more.

Evaluating the 2 units of investments, the later cohort had considerably extra feminine founders.

Of the 27 investments from 2018, right here’s what number of had feminine founders:

• Feminine-only founders: 22.2%
• Feminine CEO: 25.9%
• Feminine co-founder: 37.0%

Slicing the information additional, of the 17 investments made since 2020:

• Feminine-only founders: 23.5%
• Feminine CEO: 29.4%
• Feminine co-founder: 41.2%

With this small dataset, it’s not possible to say whether or not the rise in feminine founders between 2018 and 2020 is an actual development or simply noise within the information. However I’m assured the rise between 2010–2013 and 2018–2023 is greater than a statistical fluke.

However how does that evaluate to the remainder of the enterprise ecosystem?

Pitchbook Information

I had little expectation that my investments in feminine founders was uncommon. I don’t make investments particularly in feminine founders. I search for the very best startups I can discover no matter gender.

Additional, my funding focus is hardtech, particularly chemical and materials advances for power sustainability, fields which have traditionally been male-dominated.

With all of the applications to help feminine founders and funds targeted on investing in women-led startups, I anticipated my very own ratios to be on the low facet. So I used to be shocked when I discovered the latest PitchBook information.

PitchBook reviews that in 2022, women-only founders obtained solely 2.1% of complete enterprise capital funding.

This headline quantity is pitiful. Nevertheless it wants some digging into.

First, whereas solely 2.1% of enterprise capital {dollars} went to startups with women-only founders, startups with blended female and male co-founders accounted for 18.5% of funding. Put them collectively and 20.6% of enterprise {dollars} went into startups with at the least one feminine co-founder.

Second, when it comes to {dollars} invested, the overwhelming majority goes into later-stage startups that may hardly be referred to as startups any longer. A $2B strategic buy of fairness in Epic Video games by Sony and Lego, or Elon’s buddies throwing just a few additional billion into SpaceX is a distinct world from angels investing $500K in a recent startup.

To match apples to apples, I’d wish to see information on funding in pre-seed/seed spherical, however I’m too low cost to pay for granular entry to the Pitchbook information. At the very least taking a look at deal depend fairly than {dollars} invested avoids the few huge late-stage investments overwhelming the remainder of the information.

By deal depend as a substitute of {dollars}, the information is best, although inferior to it ought to be.

• 6.8% of startups receiving enterprise funding in 2022 had female-only founders
• 19.6% had blended feminine and male co-founders

In complete, 26.4% of startups that obtained enterprise funding in 2022 had at the least one feminine founder.

Whereas nonetheless unsatisfactory, at the least that is almost double from 13.4% in 2010 once I began angel investing. And I assumed not removed from my very own investments at 41% if we seemed solely at pre-seed/seed stage offers. (Although that does open the important query of why the ratio of feminine founders decreases with deal stage.)

However then I seemed on the ratios for Y-Combinator’s most up-to-date cohort. I anticipated the founders of their program to be near 50/50. As a substitute, solely 15% of the startups within the cohort had a lady founder. Solely 9% of the founders have been feminine. Hmm. The scenario is worse than I believed.

We could also be making progress, however we’ve nonetheless obtained an extended, lengthy option to go.