PitchBook just released All In: Women in the VC Ecosystem, its second annual report of the state of female founded startups in the VC world.
The report highlights how last year female founded startups closed more VC deals than ever before. That is $18 billion more than the year before (in 2019, female founders raked in $20 billion vs. just $2.5 billion in 2018).
Sadly, this upward trend has had an abrupt end due to the pandemic. According to the latest data and the All In report, COVID 19 had a disproportionate impact on female entrepreneurs compared to male entrepreneurs.
In the first three quarters of the year, the total deal value for female- founded companies was down 31.3%, far more than the 17.9% drop seen across all US companies.
Although this decline is evident — it is encouraging to see the growth prior to the pandemic: 2019 was a record-setting year in terms of both the number of VC deals and dollars invested. In fact, 2020 is on pace to be the tenth straight year female-founded companies exited faster than the broader market.
