Women founders and investors raised $38.8 billion in funding in the U.S. in 2024, up 27% from the year before, according to PitchBook.
The report was created by PitchBook Data’s Nizar Tarhuni, Paul Condra and Garrett Black. The number of transactions involving women founders is down 13.1%, as deal activity continued to concentrate among a smaller population of companies.
Overall, female founders took home a smaller share of total U.S. VC funding for the year in terms of both deal count and value. In 2024, female founders were involved in 25.1% of all deals, compared to 26.4% in 2023. And female founders were 19.9% of total VC deal value in 2024, compared to 20.8% in 2023. It’s clear that male founders dominate tech startups.
The bad news? Well, the deals slipped in 2024, when funding was bouncing back. And one of the charts below shows that female-only teams accounted for 2% of overall VC in 2024. That is, when there is a man invovled as a founder alongside a woman, the company has a pretty good chance of getting money. When it has only female founders, it has a terrible chance of getting money.
Game deal data is much worse
But it’s far worse in the game industry in terms of female representation among funded startups. In the male-dominated landscape of game startups, women were only 0.11 percent of the game VC deal value in 2024, worse when compared to 0.18% in 2023.
Female founders in game companies raised an estimated $215.7 million in deals in 2024, up from $163.2 million in deal value in 2023. And female founders were 0.26% of total deal count for game startups in 2024, compared to 0.56% in 2023.
PitchBook said sociopolitical tides are shifting with renewed action against diversity, equity & inclusion (DEI) and ESG initiatives, which will impact the trajectory of founder demographics in the US. The degree of impact remains uncertain. President Donald Trump’s executive order to end DEI initiatives and related ongoing legal battles will take some time to settle and be reflected in funding figures.
However, PitchBook said it is notable that the entry points for underrepresented founders may narrow
again in the face of new challenges, at least until legal precedent is decided. Female founders will undoubtedly continue to innovate and raise new capital in the year to come, but a more even demographic split for VC investment remains farther on the horizon, PitchBook said.
On the good side, PItchBook said that gains, though uneven, were made by female founders in 2024. Later stage companies and those operating in select software and healthcare subsectors saw substantial funding momentum. The number of newly minted unicorns rose materially as 13 female-founded companies crossed the coveted $1 billion valuation threshold.
Female founders also secured a record 24.3% of total US VC exit count in a positive signal particularly for investors who work with these founders.
The 2024 US All In report is made possible through sponsorships from Wilson Sonsini, Fidelity Private Shares, and Flourish Ventures.
On the high level in the U.S., larger checks and a slower decline in deal count drove more value for female founders. The year 2024 outpaced 2023 for the third-highest annual level of capital raised by VC deal activity for all-female-founded companies.
As of December 31, 2024, a more muted 7% reduction in deal count, illustrating a disproportionate
decline for female-founded companies. female founders. Annual deal count remained slightly higher than its pre pandemic norms and declined at a slower rate than in 2023, indicating some confidence returning to investor communities. All-male-founded and all-female-founded companies experienced similar trends in 2024, though the all-male category saw a higher 33.2% growth in deal value and The inverse trend between deal value and count demonstrates the power of mega-financings for a more select population of companies while the broader base of companies continues to face challenges. This trend is also VC deal activity for all-male-founded companies
Across all US deals, pre-seed/seed deal volume took an outsized hit while the more mature venture- growth stage increased in deal volume, and this trend carried over for female-founded companies as well.
Female founders’ share of total U.S. VC deal activity trended downward in 2024.
Female founders took home a smaller share of the country’s total VC deal activity in 2024. Their share of deal value, which is typically more volatile and driven by market effects, declined by less than a percentage point to just below 20%. Their share of total deal count declined for the third year in a row to its lowest level since 2018 but remained above the 25% threshold.
Given the number of variables involved in a company closing a deal, female founders’ share of total funding activity is unlikely to follow a perfectly linear progression each year, but the longer term trend lines indicate progress toward parity.
Examining the past 10 years of annual deal counts reveals stronger CAGRs of 5.5% for all-female founded companies and 3.8% for female-founded companies compared with 1.1% for all-male-founded companies. The next decade of growth will depend on the evolution of today’s fledgling companies, socioeconomic factors, and the development of investor relationships.
Median early-stage VC pre-money valuation ($M) Female-founded company valuations rose across all stages in 2024 alongside broader US activity, but a large gap remains between the two categories at the late- and venture-growth stages.
With these mature companies driving more activity in VC markets, this gap has an outsized impact on the overall disparity in female-founded company valuations. However, the number of venture-growth deals closed by female founders has grown for the past two years, which could help close this gap in time.
Check sizes also rose across the board in 2024. The median check size for female-founded companies
experienced faster YoY growth than median VC deal value ($M) because they did not raise additional
rounds. While check sizes are rising for those that secure new rounds, female founders are maintaining
a lower median VC burn rate—the difference in capital raised and the number of months between rounds— the broader US category at one-third and nearly one-quarter, respectively.
This growth reflects the more selective cohort of companies receiving funding over the past two years, as well as the influence of hot technologies such as AI that are attracting larger investments. The progression of companies through successive funding rounds, referred to as the “VC funnel,” illustrates the number of companies that are not counted toward these median figures than the broader US category. Even as
VC sentiment improves, bottom-line controls remain a priority.
In 2024, female founders’ share of venture funding hit its lowest level in five years, with early-stage financing taking the greatest hit. Despite these headwinds, investors and founders alike are finding ways to adapt. Female entrepreneurs continue to build innovative, high-growth enterprises, and investors are recognizing the market potential of female-led startups. PitchBook said the key question is: How do we turn the tide and ensure that female founders receive the capital they need to thrive?
Lisa Wu Partner at Norwest Venture Partners, said in a discussion in the report, “As investors, we have the power to reverse this funding trend by actively seeking out and investing in female led companies and by hiring more female investors. Studies show that female investors are more likely than male investors to invest in female founders. At the same time, female founders should not be discouraged by this stat and instead stay focused on the basic fundamentals of building a strong business.”
She added, “A founder’s ‘founder market fit’ is crucial when starting a company, and female founders are particularly well equipped to create products and services for the female demographic, which holds the highest purchasing power. Women manage an estimated $32 trillion of global spending and are expected to control 75% of discretionary spending worldwide in the next five years. When female founders build products for female customers, they leverage their own understanding of women’s needs and experiences to create products specifically tailored to address pain points and desires that might be otherwise overlooked.”
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