Deal Flow is Up for Female Founders 📈

The dreaded 2% data point still hangs over venture capital–i.e., of all money raised, only 2% goes to female-founded companies. As we reported in our recent report, Funding Diversity, the percentage of the overall funding remains conspicuously low, despite record figures for total capital raised by women. Today, we take a look at the numbers so far this year to see if and how things are improving.


                                            Rupa Health founder Tara Viswanathan

Last year, 2021, was a blockbuster year for investments in the private sector. So far, 2022 doesn’t appear to be breaking any records. Women-founded companies have already raised $466MM across 111 rounds, while by this time last year, female-founders had brought in $2.94BN across 76 deals. That shift means the number of deals is up, but the dollar amount is lower, which is to be expected during a market correction.

Here are some of the notable recent deals for female founders.

• Penelope is a retirement software company for small businesses. The start-up raised a seed round just last week.
• Freewill helps everyone access free estate planning tools while supporting charitable giving. Bain Capital led the compay's $30MM Round B.
• Rupa Health is a healthtech company for simplifying lab orders and results across partners. The healthtech start-up just raised $20MM from Bessemer Partners.