Data show that institutional investors allocate only 2% of their capital to solo female or all-female teams. But is this gender imbalance in traditional private markets also evident online? To answer this, we compared solo female and solo male founders’ Reg CF and Reg A+ equity online deals over the last 12 months. Our findings were more nuanced than expected.
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Yes, solo female founders raise less funding online than their male counterparts. Only half of them manage to raise at least $73k, while half of solo males raise $116k or more.
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However, solo female founders are significantly more likely to achieve at least half their funding goals than solo male founders. This could be attributed to the fact that solo female founders often raise funds for smaller companies than solo males and may have lower funding goals. Their median revenues when raising funds are nearly half that of solo males, and their company valuations are more than half lower. Notably, they also tend to raise funds for faster-growing companies, a characteristic common among small startups.
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Despite raising less online, solo female founders have an impressive track record with institutional investors. While a similar number of solo male and female founders have successfully exited a previous company, more solo female founders have gone through accelerator programs and secured VC funding before starting an equity crowdfunding round.
